Why You Can Trust CNET MacBook Air M2: What You Can Get For Your Money
Looking to pick up a new Apple Macbook Air M2? Here's a look at the various configurations and what may be your best option.
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Apple has announced the new MacBook Air M2, which starts at $1,199 in the US, or $200 more than the MacBook Air M1, which remains in the line. While you can't preorder the new MacBook Air M2 till July, you can check out what configurations it's available in and how much they cost.
Read more: Apple MacBook Air M2 Hands-On
The MacBook Air M2 is available in midnight, starlight, space gray and silver. The base configuration has an eight-core CPU and GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive for storage.
Here's what you'll pay for various upgrades.
- +$100 for 10-core GPU (CPU is eight-core)
- +$200 for 16GB of RAM (+$200 more for 24GB)
- +$200 for 512GB of storage (+$400 more for 1TB, +$400 more for 2TB)
- +$20 for dual-port power adapter
Want to get a maxed-out MacBook Air M2 with 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage? That'll cost you a whopping $2,499. (Note the dual-port power adapter is included if you upgrade to a 10-core GPU configuration.)
Personally, I'm a proponent of more RAM and care less about storage since I use an external drive if I run into any storage issues. And Apple's typical $200 bump to get an additional 256GB of storage (for a 512GB SSD) has never been a good value proposition. I have a daughter going off to college in the fall and I'd go with the 16GB configuration for $200 more and possibly spend the extra $100 on the 10-core GPU. That would bring my total to $1,499 -- or $100 less with Apple's education discount.
