Well, that was a surprise. We expected the M4 MacBook Air to launch this week given Apple’s massive “there’s something in the Air” teaser, but I did not anticipate this.
The hype for the M4 MacBook Air in the Laptop Mag office was palpable, and that’s because the M3 MacBook Air currently sits at the top of our best laptops page. Outstanding battery life, strong performance, and a bright display all in a premium package for just $1,099? That’s great.
But Apple hit us with the new M4 MacBook Air priced at $100 less, bringing you down to just $999. That’s a wild pivot, considering the current state of our political climate. But are we losing anything in this price drop?
M4 MacBook Air is eyeing the crown
Apple unceremoniously unveiled the M4 MacBook Air in a blog post. For just $999, you get the M4 chipset with a 10-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664, LED-backlit display with IPS technology.
Now, the low storage sucks, but for a premium product like this to drop in the triple digits is quite the feat. No, $1,000 isn’t cheap, and for some, it isn’t actually affordable, but in the era of tariffs spiking laptop prices, it’s an unexpected twist.
When the M3 MacBook Air launched, it featured an 8-core CPU and 8GB of RAM. What kind of performance uptick can we expect? Comparing the M4 and M3 in the MacBook Pro, there was a ~26.3% increase in overall performance in the Geekbench 6 test. The M4 scored 15,114. Our current best budget laptop, the Acer Swift Go 14 is rocking an older Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, but that scored 12,434 (and it was reviewed at $999).
If you’re wondering if we lost anything in the price drop, we didn’t. In fact, we gained quite a bit outside of the performance. There’s the new flavor — sky blue, which is by far my favorite colorway among the new MacBook Airs. This model also comes with a new 12MP webcam, whereas the previous M3 MacBook Air had a 2MP webcam. And then there’s the external display connectivity, which supports up to two 6K external displays.
Then there’s Apple Intelligence, which will be shipped with the M4 MacBook Air on day one (no more waiting till the end of the year). One of the key features of Apple Intelligence is ChatGPT, not to mention all of the generative art programs where an artist cries every time you click generate.
If you’re on a budget and looking for a quality device that sports a decent kick in performance for light video and photo editing, then the M4 MacBook Air is gunning for that spot in your shopping cart.
But what’s the same? Apart from the new colorway, nothing has changed with the overall design, which is identical down to the decimal. Apple claims that the M4 MacBook Air can get up to 15 hours of battery life on the web, which tracks with the previous M3.
Not every budget user needs to go with the M4 MacBook Air, and we cannot comment on its quality right now, but we have a pretty good feeling that it’s going to be great. You can pre-order starting today, with the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air starting at $999 and the 15-inch model starting at $1,199.
Don’t jump just yet. We should get the M4 MacBook Air through our lab sooner than later, then we’ll hit you with all of the benchmarks and our full review. Question is, will the M4 MacBook Air land at the top of our best laptops page again? You’ll just have to wait and see.
