The new M2-powered MacBook Air is coming July 15th

Apple’s upcoming MacBook Air with M2 processor finally has a shipping date. After a bit longer wait than usual, the new $1,199 laptop will begin shipping on July 15th, with preorders opening on July 8th at 8AM ET. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar announced alongside it at WWDC 2022 is already available. While that familiar-looking model was first out of the gate with the second-generation chip, this MacBook Air is offering a whole lot more that’s new, like a MagSafe charger, 1080p webcam, and a revised design with a larger, notched 13.6-inch display.

Though the new MacBook Air has a lower starting price than its 13-inch Pro counterpart, it’s certainly the more colorful and unique-looking one. Unlike prior Air laptops, it shifts away from a wedge-shaped design to a more conventional slab and comes in a new darker color.

In our brief hands-on with a demo unit following the WWDC announcement, the Air’s thinness and lightness were immediately noticeable — it’s just 11mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds. It now has a notch at the top of its larger screen, just like the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, though it seems a much more appealing concession compared to being stuck with a Touch Bar like the 13-inch Pro with M2.

We’ll have to see how the new MacBook Air’s fresh specs and design deliver when we get to spend more time with it, though on paper there seems to be a lot of promise.