Apple’s (AAPL) latest MacBook Air is here, bringing the company’s newest processor, the M4, to its bestselling line of laptops. The updated Air, available in both 13-inch and 15-inch models, also gets an extremely rare feature for a modern gadget: a $100 price cut.
Yes, the 13-inch MacBook Air now starts at $999 while the 15-inch starts at $1,099. What’s more, the base model of both laptops now comes with 16GB of memory, up from the 8GB Apple offered when it launched its M3 Air last year.
I’ve been using the M4-powered 13-inch MacBook Air as my main laptop for the past few days, and it’s easily lived up to my expectations of Apple’s most popular computer.
Let’s start with the basics. The updated MacBook Air carries over the same look and feel Apple has stuck with since it redesigned the Air in 2022. That’s not a bad thing. I’ve got an M2-powered MacBook Air at home and still appreciate how thin and light this little laptop is.
The keyboard is comfortable and responsive and the trackpad is nice and spacious. Both the 13-inch Air and 15-inch model use Apple’s Liquid Retina display technology, and, thanks to the inclusion of Thunderbolt 4 ports, support up to two external displays.
The Airs also now get Apple’s Center Stage webcam, which tracks your face to ensure you always stay in the middle of the frame during video calls.
The Air’s biggest changes, though, are under the hood. Apple says the laptop’s M4 chip provides two times the performance of the M1-powered Air and 32 times that of Intel-based Airs when using certain apps.
I haven’t seen much of a difference in performance between my own M2-powered Air and the M4 model. Both are snappy, opening and running the apps I use every day with ease, including while doing light photo editing work in Pixelmator. That said, when I purchased my M2 Air in 2023, I needed to pay extra to upgrade to 16GB of memory, since the base model only had 8GB. Now the M4 comes with 16GB standard, which is the sweet spot for most users.
Apple didn’t do this for the fun of it, though. The extra memory will ensure AI apps run smoothly, something the company is keen on ensuring in the coming years. And sure, the laptop comes with Apple Intelligence installed, but I’m not exactly sold on the features quite yet. In fact, I’m less likely to interact with the software on a laptop than on my iPhone, since the main Apple Intelligence capability I use is notification summaries on my phone.
Still, I’ll absolutely take that extra 8GB of memory.
Battery life, as it has been with all of the M-based MacBook Airs, is top-notch. I ran this pint-sized powerhouse all day without issue, even while connected to my external display at home or in the office.
