“The 2022 13-Inch MacBook Air”

John Gruber, writing at Daring Fireball:

The M2 13-inch MacBook Air should not be thought of as version 2 of an Apple silicon MacBook Air. It’s more like version — I don’t know — 40 of what Apple thinks a standard Mac laptop should be. Apple silicon is what’s been missing — no-compromise chips that enable Apple to make the laptops they’ve always wanted to make. It’s taken decades of iterative refinement to get to this point: a nearly perfect laptop for nearly everyone.

As an owner of the M1 Macbook Air (I’m writing this on it), I can only say that if the new M2 version weren’t out, this would be the “nearly perfect laptop for nearly everyone”, so I have no problem believing this about the M2. The Verge in particular, has been making hay of minor quibbles, throwing doubt on the amazing achievement these laptops represent.

If I were to make the MBA a better laptop for me, I’d upgrade the screen to the excellent one on the new MacBook Pros and give an option for built-in, always-on 5G, both things that keep me using an iPad as frequently as I do. As Gruber notes, the 12.9" iPad Pro with the excellent screen is quite chunky compared to the MacBook Air, so I’m always choosing which to use while on the go, and I tend towards the iPad Pro. I’d love for the MacBook Air to be that complete machine instead.