Video Review: Two Months With the M4 MacBook Air

[MacRumors]

It's been nearly two months since the M4 MacBook Air launched, so we thought we'd take another look at the machine now that it's been out long enough to do some serious testing with it.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Introduced in March, the MacBook Air is equipped with Apple's latest and greatest M4 chip, so it's more than capable of handling day-to-day tasks from web browsing and watching videos to getting work done. It's even powerful enough for photo editing and some light video editing work.

All Macs have a minimum of 16GB RAM now, so the base M4 MacBook Air that starts at $999 is a really good deal for what you get. You can upgrade the RAM and the SSD, which may be worthwhile depending on what you want to do on your Mac.

In terms of design, Apple hasn't changed the look of the M4 MacBook Air compared to the M3 model, but it does come in a subtle blue shade that's new this year. The MacBook Air continues to be Apple's most portable Mac, with the 13-inch model weighing just 2.7 pounds. The 15-inch model is heavier at 3.3 pounds, but both models are lighter than the equivalent MacBook Pro models.

There's an upgraded 12-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls this year, which is a nice upgrade over the prior 1080p camera. The MacBook Air is limited to two USB-C ports and it doesn't have the port selection of the MacBook Pro, nor the ability to support as many displays, but it's perfect for on-the-go use and it is the Mac that we recommend for most people.

With the MacBook Pro, you're going to get a better mini-LED display, ProMotion support, and the option for nano-texture, but those all come with a much higher price tag.

Make sure to watch our review video for more on our thoughts on the M4 MacBook Air after spending almost two months with it.

Article Link: Video Review: Two Months With the M4 MacBook Air

 

[poematik13]

at this point the laptops are perfect, its just the OS bugs that hold everything back

compared to 10 years ago when it was the opposite

 

[bluecoast]

The mba hardware is Apple at its best. I mean it’s just superb.

And at that starting price. Wow.

But let’s hope macOS gets not just a big sur surface makeover but a profound rethink of what the Mac is in a world where there is the iPhone and iPad.

 

[Nozgog]

I recently had M2 and M4 MacBook Air side by side - same specs 16GB RAM and 512 SSD. Both Midnight.

What surprised me most is that the M4 display looks much sharper.
M4 midnight color looks different and less prone to finger prints.
And M4 feels quite faster than M2.

 

[ronross]

Last month I took delivery on 2 MB Air's. 13" and 15". They replaced a 2016 MBP and 2021 MBP. I could not be happier with the decision.

 

[nathansz]

But let’s hope macOS gets not just a big sur surface makeover but a profound rethink of what the Mac is in a world where there is the iPhone and iPad.

this is my greatest fear

much prefer macOS be left alone

 

[CalMin]

Nice. I got a used M3 just before M4 was announced.

I got a deal on the M3 and it does everything I want it to except drive 2x monitors while open. This feature alone (not mentioned in the video here) makes me want to upgrade.

I'll stick the M3 for now I think, but I gotta say that these MBAs are excellent VFM.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I ordered a new 15 MBA M4 this weekend. Hopefully it ships with OSX 10.6. The good old days.

In any case, this M series is really impressive.

 

[poematik13]

But let’s hope macOS gets not just a big sur surface makeover but a profound rethink of what the Mac is in a world where there is the iPhone and iPad.

NO. leave macOS alone! finder.app, disk utility, having multiple apps open at once, and terminal and all that are the last good things in modern computing

we dont want an iphone or ipad and the reloading full screen app BS. go away!

 

[MRSugarD]

Love the design of the Air.

 

[Salty Pirate]

The 15 air M4 is the ideal form factor for me.

Went from the 16 M1 (heavy and awkward) to the 14 pro M4 (did not like at all, screen was way to cramped, fan noise) and now the 15 MBA.

Absolutely love this machine. I got the extra RAM 24GB and this machine just smokes through stuff.

My only regrats, midnight blue. It looks supper cool but it shows dust. Should have picked the Sky Blue, but that is just a color and not important.

 

[CausticSoda]

I think he rather undersells it, and I'm not sure we learn much from a "2 months in" review compared with the reviews when it was released anyway. Also, it doesn't tell us much about its capabilities given he says he uses it mainly for admin work. The message seems to be, yeah, it's good for basic stuff, it works fine. No S**t Sherlock! Design is a personal preference, but I still prefer the wedge design. I'm still loving my M1 16Gb MBA, but the Devil on my shoulder keeps telling me to upgrade just for the hell of it even though it makes no sense at all.

 

[mtrm]

Purchased one of these bad boys a couple weeks ago. A 13inch M4 16/512 and couldn’t be happier. Superb laptop, and as it’s my first Apple Silicon Mac, I’m still amazed at the battery life. That thing just keeps on going. Also, the Sky Blue colour looks fantastic.

 

[EugW]

I'm still waiting for the Apple Education Back-To-School sale to start, to pick up a new M4 MacBook Air. That should begin in about a month and a half.

Since we are on the large 2017 13" MacBook Air, I'm almost tempted to get the new 15". It would be used around the house 99% of the time, but I still prefer the 13" size overall for portability, even in the house.

2017 13" MBA: 12.80" x 8.94", 3.0 lbs
2025 13" MBA: 11.97" x 8.46", 2.7 lbs
2025 15" MBA: 13.40" x 9.35", 3.3 lbs

The overall footprint and weight of the 2017 13" are right in-between the M4 13" and 15". Go a little bigger and get the 15" or go a little smaller and get the 13"?

Nice. I got a used M3 just before M4 was announced.

I got a deal on the M3 and it does everything I want it to except drive 2x monitors while open. This feature alone (not mentioned in the video here) makes me want to upgrade.

I'll stick the M3 for now I think, but I gotta say that these MBAs are excellent VFM.

I bought a Best Buy Geek Squad Certified Open Box 24 GB / 512 GB M3 13" for about US$110 less than the price the Apple Education Store sells the 16 GB / 512 GB M4 13". It was in perfect condition (although the box wasn't). However, I ended up returning it, not because of the monitor support, but mainly because it didn't have a full AppleCare warranty and I couldn't extend the warranty with my credit card either. I'll get the M4 16 GB instead since we don't need 24 GB anyway.

 

[Bones402]

Love my 13" M4.

 

[eifelbube]

It's been nearly two months since the M4 MacBook Air launched, so we thought we'd take another look at the machine now that it's been out long enough to do some serious testing with it.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Introduced in March, the MacBook Air is equipped with Apple's latest and greatest M4 chip, so it's more than capable of handling day-to-day tasks from web browsing and watching videos to getting work done. It's even powerful enough for photo editing and some light video editing work.

All Macs have a minimum of 16GB RAM now, so the base M4 MacBook Air that starts at $999 is a really good deal for what you get. You can upgrade the RAM and the SSD, which may be worthwhile depending on what you want to do on your Mac.

In terms of design, Apple hasn't changed the look of the M4 MacBook Air compared to the M3 model, but it does come in a subtle blue shade that's new this year. The MacBook Air continues to be Apple's most portable Mac, with the 13-inch model weighing just 2.7 pounds. The 15-inch model is heavier at 3.3 pounds, but both models are lighter than the equivalent MacBook Pro models.

There's an upgraded 12-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls this year, which is a nice upgrade over the prior 1080p camera. The MacBook Air is limited to two USB-C ports and it doesn't have the port selection of the MacBook Pro, nor the ability to support as many displays, but it's perfect for on-the-go use and it is the Mac that we recommend for most people.

With the MacBook Pro, you're going to get a better mini-LED display, ProMotion support, and the option for nano-texture, but those all come with a much higher price tag.

Make sure to watch our review video for more on our thoughts on the M4 MacBook Air after spending almost two months with it.

Article Link: Video Review: Two Months With the M4 MacBook Air

“You can upgrade the RAM and the SSD, … “
Upgrade, really?

 

[ikramerica]

at this point the laptops are perfect, its just the OS bugs that hold everything back

compared to 10 years ago when it was the opposite

Other than wishing there was 1 USBA port for thumb drives and mice on the go, even my M1Pro MBP is pretty perfect.

But the latest OS? Not so much.
Mail is a mess. Force restart it a few times a day.
And I woke up one day to find my machine had rebooted itself due to a crash. I had never had a crash in my entire time of owning the M1.
And my MS apps don’t work because Mac changed something with the font manager and MS hasn’t figured it out.
And despite everything connected being SSD or thumbdrives, when I haven’t used finder windows for a day, I get that white window of “thought” for 10 seconds like the good ol days of spinning disks.

 

[coachgq]

Last month I took delivery on 2 MB Air's. 13" and 15". They replaced a 2016 MBP and 2021 MBP. I could not be happier with the decision.

What do you use 2 similar machines for? I’m just being nosy.

 

[coachgq]

I got mine yesterday. It's fine. As someone who mostly used an iPad ONLY for years, I find MacOS strangely clunky. The best way of putting it is "inefficient." I'm gonna keep it, but keyboards and trackpads just seem so archaic to me. And yes, I was using the iPads rear camera. A lot. But I got taken in by the M4 marketing and frankly when I compare export speeds to say an iMac M1 that I had access to, the speeds weren't all that different. I'm not disappointed by the Air. It’s nice to be sure. But it’s still a laptop. A 30 year old design, in a sports car body.
The iPad Pro would have been a better choice for me, but they're prohibitively expensive (my primary choice for choosing the MacBook Air) and I find Touch ID on the iPad (and MacBook) Air to be hugely inefficient. Face ID Apple ! I'm probably gonna get a ton of responses to this take. "iPadOS isn't a real OS" etc etc. My take is a "real OS"is the one YOU and only you can get everything you need to get done. I'll admit, I'm returning to MacOS from a very lengthy absence so my viewpoint may change as I reacquaint myself with the OS. The hardware of course is very nice. Sky blue ftw!

I use an 11 inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard as my daily driver. Does everything I need it to for my job and the cellular capability is nice too!

 

[pneves1975]

In 2021 I bought a used M1 13 Air with 16G/1T. At the time the MacBook Pro was not benefiting from AS, so I took the plunge. It was a great experience in terms of processing and lack of heat, coming from a 15" MacBook Pro 2015 with matte screen that I really liked (but hated the heat and fans).
But, 13 was just too small for me, so in 2022 I bought a 16" M1 Pro. Not the computer I wanted, but the computer that Apple was selling in that form factor. If it had a 15 Air with the same M1 chip I would have bough it.
The computer was perfect in everything except size and weight. I never heard the fans!
When Apple launched the M2 15 Air I tough that was the computer I wanted, but could not justify the downgrade. Then came M3. When Apple launched the M4 with real external dual monitor support and the reviews started I went for 3 days bombarding chatGPT with the ideia. I found out that the efficiency core of the M4 is on par with the performance core of the M1.
So I bought myself an almost full featured 15 Air, with 1TB and 32GB ram.

I received the computer in 22 April. This has changed dramatically the way I use it, as strange as it seems, Now I want to use the computer, I want to work on it, something that I never experienced in the 16. It is light, thin and I can run it from a Anker 25k powerbank without any problem (it consumes around 4/5w in low power mode) for hours in a row. It's just a very pleasant experience and zero electricity bill (I charge the powerbank at work 😉). This setup allows me to work more than 20h on the powerbank and another 12h on 85% internal battery charge (I use aldente for battery mangement). It easily lasts a whole weekend and then some.

Moreover, I can now use it in my lap for hours on end without feeling fatigued or afraid to drop it. I is really just 600g of difference, but surely very noticeable in the lap and in the backpack.

Mind you I don't use AAA games, my ocasional gaming is done on a 2018 iPad, so I cannot comment on gaming performance. My workload consists of document creation in keynote/word/excel, VSC, Jupyter notebook, Xcode, mail, browsing the web, messaging, zoom and chatGPT.

So this sums my experience.

 

[russell_314]

“You can upgrade the RAM and the SSD, … “
Upgrade, really?

Really! You can upgrade both at the time of purchase.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Dual-35W in 2025 should mean all Apple execs get the firing squad. So stingy to make it just 35W in total between both ports. Dual 60W GaN chargers are tiny and affordable. Should be at least 30W per port.

 

[Aeronauts]

I was planning to upgrade until they ditched the space grey colour. I don’t like any of the other colours so I didn’t bother.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Dual-35W in 2025 should mean all Apple execs get the firing squad. So stingy to make it just 35W in total between both ports. Dual 60W GaN chargers are tiny and affordable. Should be at least 30W per port.

Just curious, why does it matter so much? Modern Mac laptops do so well on battery I never even think about charging specs.

 

[russell_314]

Just curious, why does it matter so much? Modern Mac laptops do so well on battery I never even think about charging specs.

This is one thing I’ve noticed about my M2 Air. I was so excited that it had MagSafe till I started using it. Once I realized I didn’t need to keep it plugged in, MagSafe didn’t seem as cool. Back in the day I had my MacBook Pro and kept it plugged in when I was near an outlet and MagSafe saved me a couple times. The only time I plug in my M2 Air is at night when I’m done with it and not every night. I was disappointed because the battery life took away from one of my favorite features.