MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Which is right for you?

The MacBook Air M4 has arrived, and it's the most capable and impressive MacBook Air to date.

Factor in the fact that Apple recently chopped $100 off the price of both sizes of MacBook Air M4 and you can start to appreciate why it's getting hard to choose between a modern MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pros are known for their speed and power, so they make great mobile workstations for video editors and other professionals. They have extra fans and faster screens than you can get on a MacBook Air, but they also cost hundreds or thousands of dollars more.

So now that both are available to buy, which is right for you?

I've been testing and reviewing MacBooks for years, so I'm well-prepared to walk you through our photos and testing data to show you the ups and downs of choosing between the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4. Let's dive in!

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Specs

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Price

When it comes to affordability, the MacBook Air has always had the edge over the Pro because it's a cheaper laptop with less RAM and fewer premium components inside, like no six-speaker sound system and no active cooling.

So the Airs have always been cheaper than the Pros, and in 2025 the gap widened after Apple dropped the starting price of the Airs by $100. That caused the old $1,299 starting price of the 15-inch Air to drop to just $1,199, taking some of the sting out of the price tag of this premium ultraportable.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, by comparison, starts at $1,599 and can get much more expensive if you kit it out with an upgraded M4 chip or lots of RAM and storage. But in return you get a heftier, more capable laptop with better speakers, better cooling and a better, faster display.

I've used multiple generations of all sizes and types of MacBooks at this point, and I can tell you that the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 is plenty fast and power-efficient enough to be your all-day companion for working on the go. So if you just need a laptop for writing, surfing the web and getting work done, take advantage of the affordability of the Air.

But if you need serious power for photo/video editing, gaming, coding or more, you might want to splurge for the extra price of a nice MacBook Pro.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Design

Apple's Airs and Pros have gotten more and more alike over the years, to the point where if you have a hard time telling the difference between the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, I wouldn't blame you.

The most important thing to know is that the 15-inch Air is just a hair lighter than the 14-inch Pro, so the usual shorthand that the Air is light and the Pro is heavy don't really apply here.

The Air is a smidge lighter and thinner with a slightly bigger screen, but in practice I doubt you'd notice the difference unless you had them side-by-side in front of you.

These two MacBooks are less than a pound and a few inches apart in terms of size, so don't stress too much about that aspect.

Both laptops also now have very similar designs, with vivid displays surrounded by thin bezels that sport a camera notch along the top center where the webcam resides.

And since both laptops also have a 12MP Center Stage camera, you can count on pretty similar experiences using them for video calls no matter which MacBook you choose.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Display

Comparing the displays on the 15-inch Air M4 vs the 14-inch Pro M4 is interesting because in some ways they're very similar, and in others the Pro has a clear advantage.

The 15-inch MacBook Air M4 sports a 15.3-inch (2880 x 1864 pixels) 60Hz display, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 14.2-inch (3024 x 1964 pixels) 120Hz mini-LED display.

While the MacBook Air has the most screen real estate, the higher-res MacBook Pro display has the higher pixels per inch (254 PPI vs 224 PPI) of the two laptops. It can also refresh twice as fast (120Hz vs 60Hz) as the MacBook Air M4, which can make scrolling feel smoother and keep games and movies playing smoothly at high framerates.

We test every laptop we review in our testing lab, which includes a battery of display tests conducted using a colorimeter and other tools. And as you can see from the results I've charted below, the MacBook Pro M4 is the clear king in terms of brightness while the MacBook Air has a slightly more colorful display.

When it comes to coverage of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts we generally believe 100% coverage is ideal, with higher amounts typically denoting oversaturated displays. And as you can see, the MacBook Air M4 has slightly higher color accuracy scores than the MacBook Pro M4 in our testing, while the Pro has a slightly lower Delta-E score (the lower the better).

So put simply, these two laptops have very similar-looking displays in terms of color and design. However, you get slightly more screen space on the 15-inch MacBook Air M4, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 is the clear leader in terms of brightness and refresh rate.

So if you just need a good display, the Air should be just fine. But if you care about brightness and high refresh rates, it might be worth splurging for the MacBook Pro M4.

Plus, the MacBook Pro M4 also has the option of configuring it with a nano-texture coating on the display for an additional fee. In our review we found this coating does a good job of cutting down on glare, so it might be worth getting if you plan to do a lot of work outdoors or in bright lights with your new MacBook.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Audio

Modern MacBooks have good speakers and headphone jacks, so neither of these laptops is a slouch in the audio department. Both MacBooks also offer Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio support.

That said, one of them is clearly better than the other, and it's the MacBook Pro M4.

The reason? Apple's long-standing decision to outfit every MacBook Pro with a "high-fidelity" six-speaker sound system that includes two force-cancelling woofers.

The 13-inch Airs have never been able to compete since they only come with four speakers, and even though the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 has an upgraded six-speaker sound system with a similar pair of woofers, it's not as high-fidelity as the MacBook Pro M4's speakers.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Ports

If you care about ports, you'll probably want a Pro over an Air just because you can do more with it.

Both the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 still come with headphone jacks, which is nice. The Air has an additional pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports, and that's it—that's all you get. So if you want to use anything other than two Thunderbolt/USB-C accessories, you'll have to buy a dock or a hub.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 offers a bit more versatility, as it comes with 3x Thunderbolt 4 ports that can be upgraded to Thunderbolt 5 for a fee.

You also get an SDXC card reader and an HDMI out, which makes the MacBook Pro a far more capable laptop for multi-taskers, photo/video editors and other professionals.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Performance

This is one of the meatiest sections because we have lots of testing data on how all sorts of different MacBook models compare, but before I dig in I want to quickly summarize what I've learned.

There are lots of intricate differences in the ways these MacBooks handle workloads that depend on how you use them, but in general, the MacBook Air M4 feels nearly as fast as the MacBook Pro M4 in day-to-day use.

However, when it comes to speed, performance and battery life the MacBook Pro M4 beats the MacBook Air M4 in our testing.

For these tests we pitted an entry-level 15-inch MacBook Air M4 (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) against a nearly entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 (M4, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD), and as you can see from the Geekbench 6 benchmarks above, the MacBook Pro reliably proved faster in CPU tests.

And when it came time to run our in-house video editing tests, which time how long it takes the laptop to transcode a 4K video file down to 1080p using Handbrake, the MacBook Pro M4 once again completed the work faster than the MacBook Air M4.

A similar story plays out in the PugetBench Photoshop and Premiere Pro tests, which assign times and scores based on how effectively the laptop uses scripts to apply a series of filters and other adjustments to high-res photos and videos.

As you can see from the results above and below, the MacBook Pro M4 has the edge over the MacBook Air M4 in terms of performance.

This is the same story I've been telling for years, but the notable difference when comparing the M4 generation is that the line between Air and Pro is thinner than ever.

So while it's clear the MacBook Pro M4 is a better workhorse than the MacBook Air M4, especially if you pay extra to upgrade it, the entry-level MacBook Air is actually nearly neck-and-neck with the entry-level MacBook Pro in many tests at this point.

So unless you have the money to upgrade the MacBook Pro M4, I think the performance of the $1,199 MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is a killer deal given its nearly as good as a MacBook Pro that costs $400+ more.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Webcam

The 15-inch MacBook Air M4 has a webcam that's effectively identical to the one in the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, and they're both good, so I don't think camera quality should be a significant factor in your buying decision.

Luckily, both MacBooks have good 12MP webcams mounted in the notch at the top of their displays. Both support all of Apple's advanced MacBook camera features, including Center Stage (which intelligently adjusts your camera view to keep you centered on-screen as you move around) and Desk View.

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Both the MacBook Air and Pro M4 have great webcams that will help you look your best.

Admittedly, the new Desk View feature seen above (which gives you a secondary video feed of what's directly below the webcam, so you can show off what's on your desk) has been hit and miss in our testing.

Sometimes it's great to have, but often the angle is too narrow or otherwise not quite right and you have to angle either your MacBook or your hands into an uncomfortable position to use Desk View effectively.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Battery life

Apple advertises the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 as capable of 15-18 hours of sustained performance on a full charge, while the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 is advertises as peaking at 16-24 hours.

Those are big claims, and while neither lasted quite that long in our lab's battery tests (which time how long the laptop lasts endlessly surfing the web via Wi-Fi with screen set to low brightness) they're still among the best laptops for battery life you can buy right now.

As you can see from our chart of test results, the MacBook Air M4 and MacBook Pro M4 live up to Apple's claims in our testing lab. We clocked the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 lasting just over 15 hours on a full charge, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 managed 18 and a half hours.

So while both of these MacBooks should easily last you through a day at work (or the coffee shop) without having to lug a charger, the MacBook Pro is the clear winner when it comes to battery life.

MacBook Air 15-inch M4 vs MacBook Pro 14-inch M4: Bottom line

If nothing else, I hope this blow-by-blow breakdown helps you see how similar Apple's laptops are now that we're on the fourth generation of Apple's Mac silicon.

And to be clear, that's not a bad thing. The price drop on the M4 MacBook Airs has made these premium ultraportables a little more affordable, which pairs well with the advanced M4 chipset to give you one of the best laptops for most people at a price of around ~$1,200.

But while the 15-inch Air hits a lovely sweet spot by giving you oodles of power and battery life in a big-screen laptop that's easy to carry, it just can't hold a candle to the MacBook Pro M4 when you need premium hardware.

From the screen to the speakers to the silicon inside, Apple's MacBook Pro M4 is still a cut above the MacBook Air M4. The line between the two is thinner than ever at this point, but if you have money to spend the MacBook Pro M4 can be made better than the MacBook Air M4 in every regard.

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