First Benchmark Result Surfaces for MacBook Air With M2 Chip

An early benchmark result for the new MacBook Air shows how the M2 chip performs in the notebook.

The MacBook Air with the M2 chip and 16GB of unified memory achieved a single-core score of 1,899 and a multi-core score of 8,965. The scores achieved by the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip are similar to those achieved by the M1 models.

The MacBook Pro could perform better in real-world usage than the MacBook Air because it has a fan, even though the M2 chip performs the same in Geekbench testing.

The M2 MacBook Air beats the base model Mac Pro tower with an 8core Intel Xeon W processor even though it costs less. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison but it's still a testament to the performance of Apple chips in more affordable Macs.

It's not clear if the base model of the M2 MacBook Air has a single storage chip. The base model M2 MacBook Pro has a single 128 gigabyte storage chip instead of the two 128 gigabyte chips found in the M1 model. Slower system performance can be caused by virtual memory swap.

Pre-orders for the new MacBook Air began on Friday, July 8, and the first deliveries will begin on Friday, July 15. The previous-generation MacBook Air with the M1 chip is still available for $999 in the US.