Apple’s MacBook Air M2 is now up for pre-order, and we previously predicted a rush to buy the new laptop – and that’s apparently proven to be the case.
In fact, with pre-orders only open for a few hours, we’re seeing some of the redesigned MacBook Air models already having their shipping dates pushed back to 2-3 weeks, or even longer in some cases.
Apple announced the release of the MacBook Air M2 starting July 15th, but currently in the US, if you want the entry-level and higher laptops (with 10-core GPU) in midnight color, you’ll be waiting 1-2 weeks for shipping (maybe until July 29th).
The same goes for the entry-level MacBook Air in Starlight or Silver. If you want the high-end silver Air, however, you’re expecting a 2-3 week wait. The other models we haven’t mentioned are launching on July 14th, actually a day earlier than announced.
However, things get more complex if you want to apply RAM or storage upgrades, with additional delays in most cases. Any of the midnight, starlight, or space gray colors that are set to ship on July 14th have their shipping dates pushed back by 1-2 weeks if you apply updates to the system memory or SSD. And for models that are 1-2 weeks by default, the update will defer even further to 2-3 weeks.
The exception is the silver MacBook Air – you can upgrade the base model and the ship date remains the same no matter how much RAM or storage you want. Interestingly, for the next-gen Silver Air, upgrading any of these components reduce 2-3 weeks wait for shipping, up to 1-2 weeks. This is the only case where the update has a positive outcome on your wait time, mind you (and remember, this is all true as we write this – but it may change as more pre-orders arrive).
In the UK, we are seeing the entry-level and higher models in the Midnight color being delayed to ship from 2nd to 9th August, and the silver models will ship between 19th and 26th of July, while the others colors are still tied to July 15th.
But then again, if you want to upgrade the RAM or storage, this will push things back from July 25th to August 1st, save the entry-level space gray MacBook Air, which you can upgrade without making any changes to the expected ship to 15 July. date.
The only other exception is Midnight templates which, when updated, ship a day early from August 1st to August 8th. which has the longest delay of all, not being shipped until August 9th to August 16th – ai).
Analysis: Apple is not the only retailer…
As mentioned, we assume there might be a race for certain models, and that’s before we even know if the entry-level version of the M2 MacBook Air with the base amount of storage suffers from the same SSD design issue as the M2-toting MacBook. Pro.
So while that’s no surprise – particularly given the talk of the MacBook’s production issues of late and the wait for the redesigned MacBook Air to pre-order after it was revealed at WWDC a month ago – perhaps it’s a bit of a letdown. eye-opening that some models have been released so far, very quickly.
All this suggests that if you want a MacBook Air with an M2 chip and you want the laptop to arrive in a timely manner, it’s probably worth claiming a notebook now. Of course, you don’t have to order direct from Apple, and for that we’ve put together a rundown of top retailers for pre-order, where you can still get a model with more troublesome delivery times, at an earlier shipping date.
