Apple’s redesigned MacBook Air (M2, 2022) will be up for pre-order towards the end of this week.
MacBook Air pre-orders go live on July 8 at 5am PT (8am ET, 1pm BST), Apple has announced, and those who place an order will start receiving their machines from July 15 onwards.
This was what the rumor mill believed to be the case for the launch date, and it turned out to be bang-on – as did our guess as to when pre-orders would begin (though logically enough it was always going to be a week beforehand).
The new MacBook Air has been keenly awaited since its revelation at WWDC 2022, and while it was the MacBook Pro which was also unveiled at the recent conference that went on sale first, the latter didn’t offer much in the way of change (save for adopting the new M2 SoC).
Generally speaking, folks are much more excited about the MacBook Air, as you might imagine, which changes a great deal about the design – and of course adds that new M2 chip, too.
The MacBook Air starts at $1,199 / £1,249 for the entry-level model and will be available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space grey colors.
For those ready to pounce, check out our dedicated Macbook Air pre-order article linking across to all the main retail outlets which will stock the laptop imminently.
Analysis: A rush to buy – with some caution thrown in?
The question now left regarding the MacBook Air is not when it will appear on shelves, but just how swiftly it’ll disappear from said shelves. From what we’ve seen thus far online, there’s a lot of excitement around grabbing one of these new Apple laptops, so expect pre-order competition to be relatively fierce.
And with some question marks previously posed over Apple’s ability to keep laptop production levels suitably robust – with interference witnessed due to lockdowns in China – there are worries that stock might vanish pretty quickly.
Certainly the cheaper models may prove to be popular, although another issue could raise its head there – namely doubts over whether the SSD for the entry-level MacBook Air could’ve taken the same shortcut as seen with the M2 MacBook Pro (namely using a differently configured drive which is cheaper, but slower, on the base model).
Due to that concern, we may see some hesitancy around the immediate rush for the entry-level Air, until it’s confirmed whether or not the laptop takes the same approach to storage as the M2 Pro.
