The Apple MacBook Air M2 Is My Best Laptop Of 2022 — Heres Why

© Chef Tom Zero

I think I'm going to choose a range of technologies this year, from the powerful Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to the self-presenting Steam Deck to the very good Geekom mini PC. I didn't expect it to be a MacBook Air M2.

Years ago, I inherited an old-school MacBook Air from a colleague, and although I'm not a macOS pro, I love this little laptop. When Apple redesigned the Air and added the M2 chip, I was excited and caught my eye.

The MacBook Air M1 received good reviews, but the design feels dated. But the 2022 MacBook Air looks fresh. And seeing that the new Air was critically acclaimed, I decided to buy it.

But as soon as I made the purchase, I immediately felt buyer's remorse.

Think MacBook

I chose to pay my MacBook Air M2 in interest-free installments to avoid this lump sum and keep the money in an account with a higher interest rate. It also means I can buy the 512 GB mode with additional GPU cores.

But despite that move, when I was getting around £60 a month, I couldn't help but feel like I'd made an overly forgiving purchase. After all, I have a very good laptop with Windows.

When the MacBook Air arrived, I couldn't get rid of that feeling. In fact, I was surprised at how unfamiliar macOS was and wondered if I had made a serious mistake.

So began my journey to relearn macOS and adapt to a slightly different keyboard layout. Over time, I noticed that many things I liked were small, but provided great interaction with the laptop.

The Force Touch trackpad is excellent and offers a large tactile surface, which makes the trackpad more comfortable to use than a mediocre mouse replacement. It really lives up to its advertising.

The 13.5-inch screen also impresses with its brightness, color and contrast. Sure, the notch looks a bit silly up close, but thinner bezels are a good compromise. And macOS is often good at hiding fragments.

Breath of fresh air

As you get more familiar with macOS, this value only increases. The sleek, thin design is impressive, and while the Macbook Air can get hot, the M2's performance never suffered.

I'm definitely not a video editor, so silicon rarely comes across. But even with multiple apps open and multiple tabs onscreen, the Air never felt sluggish.

This prompted me to try a few games; Air won't be running Cyberpunk 2077 anytime soon, but it can run less demanding games like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Disco Elysium, both of which are great games. Not to mention, it's great for Apple Arcade games like Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows.

There's something completely new about using a quiet laptop that doesn't have the quirks Windows can give and feels great as a complete package for everyday use.

However, the MacBook Air M2 held its own and won me over when I went to IFA 2022 in September.

I went to an almost paid-for tech conference in Berlin; I think I did a quick reboot.

The sheer efficiency of the M2 chip is the real star of the show, seemingly draining power when I'm live blogging or just sitting with my laptop in sleep mode. By the way, Air activates instantly, which makes it particularly good at covering busy conferences.

So when I got back to London, I fell in love with the MacBook Air M2.

Of course, this is not ideal; There are no such laptops yet. The keyboard just doesn't have the tactile feedback of a Dell XPS 13 or Surface Laptop 5. And I want an SD card reader. I complained about only having two USB-C ports, but using MagSafe to charge them frees them up. And what USB A lacks is generally in line with today's ultraportable laptops.

Overall, I think the MacBook Air M2 is the best laptop for just about anyone who doesn't need to render 4K video on the go. And here is my 2022 device; I wonder where Apple might take the next MacBook Air.

MacBook Air M2 - let's talk before you buy ...