By comparison, the new Air with the 10-core GPU scores 1,695 on the single-core test and 8,714 on the multi-core, handily competing my not-so-old desktop, which still performs perfectly well, by the way. If you like benchmarks, its Cinebench R23 single-core is 1,146, while its multi-core score is 7,969. Mine features a 6-core i7-8700b running a 3.2 GHz and 64 GB of RAM, the maximum of both specs. For reference, my main workhorse at the moment is a tricked-out 2018 Mac mini, the last generation of that model with an Intel chip. I chose the 10-core GPU chip with 24 GB of RAM to help keep up with some of my more demanding photo and music production tasks. You can pair that with 8, 16, or 24 GB of RAM. The media engine offers hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW, and a video decode and encode engine. The 2022 model comes with Apple's new M2 chip, which features an 8-core CPU with 4 performance and 4 efficiency cores, 8- or 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, and 100 GB/s memory bandwidth. Of course, it is not just the chassis that received a redesign the 2022 model comes with a variety of new features and specs upgrades. What helps that further is the fact that the 2022 MacBook Air is completely passively cooled that means there's no fan. Along the left side are the MagSafe port and two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, and on the right side is the headphone jack. I went with Midnight, which is an elegant, very dark blue that looks stunning in person. The 2.7-pound aluminum chassis is solid yet very light, and the shape it cuts is both understated and modern. New colors are available (Silver, Starlight, Space Gray, and Midnight).

The screen received a bump in size from 13.3 inches to 13.6 inches, and yet, the new model is 20% smaller in overall volume than its predecessor. Gone is the wedge, replaced with a uniform slab that is still extremely thin, only 0.44 inches thick. It wasn't until the 2022 release that we received a significant external redesign, but I think Apple has made a lot of good decisions here. That wedge design stayed with the line for over a decade. The reveal of the original MacBook Air was one of the most iconic moments in tech history, and as someone whose first Mac was that original design, I can attest to just how thin and portable it was and what a joy it was to use.

Refurbished macbook pro with touch bar