Apple MacBook Air M4 review: A more affordable Air, finally

Sticking to its “if it aint broke, don’t fix it" approach to only updating its laptop chassis about once every 3-4 years, Apple’s retained the boxy-with-rounded corners, well-constructed though still strikingly thin (0.44-inch) design of the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs.

There’s little to visually differentiate the new model, save for a new Sky Blue color, though the intended audience—folks with M1 Airs, those with older Intel models or even switchers coming from the Windows world—are still in for a treat as the Air remains classy, well-built and as comfortable to carry everywhere (1.24kg) as ever. Whether you pick up the 15-inch model (1.51kg) I tested or the 13-inch, you’ll get nearly identical hardware, save for the obviously smaller screen and battery, and the base model on the 13-inch packs in two fewer graphics cores than the base 15-inch. Port selection remains unchanged—two USB 4/Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5-mm headphone jack—though with support for two external monitors, another USB-C port would have been very welcome.

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A quick note about that Sky Blue color option, which skews towards silver or gray (with the barest hint of blue) depending on how the light hits it, but never the sky blue one has recognized since childhood. While I appreciate the slightest dash of color as an option, I do wish for more options, including more striking colors, a la the iMac or the base iPad. Apple can continue to reserve the subtle hues for the Pro lineup, but the Airs could do with at least a bit of fun.

Elsewhere, the 60 Hz, 2880x1864 IPS LCD display continues to look great for the most part with its 500 nits of maximum brightness good enough for outdoor use, though the bezels and camera notch aren’t exactly thin by 2025 standards. The webcam housed in that divisive notch cutout sees an upgrade from a 1080p sensor to 12 megapixels, with support for Center Stage, which automatically keeps you in the frame during video calls. One nitpick - after using the nano-texture matte display on the M4-powered MacBook Pro which helps reduce glare in bright environments, it would have been nice to see Apple offer it at least as an option, like it does on the M4-powered iMac. In a nutshell, there isn’t much by way of complaint when it comes to the basics—the keyboard, screen, speakers and design all come together to offer consumers a portable package that looks and feels good to use.

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By now, Apple’s M4 chip is a familiar beast, having been seen on iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac minis prior. Built on a second-generation, 3-nanometer process, the chip sees gains in both power efficiency and raw speed when it comes to processor heavy tasks, machine intelligence, and graphics rendering, while packing in ray tracing, mesh shading, and dynamic caching for bumped up graphics-intensive tasks like video or photo editing and gaming.

During my testing, the MacBook Air M4 expectedly delivered smooth performance across my workdays, juggling 30-40 tabs across multiple Safari windows alongside WhatsApp, Apple Music, Word and Excel and a panoply of messaging apps. And of course, constantly checking on my iPhone via macOS Sequoia’s excellent iPhone mirroring feature. As with the M3 model, you can use the Air with two external displays, but with a key difference—you can keep the lid open for a full three-screen experience. I don’t use three displays all at once that often, but the productivity nerd in me was happy at the prospect.

Now, whether you’re looking forward to Apple Intelligence rolling out in April or are ambivalent to the Writing Tools and Genmojis, I for one am glad it has ended the ‘8GB default’ era on Macs—you can custom configure the Air M4 to go up to 24GB or 32GB if you plan on pushing this laptop beyond basic tasks like browsing the web, making video calls, and lightweight photo or video editing. Be warned though—adding storage or memory can take the shine off the uncharacteristically great value of the base models. Even on the 16GB memory/512GB storage unit I was testing, I edited a few videos for a passion project with the laptop unplugged and managed to drain the battery only by about 20% after an hour of edits and exports. The Air M4 even managed to run a game like Resident Evil 4 at its highest resolution at respectable frame rates, between 40 to 50 fps.

Bear in mind, the downside of being a fanless design is that you won’t get quite as much out of the M4 as you would on a Mac with active cooling, like the M4-sporting Mac mini or MacBook Pro, and you may see mildly throttled performance occasionally under sustained heavy workloads. Battery life remains a hallmark, as with Apple Silicon laptops for the past four years now, and I can’t honestly remember a time when I have needed to frantically search for a charging brick towards the end of a regular workday, and that holds for the MacBook Air M4.

It’s this peace of mind that sees many pick the base MacBook Air as their trusted work companion, and even as the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip has given Windows laptops a second lease of life, Apple Silicon edges ever so slightly ahead in pure ‘performance per watt’ efficiency and eking out the most from the battery. Want a 120Hz screen, though? You’ll have to look at the Pros or Windows laptops for now.

And so it is with the MacBook Air M4—what appears to be a spec bump on the surface is by far the best entry point it’s been for years, both for switchers and folks upgrading from older Macs, and doubling the memory on the most budget-friendly model while dropping the price is a solid move that may tempt even the most hardened of buyers.

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