Apple has introduced a brand new technology of the beloved MacBook Air sequence. That is the road of Apple laptops best to advocate to the widest vary of individuals.
They aren’t too costly, they’ve extra energy than most folk want. And as of late they run completely silent as they don’t have cooling followers.
However is the MacBook Air M4, the most recent 2025 mannequin, actually value contemplating? For those who’re new to MacBooks we expect there will likely be little motive to carry off shopping for one in all these PCs.
Apple has dropped the value just a little this 12 months, with MacBook Air M4 laptops (13in) beginning at £999. That is what Apple used to cost for previous-generation legacy fashions. 15-inch ones begin at £1199.
It will get a bit extra difficult should you already personal a considerably latest MacBook, so let’s break it down a bit additional, beginning with the three updrades on this new technology.
The TLDR: MacBook Air M4’s 3 upgrades
The Apple M4 processor brings roughly a 20-25% bump to processor efficiency to the most recent MacBook Air. There’s additionally an enchancment, however a much less dramatic one, in graphics energy.
This isn’t going to imply a lot for common day-to-day efficiency, however the different massive spec change may.
All MacBook Airs now begin with 16GB RAM, not the 8GB that was the baseline at first of 2024. Apple has raised the RAM flooring for its Apple Intelligence AI but it surely additionally means you might be extra sloppy about what number of apps you retain operating, what number of browser tabs you could have open, with out straining the system.
The MacBook Air M4 additionally will get Apple’s Heart Stage 12MP webcam. It’s solely really supposed to indicate a 1080p feed in your chats and video conferences, just like the outdated mannequin, however has a super-wide-angle lens. This implies it will possibly comply with you round a room with out utilizing a motorised digicam. And it will possibly show a view of what’s in entrance of your laptop computer, on a desk, helpful for displaying somebody one thing on a name.
The 2025 MacBook Air additionally has a fractionally bigger battery, but it surely doesn’t have an effect on Apple’s battery life estimates.
Is a MacBook Air M4 well worth the improve for MacBook Air M3 homeowners?
Until you could have a approach to promote your MacBook Air M3 with out shedding an excessive amount of cash, we don’t suppose it’s value upgrading from final 12 months’s mannequin to this 12 months’s one.
The processor energy bump isn’t going to imply an enormous quantity to most individuals’s day-to-day use. And in case you are an influence hound, there’s an actual query as as to whether you have to be shopping for a MacBook Air within the first place.
One counter is for individuals who purchased an 8GB RAM MacBook Air in the previous couple of years, and are regretting it. A leap to a 16GB RAM minimal is an enormous win for us laptop-buyers as this improve used to price £200.
Is a MacBook Air M4 well worth the improve for Air M2 homeowners?
Whereas a transfer from an M2 MacBook Air is a barely extra wise improve than for MacBook Air M3 homeowners, we nonetheless suppose this isn’t a crucial step for all that many within the MacBook Air M2 crowd.
The 2 generations have the identical core design, (roughly) evenly matched battery life, the identical display tech. A leap from an Apple M2 chip to M4 brings upwards of a 40% efficiency leap in some conditions. However M2 nonetheless punches a lot onerous in 2025.
Nonetheless, consumers from that period gained’t have had the choice of a 15-inch MacBook. Need a bigger PC? The MacBook Air household has you lined these days.
Is a MacBook Air 4 well worth the improve for Air M1 homeowners?
Right here’s the place issues get way more fascinating. The Air M4 is a good improve for homeowners of the MacBook Air M1 from 2020.
Again then Apple used its basic shell design, with a chunkier bezel and smaller show. And the leap from M1 to M4 is an as much as 60% efficiency enhance.
A MacBook Air M4 goes to really feel like a brand new laptop computer, way more than for people who already personal the newer fashions. However is it a “should improve”? Nah. The Apple M1 nonetheless holds up at the moment, and helps Apple Intelligence. In case your MacBook is enjoying up, take a look at how a lot drive area you could have left as this could have an effect on your PC’s stability.
Is a MacBook Air 4 improve for Intel Mac homeowners?
Anybody who presently owns an outdated Mac with an Intel processor wants an exit technique, as help is being wound down. Whereas the present newest software program, macOS 15, helps just a few of the final Intel Mac generations, macOS 16 due later this 12 months is predicted to cull all however the previous couple of Intel Macs.
A MacBook Air M4 is just not be the fitting decide if you need a workstation PC. However should you simply want an on a regular basis PC that can final years, it’s an excellent possibility alongside the Mac mini.
