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  Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro. [credit: Apple ]

The first machine with Apple's second-generation M2 system-on-a-chip is now available to order. Though it won't arrive until June 24, you can buy the new 13-inch MacBook Pro today. Apple is also now selling its new dual-port USB-C charger through its online store.

The 2022 refresh of the 13-inch MacBook Pro uses the same design and has all the same features as its 2020 predecessor, which used the M1 chip. The only significant difference is the inclusion of the M2, which Apple says can be up to 40 percent faster at some tasks than the M1.

The laptop starts at $1,299 for a configuration with 256GB of solid-state storage, and there's also a $1,499 configuration with 512GB. Beyond those base configs, you can further customize the 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of memory, and you can upgrade to 1TB or 2TB of storage. You cannot upgrade later, so those choices have to be made at the time of purchase.

Enlarge / An Apple-made image of the 13.6-inch MacBook Air that was revealed earlier this week. (credit: Apple)

Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air and a new 12-inch MacBook, according to Bloomberg , citing sources familiar with Apple's plans. The sources also revealed details about the M2-family chips coming to Apple's high-performance MacBook Pro computers.

The 15-inch Air will use the same overall design as the 13.6-inch MacBook Air revealed at the company's WWDC keynote on Monday. That means an ultra-thin design with no tapered edges, plus a screen notch and a keyboard with function keys and Touch ID. The laptop is expected to use the same M2 processor as the one found in its smaller sibling.

The new laptop could arrive as soon as spring of 2023, the sources say. They also say Apple is working on a 12-inch MacBook that could arrive in late 2023 or early 2024—but that one is far enough out that Apple could still abandon its plans.

Enlarge / Apple's new MacBook Air. (credit: Samuel Axon)

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Today, Apple unveiled the first major redesign in a long while to its most popular laptop, the MacBook Air , and after a few minutes with the device, we can confirm that it feels quite different to hold compared to its predecessor.

The new laptop drops the tapered design of the previous model in favor of a flat, rectangular design reminiscent of the iPad Pro or last year's 24-inch iMac redesign. It adds the new-and-improved returned MagSafe (as seen recently in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro) and includes an unusual charger with a different shape and two USB-C ports.

We handled the device for a few minutes at Apple's Cupertino headquarters and found it to be noticeably lighter than other recent Apple laptops (as its name suggests). But because it borrows those iPad, iMac, and MacBook Pro elements, it also looks and feels familiar—right down to the MacBook Pro's screen notch and slightly taller display.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

CUPERTINO, Calif.—The MacBook Air will be soon get a total design overhaul, Apple announced today. Taking the virtual stage at the company's summer developer conference, Apple representatives unveiled the new laptop, which includes the faster and more efficient M2 chip and design cues from both the 24-inch iMac and the recently redesigned 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro computers.

Before announcing the new 13.6-inch MacBook Air, Apple revealed the 5 nm M2 processor with four high-performance cores, four low-power efficiency cores, and a claimed 18% performance boost over the M1. The processor has up to a 10-core GPU, and Apple claimed up to 35% better graphics performance than the M1.

Performance aside, the 2022 MacBook Air looks notably different than its predecessor. It's thinner and lighter at under 0.5 inch (11.3 mm thin) and 2.7 lbs (1.22 kg). And like the 24-inch iMac, it comes in several colors, albeit more boring shades called silver, space gray, starlight, and midnight. The display is also supposed to have thinner bezels. Further, it abandons the wedge-shaped design that has characterized the MacBook Air for years.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Exactly two years after Apple first announced the M1, its direct successor has finally been revealed. Apple executives and product managers presented details about the new chip—predictably dubbed the M2—during its annual developer conference.

The M2 is an improvement in many ways on the M1, but it's not meant to one-up the higher-end M1 Pro, M1 Max, or M1 Ultra seen in the MacBook Pro and Mac Studio. M2 Pro, Max, and Ultra variants have higher CPU and GPU core counts that will still outspeed the M2's performance improvements.

Like its predecessor, the M2 has eight CPU cores—four high-performance cores and four low-power efficiency cores. Apple says it will perform about 18 percent faster than the M1's CPU  It also bumps the GPU cores from eight to 10, providing a 35 percent performance boost, though as with M1 we may see multiple versions of the M2 chip that ship with different numbers of GPU cores.

Enlarge / The image Apple shared alongside the WWDC 2022 announcement. (credit: Apple )

June 6 marks the beginning of Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC. The week-long event will kick off with a keynote at 10 am PST on Monday loaded with announcements about new software features across Apple's various platforms.

For the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic started, there will be a significant in-person audience for WWDC, too. And there will be countless sessions during the week on programming APIs, Swift features, and so on. But for most people around the world, new operating systems and hardware announcements are the main draw—and we'll see a few of those during the keynote on Monday.

It's important to note that WWDC isn't typically focused on product announcements for consumers. It's a place where Apple introduces new technologies and tools to developers.