M4 MacBook Air Evaluation (15-Inch, 2025): Greatest MacBook for Most Folks Will get Quicker, Cheaper

9.0/ 10
SCORE

Apple MacBook Air M4 (15-inch, 2025)

Execs

• Optimum steadiness of display measurement and system weight
• M4 processor offers good steadiness of efficiency and battery life
• Decrease $1,199 beginning value

Cons

• 256GB SSD is simply too small for the value
• $200 upcharge for extra RAM or storage is steep
• Clean ProMotion show nonetheless unique to MacBook Professional

After utilizing the 15-inch MacBook Air for the previous week, I am not wanting ahead to returning to my standard work laptop computer, a 14-inch MacBook Professional. I’ve grown to understand the bigger display and thinner, lighter enclosure. If CNET supplied me the selection, I would gladly field up my 14-inch Professional and swap it for a 15-inch Air. My job would not require the ability of M4 Professional-level processing, in spite of everything. And I like to maneuver round my home once I work in addition to make frequent visits to my native espresso store, so I do not use an exterior show. The 15.3-inch show offers me extra room to juggle my many open home windows and Chrome tabs in the course of the workday, and I like watching YouTube TV, MLB.TV and Netflix higher on the larger display.

The 15-inch Air acts because the bridge between the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 and MacBook Professional line. It offers you the choice of getting a much bigger show while not having to pay the MacBook Professional premium. And with Apple dropping the value by $100 for the M4 MacBook Air fashions, the Professional premium is even better. The 13-inch M4 Air begins at $999, and the 15-inch M4 Air begins at $1,199. Even with the semi-outrageous cost of $200 to double the storage to a 512GB SSD, the 15-inch M4 Air nonetheless prices $200 lower than the most cost effective M4 MacBook Professional.

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The M4 replace provides incremental enhancements to an already unbelievable laptop computer that sits within the Goldilocks Zone of Apple’s MacBook lineup. With its roomy show, trim design and new decrease beginning value, the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air needs to be seen because the default Air, with its cheaper and smaller 13-inch sibling an excellent different for college students and others with tighter budgets and busy, on-the-go existence.

The 15-inch M4 MacBook Air begins at $1,199, which is $100 lower than what the entry-level M3 Air 15 price. It has a 10-core M4 processor with 4 efficiency cores and 6 effectivity cores, and a 10-core GPU — that is a step up from the $999 13-inch Air however the identical chips within the $1,599 MacBook Professional. Every of those fashions comes with 16GB of RAM, however the Airs have solely a 256GB solid-state drive.

Apple despatched us the $1,399 15-inch Air with a 512GB SSD. The $1,599 mannequin will increase the RAM to 24 GB. You possibly can customise the MacBook Air by including as much as 32GB of RAM (the earlier M3 Air maxed out at 24GB). You can too improve the storage capability as much as 2TB, the identical as earlier than.

The M4 MacBook Air 15 begins at £1,199 within the UK and AU$2,099 in Australia. 

What else is new with the M4 Air replace?

The newest MacBook Air fashions not solely have the newer M4 silicon however in addition they have extra CPU cores. The eight-core M3 chip within the earlier technology is now a 10-core M4 chip within the newest fashions. The distinction in efficiency is slight as a result of the M4 chip would not add extra efficiency cores however two further effectivity cores. Nonetheless, the extra cores, the higher.

With this replace, the webcam will get a bump. The MacBook Air now has the identical 12-megapixel Middle Stage digicam with Desk View assist that was launched final 12 months with the M4 MacBook Professional and M4 iMac. The digicam nonetheless captures 1080p video, as you bought with earlier MacBooks, however the 12-megapixel digicam lets Middle Stage pan and zoom to maintain you targeted within the body whereas holding the decision at 1080p.

Desk View offers you a dual-screen FaceTime name. Your face seems in a single window, and no matter is immediately in entrance of the MacBook Air seems within the different. It is meant to be a presentation device, however I discovered it very awkward to make use of as a result of I needed to have the show positioned completely vertically for the top-down Desk View window to seem appropriately. Even then, the picture seemed stretched and distorted. Plus, the second Desk View window had a a lot decrease decision than the common FaceTime window.

Subsequent to a MagSafe charging connector on the left are a spartan pair of USB-C ports, however they’re now Thunderbolt 4, which helps you to prolong to as much as two 6K exterior screens and nonetheless use the MacBook Air’s show — and keyboard and trackpad. The earlier M3 Air permits you to join to 2 shows however solely with the lid closed. You additionally get a headphone jack on the opposite facet — identical as earlier than.

The final little bit of newness with the M4 replace is a brand new shade choice. Now you can get the MacBook Air in sky blue, which takes the place of area grey. The general impact is muted and underwhelming. It is a refined silvery blue that appears extra silver beneath most lighting and really removed from the daring blue (or crimson or orange or yellow or inexperienced or purple) of the M4 iMac. I nonetheless suppose the midnight black or conventional silver are the 2 greatest colours for a MacBook Air.

M4 MacBook Air efficiency

The M4 MacBook Air confirmed the anticipated generation-over-generation positive aspects over the earlier M3 fashions. It affords sturdy software and graphics efficiency for mainstream use and outperformed not solely the M3 Air but in addition two latest Copilot Plus PCs, the HP OmniBook X 14 and Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7, on our Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024 benchmarks. 

Copilot Plus PCs have the benefit, nonetheless, in battery life. Each the OminBook X 14 and Floor Laptop computer 7 function Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors and ran for hours longer on our battery drain check than each 13- and 15-inch M4 MacBook Air fashions. The 15-inch Air has the biggest, highest decision amongst these 4 laptops, and powering all of these pixels consumes battery assets at a sooner clip. Its battery lifetime of 16 hours and 41 minutes in my testing continues to be loads lengthy sufficient to get you thru a day or two while not having to recharge.

Apple says the MacBook Air’s Liquid Retina show is rated for 500 nits of brightness with 100% protection of the P3 shade gamut. My assessments with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter confirmed these, and actually, it measured a bit brighter than Apple says, reaching a peak brightness of 525 nits in testing.

The MacBook Professional function I miss most

Whereas we’re on the subject of the MacBook Air’s show, there’s one factor I would miss if I have been to commerce my 14-inch MacBook Professional for the 15-inch Air: the Liquid Retina XDR show. The XDR show is brighter with the next decision and has an adaptive refresh charge of as much as 120Hz, which Apple calls ProMotion. And it is this sooner refresh charge that I miss most on the Air, whose show refreshes a gentle 60 instances per second. 

I do not discover the distinction between shows when watching movies, however I see it clearly when scrolling by net pages. Textual content stays extra legible on the Professional as I scroll down a web page. On the Air, letters and phrases blur, making it tougher to maintain studying whereas I scroll. It is too unhealthy that Apple would not supply ProMotion on the bigger Air as one other sweetener for the $200 upcharge over the 13-inch Air. I suppose it’s known as ProMotion for a motive — a function unique to the MacBook Professional. Heck, I would accept one thing known as AirMotion that supplied an adaptive refresh charge as much as, say, 90Hz for the MacBook Air for a bit smoother scrolling and motion.

The opposite merchandise lacking from the MacBook Air is the optionally available nano-texture show supplied on the Professional. It prices an additional $150 and provides the show a matte floor that considerably reduces glare and reflections. My MacBook Professional would not have a nano-texture show, so I am unable to examine it in opposition to the MacBook Air’s commonplace shiny display. However I do evaluate a number of laptops, and I can say with authority that the MacBook Air has one of many higher glossy-finish shows when it comes to not being too reflective.

Final phrase on the show: The digicam notch stays. It is a disgrace that with the Air 15’s ever-so-slightly wider show bezels, Apple could not discover a strategy to tuck the digicam beneath the highest bezel and do away with the notch. 

The 13-inch vs. 15-inch MacBook Air query

Most laptop computer consumers kicking the tires on the 15-inch MacBook Air are additionally eyeing, I would think about, the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is a wonderful laptop computer in both measurement, so how do you resolve which strategy to go? The 13-inch mannequin prices $200 much less and is roughly half a pound lighter, making it extra inexpensive and moveable — and the extra widespread of the 2. However I would argue the 15-inch Air is the higher decide for most individuals since most individuals do not use their MacBook related to an exterior show.

The 15.3-inch show on the bigger Air offers sufficient workspace to obviate the necessity for a multidisplay setup — even when the M4 Airs do supply higher assist for exterior shows. The 15-inch Air has a sufficiently big display to make use of by itself, making it the higher alternative for anybody who wants to maneuver round with their laptop computer, comparable to hybrid employees who work remotely some days and head within the workplace on others whereas additionally taking their laptop computer to the espresso store on the weekends.

At 3.3 kilos and fewer than half an inch thick, the 15-inch Air continues to be a simple journey companion. College students who stay out of their backpacks, nonetheless, are nonetheless higher off with the smaller, cheaper Air. The 13-inch, 2.7-pound Air is less complicated to toss right into a backpack and tote round campus.

For the remainder of us? The 15-inch Air’s bigger show greater than makes up for its heavier carrying weight in contrast with the 13-inch Air. So, what concerning the $200 further you could shell out for the bigger Air? Apple sweetens the deal considerably by together with an M4 chip with two further GPU cores with the 15-inch Air together with two further audio system for barely fuller sound, however the true motive to spend $200 extra for the 15-inch Air is its roomer show. It is so a lot better for multitasking than both the 13-inch Air or 14-inch Professional. 

The efficiency positive aspects aren’t sufficient on their very own to necessitate an improve to the M4 MacBook Air in the event you’re utilizing an M2 or M3 mannequin, however the cheaper price and greater display are two causes to commerce in a 13-inch M2 or M3 Air and step up in measurement to the 15-inch M4 Air. And the M4 Air in both measurement is a no brainer in the event you’re limping together with an older M1 or Intel-based unit.