Apple's latest laptop hits all the spots with redesigned looks and more power

Apple's new MacBook Air goes on sale this week and may be one of the most desirable Apple laptops in a while thanks to its all-new design, colours and performance.

Design wise, it moves away from the wedge-shaped design that has served it well for 12 years.

The look was emblematic of the product line — today, the new MacBook Air attempts to break that run and instead become a mini-me to the larger and more powerful MacBook Pro.

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The new look is basically a slightly shrunken Pro, with new colours to differentiate.

This year's MacBook Air is 1.13 centimetres thick and flat from front to back when closed as opposed to the wedge of 0.41 centimetres up to 1.61 centimetres of the previous generation. For perspective, it's thinner than the 13 inch Pro (1.56 centimetres), and also lighter at 1.24 kilograms compared with 1.38 kilograms. It is lighter even than last year's MacBook Air.

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It is the exact same width as the previous Air and the current 13-inch Pro, and is about the same depth. Though 0.26 centimetres might mean it's a giant for some — I think not.

Here's the strange thing — it feels way lighter. There are some weird mind games going on there but 100 — or even 50 — grams here or there seem to make a difference.

The last comparison I'll make about size is that the MacBook Air in 2022 is the same thickness shut as the 14-inch MacBook Pro bottom keyboard half is when open. Almost exactly.

Inside is a full-sized MacBook keyboard, but no upward firing speakers. The screen is 13.6 inches — larger than last year's model, and larger than the 13-inch MacBook Pro. It features the all-new "notch" housing the camera and sensors at the top of the screen.

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Why make so many comparisons to the 13-inch MacBook Pro? Because that device is just $100 more, so it's a very strange part of the MacBook family with a strong competitiveness there.

Both feature the new Apple Silicon known as M2, which is remarkably faster than the M1 in last year's model, but isn't near the M1 Pro or M1 Max chips in the larger 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

Will you notice the new-found power of the Apple M2 processor? Probably not. But if you're doing video editing or photo processing then you'll get a bit of a bump in performance.

You can include 11 streams of 4K pro-res video in Final Cut Pro if you wanted to stretch its legs — but honestly, anyone doing that kind of work is buying a MacBook Pro.

Last year's Apple MacBook Air M1 is still in the range as the entry-level device at $1,499.

The new M2 processor and design will set you back $1899 while the just as new 13-inch MacBook with M2 is just $1999.

You'd buy the Pro if you think you're going to push the limits of the performance. You'd buy the MacBook Air if you are after a better design.

The starlight and midnight colours look vastly different to almost anything Apple has done before and hey, if you buy the latest "thing" you want people to know right?

I'd choose midnight every day of the week. It looks great but you'll have to wait, with delivery times already out to mid-August.

The power of the M2 is great but for most people looking to buy or wanting to buy a MacBook laptop — last year's MacBook Air with M1 may be the best value laptop on the market today.

Apple Australia provided the author with a MacBook Air on short term loan for this review.