M2 MacBook Air blows away other Macs in speed test

M2 MacBook Air blows away other Macs in speed test

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The Apple M2 chip gives the 2022 MacBook Air a crazy fast web browser.
Photo: Apple

The new M2 MacBook Air got an amazing score on the Speedometer 2.0 benchmarking app. Apple’s latest notebook solidly beating other Macs in this test of web browser speed.

The performance boost comes from the new Apple M2 processor – the MacBook Pro with the same chip scores equally well.

Speedometer 2.0 loves the M2 MacBook Air

Other benchmarking apps are more general purpose, but Speedometer 2.0 has a single focus: “Speedometer tests a browser’s Web app responsiveness by timing simulated user interactions.” Considering how much time people spend in browsers, it’s not unreasonable to test the speed of these apps.

And anyone using an M2 MacBook Air should expect some high numbers. David Heinemeier Hansson from Basecamp said via Twitter, “Just clocked a clean 400 on the Speedometer 2.0 test for the M2 Air. That’s 33% faster than the M1 (and A15) can do. 2.5x faster than a 4.2Ghz i7 Intel iMac.”

Apple's chip team continues to embarrass everyone else in the business. Just clocked a clean 400 on the Speedometer 2.0 test for the M2 Air. That's 33% faster than the M1 (and A15) can do. 2.5x faster than a 4.2Ghz i7 Intel iMac. Bananas. Try your own CPU: https://t.co/o25wL35Zu4 https://t.co/WbBmys2bk1

6:00 AM · Aug 1, 2022

Scores for this test can vary by browser – Hansson was running Safari.

Other have chimed on Twitter in with their scores. A MacBook Pro with M1 Max got a 342. A Mac mini scored 297. Cult of Mac tested a M1 iPad Pro and scored 299.

It’s all about the Apple M2

There’s been some skepticism about Hansson’s result. For any doubters, YouTuber Alex Ziskind put the M2 MacBook Pro through the Speedometer 2.0 browser benchmark test and scored a 398 when running Safari. He did a head-to-head comparison with an M1 MacBook Air, and it scored a 293 on the same test and browser.

After all the back-and-forth about how much of a performance gain to expect from the base model 2022 MacBook Air, there can be no doubt that the M2 processor puts Apple’s latest notebook head and shoulders above many of its predecessors at running web apps.