MacBook Air M4: Everything you need to know

The MacBook Air M4 has arrived.

Though not a revolutionary update, the inclusion of the powerful Apple M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, support for up to two external displays, 16GB of starting unified memory, and a brand-new color could make this the best MacBook Air yet.

If the above weren't enough, the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 starts at $999, which is $100 less than the previous model. The 15-inch MacBook Air also costs $100 less than its predecessor. At those prices, the MacBook Air is giving the best Windows laptops stiffer competition than ever.

Here's everything you need to know about the MacBook Air M4, which has a real shot at topping our best laptop list.

MacBook Air M4: Price and availability

The MacBook Air M4 is now available to pre-order, with shipping starting on March 12.

The 13-inch MacBook Air M4 has a starting price of $999 and packs 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. As we said, that's $100 less than the MacBook Air M3 was when it launched.

Then there's the 15-inch MacBook Air, which has a $1,199 starting price. This is also a $100 price cut over its last-gen equivalent.

In case you were wondering, Apple is discontinuing the MacBook Air M3 and MacBook Air M2.

MacBook Air M4: Design and colors

The new MacBook Air retains the same design as its M3 and M2-driven predecessors. That's not bad since it's still an elegant ultraportable laptop. You get the same light 2.7-pound design for the 13-inch model with a profile that's under 0.5 inches thick.

The new Sky Blue color option is quite fetching, as are the usual Silver, Starlight and Midnight colors. We saw the new MacBook Air M4 up close and were impressed by the way the Sky Blue color pops. The shifting colors depending on how the light hits the chassis is also quite nice.

MacBook Air M4: Performance

The company’s thin and light laptop packs the same Apple M4 chip as the iPad Pro M4 and MacBook Pro 14-inch M4. This chip packs a 10-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU and a Neural Engine that can hit 38 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI performance.

On Geekbench, which measures overall CPU performance, the MacBook Pro M4 we reviewed turned in faster scores on the single-core test than the M3 model and crushed competing Windows laptops.

On the multi-core test, the M4 MacBook Pro was on par with the Asus ProArt PX13 with an AMD Ryzen chip, but it beat the Dell XPS 13 with both Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Lunar Lake chips.

Considering the MacBook Air is a fanless laptop and is, therefore, more susceptible to thermal throttling, I expect a drop in performance compared to the MacBook Pro, which has internal fans. That said, don’t expect a massive performance difference.

If anything, the M4 MacBook Air could deliver performance on par with the M4 iPad Pro, which still surpassed competing tablets and even some laptops in the Geekbench benchmark test.

In terms of battery life, the M4 MacBook Pro lasted for an epic 18 hours and 31 minutes in our battery life test. The MacBook Air laptops have smaller batteries than the MacBook Pros, so I don’t think we’ll see equivalent battery life, despite Apple claiming 18+ hours of battery life.

However, I do expect longer endurance than the M3 MacBook Airs, which lasted a little over 15 hours. It’s possible the M4 MacBook Airs could last close to 16 hours in real-world use.

MacBook Air M4: Apple Intelligence

Naturally, the MacBook Air M4 has Apple Intelligence built-in. Thanks to the M4 chip's enhanced Neural Engine, this laptop can pull off some neat AI-driven tasks.

This includes removing photo-bombers from your pics with the Clean Up tool, automatically formatting data into a table, or creating images on the fly with Image Playground and adding them to your presentation.

The MacBook Air M4 is also powerful enough to game on. Apple showed us the Wuthering Waves game in action. The gameplay was fluid during a boss battle, and the graphics looked superb.

MacBook Air M4: Other features

The MacBook Air M4 might not be all that different from the previous model, but it has several quality-of-life features that should make it better for everyday use.

Chief among these is the new 12MP camera with Center Stage support. This should make you look sharper during video calls compared to the old 1080p camera.

The Center Stage feature ensures you're always centered, even when you move. The Desk View feature can show your face and what's on your desk at the same time during calls.

The MacBook Air M4 supports dual external monitors at the same time, even with the laptop's lid open. This effectively gives you three monitors.

MacBook Air M4: Outlook

The MacBook Air M4's faster chip, better camera, dual monitor support and striking new color make this a laptop worth keeping an eye on. This is especially true thanks to the $999 starting price.

We'll have a full review of the MacBook Air M4 soon, so stay tuned!