New Apple MacBook Air gets a super-thin redesign - all thanks to Apple's new chip

Apple has unveiled its latest MacBook Air and it's one of the thinnest laptops ever made. The reason: Apple has a brand-new chip, the M2, inside the thing which means that it can lose a few millimetres, thanks to the lack of fans needed to keep it cool.

The new Apple MacBook Air, which was announced at WWDC 2022, comes with a slew of new features - here are 5 things to know about Apple's latest gadget...

1. The new MacBook Air is thin, really thin

Did we mention that the new Apple MacBook Air is thin? Well, it is. It measures just 11.3mm and is only 2.7 pounds. Its design is an all-aluminum unibody enclosure and, according to Apple, the new design "integrates its components so efficiently" that it reduced the size by some 20% compared to the old MacBook Air, which must be feeling a little bloated and unloved right now.

2. The MacBook Air's new screen is Liquid gold

There's a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display on the new MacBook Air. It's a larger display with thinner borders that packs in some 500 nits of brightness - it's 25% brighter than the older MacBook Air, which must be feeling pretty dull right now.

Oh, and the the new display now supports 1 billion colors (yes, we're doing a Dr Evil face).

3. Apple's new M2 chip powers the MacBook Air

Last year, Apple showed off the Apple M1 chip. This processor meant much better battery times and superfast computing. Well, guess what? The Apple M2 chip also offers this and more. According to Apple, the new chip has been "designed to dramatically speed up video workflows, M2 also adds a next-generation media engine and a powerful ProRes video engine for hardware-accelerated encode and decode, so systems with M2 will be able to play back more streams of 4K and 8K video than before." In short: yes, Ted Lasso will play nicely on this thing.

Couple this with 20 hours' battery life and this is one speedy, powerful machine.

4. MagSafe is back, baby!

Ah, remember those days when you would trip over your MacBook's wire and you wouldn't worry that you have broken the thing as MagSafe meant that all you were severing were magnets? Well, you can have that feeling once more as MagSafe is back on the Apple MacBook Air and you also get a 3.5mm jack as well, so your wired earphones are safe for now.

When it comes to charging, there is also a new power adaptor that has two USB-C ports so you can charge more devices through the thing.

5. Sound has been improved, as has the FaceTime camera

The new Apple MacBook has been given a 1080p FaceTime camera which is nestled in a notch on the screen. It also has improved speakers. There's a four-speaker sound system which is integrated between the keyboard and display and supports the likes of Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.

The MacBook Air is available next month with the M2 version starting at $1,199 / £1,249. Head to Apple for more information.

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