MacBook Air M4 Review: Power Play on a Budget

MacBook Air has turn into a tried-and-true product for Apple ever because the firm ushered within the M-series chips period. M1 MacBook Air introduced a revolution and Apple has now repeated the identical system with MacBook Air M4 to convey it one other step nearer to perfection. I’ve been rocking a M2 MacBook Air 13-inch for shut to three years now and when Apple provided Beebom to evaluate the brand new, kinda Blue (extra on this later) and a beefier MacBook Air M4 15-inch, I pounced with each palms. So, right here is my MacBook Air M4 evaluate after utilizing it for two weeks.

MacBook Air M4 Specs

Specs-wise, MacBook Air M4 brings a couple of recent additions over its predecessors. We have now talked about the whole lot new within the newest addition to the Air household intimately under, however you possibly can verify the specs under shortly earlier than you proceed.

Thoughts it, we now have a specced out MacBook Air M4 with a 15-inch show, 16GB RAM, and 1TB storage.

So, What’s New?

Now that we now have gone over the specs, it’s time to see what’s new and up to date within the MacBook Air M4. Beginning with the brand new coloration. The MacBook Air M4 is available in a new coloration possibility – Sky Blue, which replaces the fan favourite Area Grey coloration possibility. Looks like Apple is simply too keen on silver coloration that the Sky Blue hue within the new MacBook Air is simply a tinge of blue and a entire lot of silver. Regardless of this, it’s refreshing to see Apple get away of the case of monotonous and bland coloration choices.

Subsequent, Apple now affords 16GB RAM within the base variant of the M4 MacBook Air, up from 8GB RAM within the predecessor. It is without doubt one of the most welcoming upgrades from Apple, contemplating the ire the corporate has confronted from reviewers and customers alike for providing 8GB RAM in a laptop computer that prices $1000. With the M4 MacBook Air, you should purchase as much as 32GB RAM, in comparison with the beforehand capped storage possibility of 24GB.

Whereas we’re on the worth, there’s one other welcome addition. Apple has lowered the pricing of the MacBook Air lineup, and the M4 MacBook Air M4 base mannequin begins at $999 now (the 15-inch mannequin begins at $1,199). That is $200 lower than the launch worth of the M2 MacBook Air and $100 lower than what the M3 MacBook Air launched for. I do know it’s completely unbelievable that Apple has launched a product at a cheaper price whereas providing elevated RAM and storage! Fret not, I feel Apple has balanced out issues by introducing the iPhone 16e at a whopping $599!

The MacBook Air M4 is an incremental improve, however Apple has added some new and helpful options, like the brand new webcam, which is 12MP now and helps Middle Stage. That is an improve from a 1080p webcam (equal to 2.1MP) within the earlier MacBook Air mannequin. The brand new webcam additionally helps the Desk View characteristic that may present the top-down view of your desk in video calls. Video calls are sharper, clearer, and carry extra element as in comparison with my M2 MacBook Air with 1080p webcam.

Tried and Examined Design

Ever because the design refresh in MacBook Air M2 with a notch and extra symmetrical curves on the aspect, Apple has dared to not experiment with design. MacBook Air M4 isn’t any totally different. It has the identical 15.3-inch LCD Show with 500 nits brightness, the identical dimensions, and even the identical weight at 1.51 kg because the MacBook Air M3. After I say that Apple has not dared to experiment with the design, it’s primarily as a result of it’s practically excellent with not a lot left to want. You get a modern design with an easy-to-open lid, a sturdy hinge, and a wobble-free backside.

Coming from a 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, the brand new M4 MacBook Air with its 15-inch show was not a straightforward change. Regardless of the burden distinction of simply 0.27 kg, the brand new MacBook felt a bit hefty and don’t even get me began on getting used to the larger keyboard. Nonetheless, design-wise, the M4 MacBook Air is just excellent with a attractive show, a MagSafe charging port, and two USB-C ports on the left, and the only 3.5mm Audio jack on the fitting.

Speaking about ports, Apple has up to date USB-C ports from Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 4 now, which does not likely translate to any significant real-life profit apart from the truth that now you possibly can join two 6K exterior shows whereas holding the lid of your MacBook open.

If you’re disillusioned that there’s nothing new, I’ve one thing to cheer you up. The MacBook Air M4 is available in a new coloration possibility – Sky Blue, which replaces the fan favourite Area Grey coloration possibility. Looks like Apple is simply too keen on silver coloration that the Sky Blue hue within the new MacBook Air is simply a tinge of blue and a entire lot of silver. Regardless of this, it’s refreshing to see Apple get away of the case of monotonous and bland coloration choices.

The Mighty, Highly effective M4 Chip

Coming to essentially the most attention-grabbing side of the brand new MacBook Air – the brand new M4 chip. The M4 chip is just not a new processor per se. We’ve already had the iPad Professional M4, the Mac mini M4, and the MacBook Professional M4 for a while now. Now, the chip has made its debut within the Air lineup. Let’s shortly go over the specification of the M4 chip earlier than I delve deeper into the real-life functions and efficiency enhance I’ve skilled with the M4 chip.

So, the M4 chip has a 10-core CPU with 4 efficiency cores and 6 effectivity cores. As in comparison with the M3 chip, there are two further CPU cores within the M4 chip. There’s a 10-core GPU within the 15-inch MacBook Air M4. When you go for the 13-inch base mannequin, you get an 8-core GPU. Moreover, the M4 MacBook Air brings {Hardware}-accelerated ray tracing, a 16-core Neural Engine, and 120GB/s reminiscence bandwidth.

All MacBook Air fashions are fanless and rely on passive cooling, in contrast to MacBook Professional fashions, and the M4 MacBook Air isn’t any exception. Whereas this makes the operation noiseless, we skilled in our assessments that the machine throttles beneath sustained load. Throttling was seen once I tried to render an 8K video in Ultimate Lower Professional.

This brings us to benchmarks. Under, you’ll find the outcomes for the benchmark assessments I ran on the MacBook Air M4.

Evaluating benchmarks with the predecessors, it’s clear that the M4 MacBook Air is ~25% quicker than the M3 MacBook Air in single-core and multi-core Geekbench scores, whereas it’s 10% higher within the graphics division. Thus, upgrading from an M3 MBA received’t make sense. When you’re utilizing an M1 MacBook Air, you’ll get practically double the efficiency.

M1 MacBook Air scores 2402 within the single-core Geekbench take a look at and 8608 within the multi-core take a look at. Then again, the M4 MacBook Air scores 3770 in single-core and 14687 within the multi-core take a look at. So, sure, the efficiency enhance is critical.

When Apple launched the M4 MacBook Air M4, it emphasised on M4 chip’s highly effective Neural Engine, which “accelerates AI-based duties,” so I attempted to place it to the take a look at by working a native LLM mannequin. For testing, I used LM Studio to run Deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-7b mannequin and it generated 1859 tokens at 17.77 tokens/second and took 0.27 seconds to generate the primary token. I attempted a number of prompts and the outcomes had been nearly prompt.

That is the 16GB variant that I’m testing, and solely as soon as did it stutter a bit once I tried working Loss of life Stranding whereas a 4K video was rendering within the background.

MacBook Air M4 Battery Life

One division the place MacBook Air M4 actually proves its mettle is the battery efficiency. Apple claims that its newest MacBook Air delivers as much as 18 hours of battery life, and in real-life assessments, these claims had been fairly shut. My workflow entails opening a number of tabs on Chrome and Safari, utilizing Notion extensively for workflow administration, Slack for communication, Apple Music within the background, doing most of those duties, and occasional photograph modifying.

With this typical utilization, MacBook Air M4 lasts as much as 16 hours simply earlier than I’ve to feed it the juice once more. Throughout my testing of the machine, I put it by way of an intensive load as nicely. I rendered a 4K video in Ultimate Lower Professional, ran an LLM mannequin domestically, and likewise did benchmark testing. In my intensive testing, the M4 MBA impressed me with 12 hours of battery life, which is spectacular to say the least.

As for charging, it comes with a 35W Twin USB-C adapter and a color-matched braided charging cable within the field. To gas the MBA M4 to 100%, it takes round 2 hours and quarter-hour utilizing the inventory adapter.

However…

Up to now in my MacBook Air M4 evaluate, I’ve listed out all of the positives of the machine, and truthfully, there may be not a lot to complain about. Nonetheless, I’ve a bone to select with Apple. Firstly, the 60Hz LCD show on a $1,000 laptop computer is petty in 2025. The Home windows counterparts are providing an OLED show with a a lot greater refresh price in the identical worth section. It’s about time that Apple begins providing mini-OLED in MacBook Air fashions.

Subsequent, the dearth of ports on the MBA makes it a deal breaker for a number of customers. I agree that it’s an entry-level laptop computer provided by Apple, however with a extremely succesful chipset and minimal ports, it’s an overkill. I’d like to see an Ethernet and SD card port on MacBook Airs sometime.

Ought to You Purchase the MacBook Air M4?

Now comes a very powerful query: Must you purchase the MacBook Air M4? The truth is, the fitting query to ask is who should purchase the MacBook Air M4? Nicely, switching from an M2 or M3 MBA isn’t a wise resolution you’d need to take, because the efficiency positive factors will not be well worth the problem. Nonetheless, in case you are planning to improve from an M1 MacBook Air, there’s a lot to realize.

You’d acquire nearly a 60-70% improve in efficiency in GPU, CPU, and graphics, a new design, and a future-proof machine. Now, in case you are confused between MacBook Air M4 and MacBook Professional M4, observe that the worth distinction is now steep, because the latter prices $1,599 in comparison with the $999 pricing of the MBA M4. However with this $500, you get a mini-LED show with a 120Hz refresh price, further battery lifetime of round 6 hours, 512GB base storage, and extra ports (HDMI and SDXC card slot).

So, the selection ultimately comes right down to your necessities. If you need a machine for day-to-day duties, MacBook Air M4 is the one to go for. When you’re a pupil, you possibly can avail Apple’s Pupil pricing for MBA M4 and get it at $899, which is unquestionably a steal deal.