New Mac M2 chip

M1 vs M2. © Apple.

During its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple presented a new chip designed for Macs. On the heels of the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra, the M2 promises many performance improvements. Both the M1 and M2 are manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process, but with 20 billion transistors, which is 25% more than the M1, the M2 is a little larger. Also compared to the initial M1, Apple maintains that the M2’s CPU speed is faster by 18% and its GPU by 35%. The CPU’s eight cores differ from that of the M1 and the GPU gets two additional cores, for a total of ten. Apple’s M2 benefits from a secure enclave and a new gen neural engine, as well as a multimedia engine that supports H.264 and HEVC 8K video. This means that the systems that use M2 chips can read several 4K and 8K video streams simultaneously. They can also handle 24GB of RAM instead of 16GB with the M1. Unfortunately, there’s been no progress with I/O options as two USB ports are still the limit, and Thunderbolt 4 still isn’t supported.

The first Mac to have the M2 SoC installed is one of Apple’s most popular laptops, the MacBook Air. This 2022 model got a new design that’s squared-off to look more like the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It features a 13.6-inch (2,560 x 1,664) LED Retina screen, MagSafe charging, two Thunderbolt USB 4 ports, and a headphone jack. It’s 11 mm thick and weighs 1.24 kilos, with a theoretical battery life of eighteen hours. It comes in silver, “space” grey, and the new “starlight” gold and “midnight” blue hues. Each model comes with a braided MagSafe cable that matches its color. Pricing starts at CAD 1,500. Preorders aren’t open yet, but the models should start showing up in July.

⇨ The Verge, Cameron Faulkner, “Apple announces redesigned MacBook Air with M2 chip and MagSafe.”

⇨ AnandTech, Ryan Smith, “Apple announces M2 SoC: Apple silicon for Macs updated for 2022.”

2022-06-06