There’s a new MacBook Air on the block, and no surprise to anyone, this has Apple’s latest M4 chip inside.
Otherwise, Apple’s thinnest and lightest model retains the same physical characteristics as its M3 chip-based predecessor with one major exception: a flash new colour.
Joining Midnight, Starlight, and Silver, there’s now a lovely Sky Blue finish, which is a metallic light blue with a dynamic gradient that reflects light off the surface.
Otherwise, you’ll need to choose between the 13.6- and 15.3-inch screen sizes, both of which can manage up to a billion colours and 500 nits of brightness, and appear to be the same type used in last year’s MacBook Air.
What’s great to see is support for two 6K external monitors while using the internal Liquid Retina display at the same time. This is perfect for multi-tasking and those who like to spread out their work to an external monitor (or two) when at their desk.
New also this year is an updated 12MP Centre Stage camera. With improved video quality, Centre Stage keeps the user centred in the frame, even if they move around. Desk View is also supported, which displays the user and a top-down view of their desk in the same frame.
M4 Power
Apple’s M4 chip first debuted in the iPad Pro back in May 2024. This appears to have the same architecture, with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. Memory-wise, you can choose up to 32MB of Unified Memory.
Apple says this makes it twice as fast as the very excellent MacBook Air with M1, and an absurd 23 times faster than the older MacBook Airs with Intel chips.
The M4 chip gives the new MacBook Air very impressive capabilities to handle traditionally higher-end tasks than what entry-level laptops can do, including 3D rendering (using Blender), Photoshop work using large files, video editing with 8K footage, coding, and many machine learning tasks.
Speaking of AI, the neural engine in the M4 chip provides extra processing power for Apple Intelligence, and is 3x faster than the MacBook Air with the M1 chip. This also makes fast work of machine learning tasks like enhancing the look of photos and removing background sounds from a video shot in a noisy environment.
On the gaming front, we’re seeing more momentum here with Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077 both coming to the Mac soon. The 32MB of unified memory should come in handy, along with ray-tracing acceleration.
Performance comparisons (from Apple)
We’ll get our hands on the new MacBook Air for our own testing and review; however, here are some performance figures from Apple:
- Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with the M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with the Core i9.
- Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with the M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with the Core i9.
- Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with the M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with the Core i9.
- Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with the M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with the Core i9.
Pricing and availability
You can pre-order the new MacBook Air with the M4 starting today from Apple’s website. Models are expect to be in store on the 12th of March.
| Model | Standard Price (inc. GST) | Education Price (inc. GST) | Available Colors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13-inch MacBook Air (M4) | A$1,699 | A$1,549 | Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver |
| 15-inch MacBook Air (M4) | A$2,099 | A$1,949 |
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