Best MacBook of 2022 | CNN is underrated

If you need a new Apple laptop, this is a really good time to buy one. Thanks to the company’s powerful new processors, MacBooks are faster and more durable than ever, and offer a range of options depending on how much power you need. The latest MacBook Air models offer class-leading speed and battery life at a relatively affordable price, while the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros offer more ports, more advanced displays, and even more power. for creative professionals thanks to their M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. After testing all of Apple’s current MacBooks, here are our picks for the ones you should buy right now.

The new one MacBook Air M2 offers some of the best laptop performance in a sleek, practical design at a reasonable price, making it the best overall MacBook for most people.

A bold refresh from the age-old Air design we last saw in 2020, the latest MacBook Air combines everything with more uniform edges, larger physical function keys, and a seamless display. More circuitry allows you to see more at once (as long as you’re comfortable with a notch). It’s basically a scaled-down version of the great 14-inch MacBook Pro chassis, but without the extra power and ports that serious creators might need. It also lives up to its name, with a slim 11.3-pound design that weighs 11.3 mm, making it easy to hold and take to work.

The MacBook Air’s shaved-down bezels give the screen a noticeable punch in real estate (13.6 versus 13.3 inches), and photos and videos appear a little more pop thanks to the transition from Apple’s Retina to its Liquid Retina technology. And the Magic Keyboard feels as great as on any modern MacBook, with enough travel and feedback to keep us typing comfortably for hours on end.

Older Mac fans will be delighted to see the return of the MagSafe charger, which attaches and detaches with a quick magnetic action to make charging a little easier – and prevents your MacBook Air you fall to the ground if someone goes over the charging cable. MagSafe connectivity also helps keep the Air’s Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports free for accessories, which is great when you’re only getting two.

The MacBook Air M2 offers many smaller quality-of-life upgrades over its predecessor, including a sharper 1080p webcam and a richer four-speaker system. But for many, the real draw will be performance.

The Apple M2 processor that powers the latest Air delivers some of the best speeds we’ve ever tested on a laptop. In addition to being able to handle our usual workloads (including video calls, messaging apps, and loads of Chrome tabs) and some light music production without a hitch, the MacBook Air M2 surpassed over almost all of the competitors on our benchmarks. Apple’s latest laptop produced the highest single-core results we’ve ever gotten from Geekbench 5 and came very close to the more expensive MacBook Pro M2 in the multi-core and graphics test. It also performed about 16% better than the MacBook Air M1 in general performance tests. The M2 Air can even handle some light games, though it runs a bit hot and produces some relatively low frame rates when trying to run demanding titles like Shadow of the Tomb raider at higher settings. However, when it comes to everyday productivity – and some light creative work – this is a machine you can rely on.

The MacBook Air M2 offers decent battery life in daily use, often a full day before needing to be recharged. That said, it drained pretty quickly at 5 hours and 21 minutes on our more demanding 4K video playback test, falling short of the MacBook Pro M2 by about 45 minutes. If you’re planning on doing anything other than light web surfing and emailing, you’ll want to keep the charger handy.

The new MacBook Air’s improved design and performance comes with a higher base price: $1,199, $200 more than the MacBook Air M1. We recommend the 512GB storage configuration (256GB SSD fills up quickly), bumping it up to $1,499. You may also want to consider upgrading to 16GB of memory for serious multitasking and general future testing, which will bring the total cost to $1,699. But even with those extra costs, we think the MacBook Air M2 is still worth the investment for people upgrading for the first time in a while – or getting their first MacBook.

Best budget MacBook

If you’re looking to spend less than $1,000 on a MacBook, the older MacBook Air M1 is still a great option. You’ll have to sacrifice the newer model’s larger screen, better webcam, and useful MagSafe charger, but you’ll still get a sleek and powerful laptop that’s faster than most here. this price.

Read our review

Display	13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 . Liquid Retina display	13.3-inch Retina display, 2560 x 1600	Liquid Retina XDR 14.2-inch, 3024 x 1964 display
Processor	Apple M2	Apple M1	Apple M1 Pro / M1 Max
Memory	8GB / 16GB / 24GB	8GB / 16GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB (M1 Max only)
Warehouse	SSD 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB	SSD 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB	SSD 512GB / 1TB / 2TB / 4TB / 8TB
Camera	1080p FaceTime HD Camera	720p FaceTime HD camera	1080p FaceTime HD Camera
Ports	Thunderbolt 4 (2), MagSafe charging port, headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (2), headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (3), SDXC card slot, HDMI port, headphone jack, MagSafe charging port
Battery life (rated)	Up to 18 hours	Up to 18 hours	Up to 17 hours
Dimensions and weight	11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds	11.97 x 8.36 x 0.16-0.63 inches, 2.8 pounds	12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches, 3.5 pounds
Color options	Silver, Space Gray, Midnight, Starlight	Silver, Space Gray, Gold	Silver, Space Gray
Price	$1,199	$999	$1,999

Once we had all the models in hand, we started the process of unboxing and charging them to 100%. (Many laptops come with some power supply in the box, but they are rarely delivered.)

As with every review under CNN Score, we rigorously test the devices both quantitatively and qualitatively. For laptops, we made the first benchmark decision to get the benchmark for quantifiable performance. If you’ve read our stand-alone laptop, tablet or mobile phone reviews, these tests will be familiar.

We did a GeekBench 5 test. These run the laptop through a series of workflows and application processes, many of which you’ll see for yourself (and which we’ve seen for ourselves. ) completed daily.
Regardless of operating system, we put each laptop through our standard battery test, which includes charging the laptop to 100%, setting the brightness to 50%, and a steaming airplane mode. instructions to make sure the connection is off. Then we loop a 4K video file with the audio set to 15% until the battery runs out and the machine shuts down. These tests are monitored live as well as through two cameras to ensure accuracy.
The combination of battery and benchmark testing gives us a quantitative feel for the devices, and a hard number for each can be used for comparison. We then use each laptop as our daily driver for work, play, and play, test the battery to see if it can last a full workday, see movies to feel the screen and, of course, run various applications.

The MacBook Pro M2 It offers some of the fastest performance of any laptop we’ve tested, but its design is disappointingly outdated. You still get the older Retina display with thick bezels, a 720p webcam, and a Touch Bar, which we didn’t find as useful as a good set of physical function keys. Unless you specifically want a machine with an internal fan for particularly heavy-duty tasks, the cheaper MacBook Air M2 offers virtually the same level of performance – plus a more modern chassis – at a lower price point.

The M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro was our previous upgrade choice for Apple users, thanks to a slight drop in maximum graphics performance compared to the MacBook Air M1. However, it has been replaced by the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, which offers a much bigger leap in overall performance, has much better ports, and eliminates the annoying Touch Bar for a more physical set of function keys. more practical rationale. And if you want this particular MacBook Pro design, you should buy the more powerful M2 model.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro has everything we love about our upgrade pick in the 14-inch model, just with a larger display and a few other configuration options to really maximize the processor. It’s a great choice if those two things are important to you (and if you have the money to spare), but we think the 14-inch MacBook Pro’s lower starting price and more portable design make it. become the better choice for most proficient users.

Now, with the M1 Macs fully available, the performance of these models has been a bit outdated. If you’re in the market right now, we’d recommend a MacBook Air M1 to most people. That said, if you see a good deal on the 13-inch Intel, it might be worth the plunge.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 formerly is our creative and video editing laptop, thanks to its powerful performance and connectivity options. However, it’s been phased out by the 2021 16-inch model, which offers more ports, a more advanced Liquid Retina XDR display, and significantly better performance, thanks to your choice of M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. Apple.