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Apple's New MacBook Air Adds Faster M2 Chip for $1,199
Apple's New MacBook Air Adds Faster M2 Chip for $1,199
This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.
A redesigned MacBook Air was one of the highlight announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The light MacBook, which hadn't been updated since late 2020, now gets the second-gen Apple Silicon chip, called the M2, a fanless body available in four colors and a new 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display.
The new 13.6-inch MacBook Air for 2022 follows the design of the current MacBook Pro 14- and Pro 16-inch models released late last year. Like those, it has a chunkier, squared-off look that's almost retro-feeling instead of the gently curved lids tapering to a point that previously gave the Air more of a wedge shape.
The 2022 Air didn't receive all of the additional ports of the 2021 Pro models: There's no SD card slot, it doesn't get an HDMI output for an external display and it has just two USB-C Thunderbolt ports. However, the updated Air does have MagSafe charging.
The new fanless body is available in four colors: silver, space gray, starlight and midnight. The laptop is just 11.3 millimeters thick and weighs only 2.7 pounds (1.2 kilograms). The new 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is 25% brighter than its predecessor's screen, reaching 500 nits and support for 1 billion colors.
Above the display is an updated 1080p camera joined by a three-mic array and a four-speaker sound system. This should all really improve video calls. Apple said it will also have support for Dolby Atmos spatial audio. The Magic keyboard has a full row of function keys with Touch ID as well as a large Force Touch trackpad.
Apple said with the new M2 chip, Final Cut Pro performance is nearly 40% faster than on the M1 Air and Photoshop is up to 20% faster. Battery life is up to 18 hours of video playback and with an optional 67-watt power adapter it can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes.
The redesigned M2 MacBook Air arrives in July starting at $1,199 (£1,249, AU$1,899) with the M2 with an eight-core CPU and eight-core GPU, 8GB of memory and a 256GB solid-state drive. A $1,499 version has an M2 chip with an eight-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 8GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. The M1 MacBook Air stays in the lineup as well for $999 (£999, AU$1,499).
For more, check out everything Apple announced at WWDC, from MacOS Ventura to iOS 16. Plus, here's what you should know about the new MacBook Pro.
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Apple's M2 Chip Gives New MacBook Air a Speed Boost
Apple's M2 Chip Gives New MacBook Air a Speed Boost
This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.
Apple on Monday debuted the new M2 processor, a chip that improves core processing performance 18% over the M1 without hurting battery life in the company's new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops.
The 18% speed boost comes from the M2's redesigned central processing units. The processor has four fast CPU cores and four efficient cores, a hybrid approach drawn from the smartphone world. By redesigning the graphics processing units and increasing their count up to a maximum of 10 instead of eight for the M1, GPU performance is 35% faster. Overall, the new MacBook Air is 20% faster at Photoshop image editing and 38% faster at Final Cut Pro video editing, Apple said.
"We continue to have a relentless focus on power-efficient performance," Johny Srouji, Apple hardware team leader, said at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Power efficiency is crucial to shrinking laptops since the biggest component is the battery. The new MacBook Airs take up 20% less volume but still have a long, 18-hour battery life, Apple said. The company also is using the M2 in a new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple's M2 processor has large amounts of high-speed cache memory built onto the chip itself and up to 24MB of regular memory included in the chip package, two attributes that should boost performance over Apple's 2020-era M1.
Apple/Screenshots by Stephen Shankland/CNET
The M2 processor also has a significant memory boost, reaching up to 24GB instead of 16GB for the M1. Memory is important, especially as software gets bigger and laptops have years-long lifespans. M series chips build memory directly into the processor package for fast performance, but it's not upgradable.
Apple debuted the M1 at 2020's WWDC and began shipping it later that year in the earlier version of the MacBook Air. The M1, along with beefier successors called the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra, struck an effective balance between performance and battery life and earned strong reviews.
The M2 doubles down on the same balanced approach, offering updated processing cores that are variants of the chips at the heart of newer iPhones. The new chips continue the gradual ejection of Intel processors from the Mac family of personal computers and could enable the last Intel-powered member, the Mac Pro, to switch to Apple chips.
Designing processors is an expensive, difficult undertaking. But with the M series chips, Apple takes advantage of the A series chip design work it already does for its iPhones and iPads, then pays Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build the chips on its advanced product lines.
The M2 is built on TSMC's 5nm (5 nanometer) manufacturing process, but it's an improved version to the one used for the M1. TSMC is working on a more advanced 3nm process that should let customers squeeze in somewhat more transistors, the core electronics elements that process data on a chip.
The M2 has 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase over the M1, Apple said.
One use of the new transistors is the increased GPU count. Another is an upgraded neural engine -- a chip block used to accelerate artificial intelligence workloads. The new 16-core neural engine can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second, Apple said, a 40% speed boost.
With its own chips, Apple gets more control over the technology foundation of its products -- a principle important to Chief Executive Tim Cook. That includes both the processor itself, with specific features like AI acceleration, video encoding, and security, and the software Apple writes to take advantage of those features.
Apple's M series and A series chips are members of the Arm processor family. UK-based Arm licenses designs that companies can customize to varying degrees. Arm chips from Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung, Google and others power just about every smartphone for sale.
The Apple M2 processor is significantly larger than the M1. That increases manufacturing costs. Apple raised prices for its M2-based MacBook Air laptops.
Apple/Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Intel has struggled over most of the last decade with problems advancing its manufacturing. That stalled its progress while Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia and other Intel rivals took advantage of TSMC's manufacturing progress.
Because Apple doesn't offer its chips to others, and because the majority of PCs use Intel processors, Intel is somewhat insulated from Apple's shift. Intel is working to modernize its manufacturing, spending tens of billions of dollars on new chipmaking fabs. Intel aims to reclaim its lead over rivals TSMC and Samsung in 2024.
Intel's newest PC processor, code-named Alder Lake, embraces the same mix of high-performance and high-efficiency CPU cores found in smartphone chips and Apple's M series chips. Future products are designed to improve GPU performance, in particular with Intel's renewed focus on high-end graphics that's designed to wean the company from reliance on AMD and Nvidia. That's important for one big market, gaming, where PCs with Intel and AMD processors are much more widely used than Macs.
Snag a Refurb MacBook Air for Just $550 Today Only at Woot
Snag a Refurb MacBook Air for Just $550 Today Only at Woot
Apple's sleek and powerful MacBooks are some of the best laptops you'll find on the market right now. Unfortunately, however, Apple almost never drops the prices on its own products, which can make finding one at a sold value a bit of a challenge. But if you don't mind a previously-owned model, you can pick up a used MacBook for hundreds off the usual price. Today only, Woot has a selection of refurbished MacBooks Airs from early 2020 that you can pick up for just $550 -- nearly half of what similar models sell for new. This offer is only available until 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET) tonight, and with limited quantities, there's a good chance it could sell out before then.
According to Woot, refurbished items may show signs of wear and tear, but are ensured to be in full working condition. This MacBook Air also comes covered by Woot's 90-day limited warranty in case you run into any issues within the first three months.
This ultra-light MacBook Air is designed for taking care of work while you're on the go, and features a compact 13.3-inch Retina display. It's equipped with a 128GB SSD as well as 8GB of RAM, which is plenty for most people's everyday use, but may struggle a bit with more demanding tasks like video editing. It should also be noted that, while this MacBook was manufactured in early 2020, it is not actually the 2020 model, which features a new M1 processor. Instead, this previous-gen model is equipped with a 10th-gen Intel i3 core, as well as an Intel Iris Plus GPU. It also features two USB-C ports, a backlit keyboard and a battery life of up to 11 hours on a single charge.
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S review: Thinner, lighter MacBook Air alternative
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S review: Thinner, lighter MacBook Air alternative
At 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) and 11.9 mm thick (0.5 inch), the 13.3-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 730S is lighter and thinner than the current MacBook Air. Its quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, faster 2,400MHz memory and speedy Samsung PCIe solid-state drive give it better performance than the Air, too. Plus, it's less expensive, starting at $825, although the configuration reviewed here is just $770 at the moment.
I know what you're thinking, though: There's no alternative to a MacBook Air (or any Apple computer for that matter) because the others don't run MacOS. That is certainly true, so if you're looking for an apples-to-apples alternative -- no pun intended -- this won't do the trick. Nor will any other Windows laptop, really.
However, if you're not tied to MacOS for one reason or another, the IdeaPad 730S with Windows 10 ($144 at Amazon) is one of the best alternatives to a MacBook Air you'll find.
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S (81JB0004US)
Price as reviewed
$999
Display size/resolution
13.3-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel display
CPU
1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8265U
PC memory
8GB DDR3 SDRAM 2,400MHz
Graphics
128MB Intel UHD Graphics 620
Storage
256GB PCIe SSD
Networking
802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless; Bluetooth 4.1
Operating system
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Clean and simple
The IdeaPad 730S started life back at IFA 2018 as the Yoga S730 as part of Lenovo switching its Yoga brand from strictly convertibles to being its premium line and adding an S and C to the names for "slim" clamshells and "convertible" two-in-ones. In fact, in the UK it's still the Yoga S730 and starts at £899. It's not currently available under either name in Australia.
That's the long way of saying the 730S has a more premium look and feel than Lenovo's entry-level IdeaPads. The iron-gray aluminum body is understated, as is the Lenovo branding, which is reduced to nothing more than a small tag on the lid's edge and a barely visible stamp at the bottom left of the bright and colorful full-HD display.
The keyboard is comfortable with a nice pop to the keys (and I doubt a little dust will shut it down). The silky-smooth touchpad is responsive as well without sending your cursor skittering across the screen from an errant palm. Even the speakers sound more full than you'll find on competing ultraportables due in part to the Dolby Atmos audio tuning. And despite the thin bezels around the display's top and sides, the webcam is above the display.
The 730S keyboard has two levels of backlighting.
Sarah Tew/CNET
It's all dongles these days
Like a lot of superslim laptops, the 730S only has a combo headphone jack and USB-C ports: two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (one with always-on charging) and one USB-C 3.1 Gen 1. Unfortunately that means you'll need to buy dongles or a dock if you need a USB-A port, a memory card reader, an external display or whatever else.
On the upside, you can charge the laptop through any of the USB-C ports. You can also enable Lenovo's Rapid Charge feature to get your battery up to 80 percent in an hour, which works and it's great. Battery life is overall good, too, coming in at 8 hours and 8 minutes in our streaming video test. This is where the Air comes out ahead, running for 10 hours and 46 minutes in the same test. But that comes at the cost of a less powerful processor.
Video playback battery drain test (streaming minutes)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2018)
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Highly portable productivity
Sarah Tew/CNET
The IdeaPad 730S isn't built for extreme performance and doesn't necessarily have the speed to handle everything. For everyday use for work and school, though, it doesn't disappoint for the price.
The 730S works fine for day-to-day tasks like web browsing, word processing and streaming video. Basic photo and video editing? Sure, no problem, but anything more demanding and you'll want discrete graphics, a faster processor and something with a more efficient cooling system.
To get this laptop so thin, Lenovo designed the cooling fan to pull air in through the keyboard. Under continued heavy load it struggled to stay cool even with the fan going full blast. But again, for basic use that's not really an issue and overall the design choice pays off.
The Lenovo IdeaPad 730S proves you don't need to spend more than $1,000 to get some of the benefits of an upscale ultraportable. Especially one that's light enough and small enough that you'll forget it's even in your bag.
Geekbench 4 (multicore)
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2018)
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Cinebench R15 CPU (multicore)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2018)
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
System configurations
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8265U; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel UHD Graphics 620; 256GB SSD
Apple's MacBook Pro Models With M1 Pro Hit New All-Time Low Prices With $400 Off
Apple's MacBook Pro Models With M1 Pro Hit New All-Time Low Prices With $400 Off
The M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro models are among the best MacBooks Apple offers but the blend of power and portability they provide doesn't come cheap. Though Apple tends not to offer any MacBook deals directly, there are plenty of places to buy its laptops that do. And right now, Amazon and Best Buy are offering some of the best prices to date on both the 14-inch and 16-inch variants, with discounts as steep as $400.
If you're in the market for a big-screen laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is the largest Apple makes. It features a gorgeous 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion and 1,600 nits of peak brightness. The machines seeing the steep $400 discount at both retailers are powered by Apple's M1 Pro chip with a 10‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU and 16GB of RAM. Both 512GB and 1TB models have prices slashed right now. If you particularly need the extra power afforded by Apple's M1 Max chip, higher-spec configurations are available with the same $400 markdown but only via Best Buy.
On the smaller side, the more portable 14-inch MacBook Pro is available for as little as $1,599 at both retailers, which is also $400 off the regular price for the 512GB model. Go for the 1TB version and you'll save $400 as well. Both machines are running Apple's M1 Pro chip with 16GB of RAM.
There's no telling how long these deals will last, so it's best to place your order as soon as possible if you want to get in on the current savings.
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Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up
Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up
When you open up the XPS 13 Plus, three things will immediately strike you as... unusual. Those design choices make the XPS 13 Plus stand out so much visually, but they also make for an unconventional experience. Not necessarily a bad one, but certainly one that fights years of laptop design muscle memory.
First is the touchpad, which sits, disguised, along the edge-to-edge palm rest. It's there, but you can't actually see it. The touch-sensitive part of that front area is indistinguishable from the part you just rest your hands on.
Apple laptops still have a distinct panel for touch, some laptops from Dell's own Alienware line have touchpads that literally glow in different colors, but here it's guesswork. In practice, however, I found the touch-sensitive area relatively easy to use. It runs from the left edge of the spacebar on one side to the right edge of the Alt key on the other. Sure, it would be cool to have the touchpad run the entire length of the body, but that would be a nightmare for palm rejection AI and probably not as useful as you'd think.
Like
Inventive new design
Very slim and light
Excellent performance
Great OLED display
Included USB-C dongles
Don't Like
You might not love the new touchpad, keyboard and function keys
Underwhelming battery life
Heat and fan noise
Low-resolution webcam
No headphone port
But the larger point remains -- people are used to how touchpads work and what they look like, so you mess with that shared experience at your own peril. In this case, the touchpad's overall feel is good for a Windows laptop, but it could also feel either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, depending on what I was doing. The best word for an overall vibe would be "floaty," and it suffers in comparison by landing on my desk immediately after the latest MacBook Air, which is the platonic ideal of touchpad feel and functionality.
Dell makes a big deal of the haptics of the touchpad. It feels like you can click it down, but it's not actually depressing. MacBook touchpads have worked the same way for years. Personally, I'm a tapper, not a clicker, so it didn't make a huge difference to me.
The invisible touchpad.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
Next is the keyboard, which ditches the standard island-style keys -- flat with a modest space between each one -- for an edge-to-edge design, where each key brushes up against its neighbor. It's a style that popped up occasionally in the 2010s, but one I haven't seen in a while. It lets you offer a larger top surface for each key and in some cases, helps make a laptop thinner. I got used to it quickly but, again, my muscle memory fought it. It also lacks the satisfying snap of a good island-style keyboard.
The last big change is to the Function key row. It reminds me of the now-deprecated Apple Touch Bar, as it's a backlit row of touch-sensitive icons. The media and system commands are lit by default -- brightness, volume, keyboard backlight and so on. Hold the Fn key and you see the typical F1 to F12 keys. You can swap the behavior the other way if you prefer.
Why do this? Again, I believe it's to shave some thickness from the system and allow for its hinge mechanism. I'm not against the idea in principle, but the MacBook Pro's rough go of it shows that people aren't itching to swap physical buttons for virtual ones. And this isn't a full-color user-assignable OLED screen strip like Apple's version, either. But in the end, the only thing I think you'll miss is having a physical Esc key, which can be important in your day to day use. I liked how clear the icons were and how they were boldly backlit.
Function keys are replaced by a touch strip.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
Configuration and performance
Once you put aside those three breaks with laptop design orthodoxy, the rest of the XPS 13 Plus is a conventional and mostly excellent premium 13-inch laptop experience. The XPS 13 line has always been one of my favorite Windows laptops, and this looks and feels like a high-end machine that will be a conversation piece whenever you whip it out.
The XPS 13 Plus starts at $1,299 and the model I tested is currently $1,949. It includes an upgraded CPU, RAM and display. I liked that there are four 13.4-inch screen options, both OLED and LCD, ranging from a 1,920x1,080 non-touch screen to a 3,840x2,400 touchscreen.
Inside, the version here has a 12th-gen Intel Core i7-1280P, and all the engineering to squeeze it into this 15mm-thick body is impressive. That said, the fans spin up audibly, sometimes sounding like a little white noise machine in the background, and even then, the system got very warm, especially on the bottom panel.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
Performance with that 12th-gen Core i7 is a highlight, and it's nice to have this much raw horsepower in a high-design, executive-class laptop. I've compared it to Apple's latest mainstream and Pro laptops, as well as comparable Windows systems. It's part of Intel's Evo program, which is a designation for premium slim laptop designs with good performance. If you go with the least expensive configuration, you get a Core i5 from the same generation.
In the preloaded My Dell app, you can switch between performance presets (navigate from My Dell > Power > Thermal). The Performance mode was indeed faster, but also cranked the fans up even more, created a lot of heat, and certainly didn't help the already limp battery life.
Display and webcam
The display is also a highlight. I tested the 3,456x2,160-pixel touchscreen version, which is an impressive-looking OLED panel. Dell calls this 3.5K and you can also get a true 4K version, but that's no OLED panel. Either one is a $300 upgrade from the base non-touch Full HD 1,920x1,080-pixel model. There's also a FHD touch panel for $100 more, and if you're looking to cut costs, it's probably where I'd go. On a relatively small laptop, you can get away with FHD resolution, but adding touch is going to be valuable.
I'm less pleased with the 720p webcam. Premium laptops have made a major switch to FHD cameras in the past couple of years, even dragging long-time holdout Apple in with the latest MacBook Air Dell says the lower-res camera here benefits from image processing help on the software side, but I found it to be merely ok. Jumping into a Zoom meeting in low light, I had a distinct orange hue. Adding a higher-resolution camera would likely mean a thicker lid, so I get that there's a size-versus-functionality tradeoff.
A great webcam, this is not.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
The camera is also used for Dell's presence-detection features, which I find interesting. It can wake from sleep mode when the camera detects your face, or it can lock itself when you walk away. But the feature I liked most was called Look Away Detect, which will dim the screen if it sees you looking away. That's good for both battery life and privacy, and worked so well that I think more laptops should have a feature like that.
It has just two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, which is frankly fine for most people these days, and it matches the most recent 13-inch MacBook Pro. But, Dell kills the headphone jack, which might be rarely used, but is a notable exclusion nonetheless. A USB-C-to-audio dongle is included in the box, as is a USB-C-to-USB-A one. That's a nice bonus, and one that some companies (ahem, Apple...) would probably make you pay extra for. The downside is, if you keep it plugged into power and use the headphone adaptor at the same time, you're out of ports.
Battery life and roadworthiness
Despite focusing on some of the unusual design choices and limitations, there's a lot I love about the XPS 13 Plus. I love a sharp, original design and am willing to trade a little familiarity to push the edges a bit. This level of performance in a slim, light laptop like this is enviable (as long as we're sticking on the non-dedicated GPU side of things), and the hidden performance modes offer more flexibility than I'm used to seeing in similar laptops.
But there's one more wrinkle in the formula. Battery life. In benchmark testing, the XPS 13 Plus ran on the short side, at about 4 hours while streaming online video, which is far from the most strenuous thing you might ask it to do. In hands-on use, it felt a little better depending on what I was doing, but it also dropped from almost 70% to under 30% in less than 2 hours while I was writing this review.
Ports are limited, but dongles are included.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
Use the optimized performance preset, turn down the screen brightness, close unused apps and you can likely push the battery life to a better place. But I don't feel confident that I could pick up this laptop in the morning and work on it all day without charging. It helps that there's an express charging preset for powering up part of the battery quickly.
The nearly 4K screen doesn't do the battery any favors, although the fact that it's an OLED panel should help. That's one reason I'm cautious about recommending 4K laptops -- higher-resolution screens are a battery killer.
The XPS 13 Plus has a lot of innovative ideas -- some of which are important, while others seem like change for the sake of change. We may even disagree on which is which. If I were working on the next generation of this laptop, I'd keep the design updates but suggest sacrificing a little thickness for a bigger battery so this could be a more travel-ready companion.
The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those objective and subjective judgments.
The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra.
A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found in our How We Test Computers page.
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Get a new Mac? Here's what you need to know about setting it up
Get a new Mac? Here's what you need to know about setting it up
Apple's newest computers -- MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini -- are fast, have impressive battery life and can even run iPhone apps. The difference between this crop and previous models? These are powered by the Apple Silicon M1 processor. It's the same kind of processor the company uses in the iPhone and iPad. If you spoiled yourself and picked up a new Mac this holiday season, or were lucky enough to get one as a gift, don't rush through the setup process.
Whether you're replacing a worn-down MacBook or getting rid of a tired PC, it's only natural to want to tear open the box, hit the power button and cruise through the setup prompts. But before you do that, take a deep breath and a step back. There are some things you need to know about setting up a Mac.
For starters, the process can take several hours if you plan on transferring your data from another computer. Then there are other things to consider: Do you need FileVault? How can you get information off of your old Mac or PC and onto the new one? Those questions are exactly why we're here.
There's something special about getting a new computer.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
What you'll need
Make sure to set aside around an hour to get your Mac set up. The process will take longer if you plan on restoring your Mac from a Time Machine backup of another Mac.
In addition to a reliable internet connection, you'll need your Wi-Fi network information, your Apple ID username and password, and the Mac's charger or power cord.
Having a piece of paper and a pen nearby is helpful. During the setup process, you'll be asked to create a user account, which includes a username and password. We don't recommend storing passwords on paper -- it's much safer to use a password manager -- but a piece of paper is helpful for temporarily storing this kind of information until you can enter it into your password manager. Just make sure to destroy the piece of paper when you're done.
Once you have everything in order, connect the charger or power cord to your Mac and turn it on.
Setting up a new Mac isn't hard, but it can take some time.
Apple
Apple's Setup Assistant walks you through most of the process
The first time your Mac turns on, a setup assistant will greet you. The assistant will walk you through selecting your country and language, and connecting the Mac to the internet. You'll also be tasked with creating a user account on the Mac and signing into your Apple ID.
Throughout the process you'll be asked if you want to enable services like FileVault, iCloud Keychain or Find My Mac. You'll also be asked if you want to enable Siri or provide any logs to developers when issues are detected. Here's what some of those features mean for you.
FileVault encrypts your Mac's hard drive to prevent unauthorized access to the information you store on it. If you aren't sure, you can always enable or disable it in the future.
iCloud Keychain is Apple's password manager that's built into all of its devices. If you use iCloud Keychain on an iPhone ($500 at Best Buy) or iPad ($176 at Amazon), those usernames and passwords will also be available on your Mac. iCloud Keychain also stores your Wi-Fi network credentials, meaning you won't have to log into a Wi-Fi network on your Mac if you've previously connected to it on your iPhone. It's a good idea to turn on iCloud Keychain.
Find My Mac works with the Find My app to help you track down a lost Apple device. I recommend turning on Find My Mac, even for a rig as large as an iMac ($990 at Best Buy) that's less likely to disappear, because you never know when you might end up with a lost or stolen MacBook. There's no drawback to turning it on.
If you have a MacBook, you'll also be tasked with setting up Touch ID, the fingerprint reader that unlocks your computer, lets you sign into apps or approve Apple Pay purchases. All of it is pretty straight-forward, just continue to follow the prompts, entering any required information such as your Apple ID or creating a user name, to finish the core of the setup process.
Migration Assistant makes it easy to transfer all of your information.
Apple
Restore from a Time Machine Backup
During setup, you'll be asked if you want to restore your new Mac from a Time Machine backup of another Mac through Migration Assistant. If so, you'll need the storage device your Time Machine backup is stored on.
If you haven't backed up your old Mac through Time Machine, it's not too late. We have a guide that walks you through the process. Or if you'd rather directly transfer your files and settings from one Mac to another, Migration Assistant can do that, too.
Follow the prompts in the Migration Assistant tool, selecting that you want to transfer your information from a Time Machine backup. Select the Time Machine drive that's connected to your new Mac, and select the most recent backup.
Next, you'll be asked to confirm which information you want to transfer -- including home folders, applications, settings, user accounts and other miscellaneous documents.
The process can take several hours, depending on how much you have to transfer. If it's going to be awhile, you don't have to babysit it. It's perfectly fine to leave your computer and go watch a show, let it process overnight, or even run some errands.
One thing to keep in mind, and Migration Assistant will remind you if you run into this, is that your new Mac needs to be on the same OS update as your old Mac (or vice versa). So you may have to finish the setup process without using Migration Assistant, then update your OS (directions covering how to do that are below), and then run Migration Assistant.
If you're switching from a PC to a Mac, you can use Apple's Migration Assistant, but the process is a little bit more involved and technical (just at the beginning). Apple walks you through the process in this support article.
Once you have your Mac all set up, it's time to get to work!
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Install any software updates
Once you've completed the Setup Assistant and find yourself looking at your Mac's desktop, it's a good idea to check for any pending software updates.
To do that, click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen followed by System Preferences > Software Update.
Once your Mac's software is up to date, you'll also want to check and make sure all of the preinstalled apps are updated in the App Store. Find the App Store icon in the app dock along the bottom of your screen. Click on it to open the App Store and then select Updates and then update any apps with pending updates.
Now that you have your Mac all set up, it's a good idea to be prepared for any hiccups you may run into. Here are system tweaks you may want to make right away. If this is the first time you've used MacOS Big Sur, we have plenty of tips to help you get started. When your Mac inevitably slows down, learn how to speed it back up again.
