Overall, the M4 MacBook Air is a good, if minor, update to an already fantastic laptop, and it has a lower price to boot. If you have an M3 Air or even an M2 Air, there are some reasons to upgrade, like the better camera and external display support. But the performance difference is modest.
If you're coming from a M1 Air, you'll get all the benefits of the latest design — including a thinner and lighter design, brighter display and MagSafe charging — plus a much faster chip and higher-res camera. However, I think you can skip the new Air if you have a MacBook Air M3 or MacBook Air M2 model. That's because the design is identical, and I don't think the performance gains warrant the investment. Plus, you get all the same Apple Intelligence features. Despite offering iterative upgrades, the MacBook Air M4 is the best MacBook for most people and for me the top laptop for most people, period. The $100 price cut seals the deal.
But this year, the base configuration gets you 16GB of RAM, unlike last year, when it was still a paltry 8GB. This change was already set in motion in the fall, midcycle for the M3 model, when Apple made 16GB standard across all base Macs for the sake of Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence remains mostly inconsequential, especially on Macs, but RAM is not. The new M4 MacBook Airs don't do anything groundbreaking or exciting, but sometimes being boring and consistent is a good thing. There's nothing wrong with an iterative update.
If you can't tell by now, I think the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air are the ideal ultraportables for most people. So sure, if you're in the market for a sleek laptop, they're worth considering. And if you're a Windows user who's hesitant to make the jump, I'd recommend trying an Air for a while. It's not that hard to learn the basics of macOS, and if you're not satisfied you can always return it (just be sure to double-check retailer return policies).
I really don't meant to give Apple a hard time, but I had to double-check my shipping manifest because I was convinced the company had sent me a silver laptop to review. But when I placed the MacBook Air next to other modern Apple silver products, it's clearly a different shade, and at certain viewing angles the blue undertone becomes more pronounced. If you want to think of Starlight as silver with a yellow undertone, and silver as neutral, Sky Blue is silver with a blue undertone. They are basically three slight variations on one another.
If you aren't included in "the vast majority of people," Apple's upgrade prices are still Where They Get You. Want 24 or 32GB of RAM? 512GB or more of storage? Apple will charge you $200 for every 8GB of RAM you buy, between $200 and $800 for storage upgrades (you do at least get the M4's two missing GPU cores, a $100 standalone upgrade, for "free" when you buy more RAM). Like with the Mac mini, what feels like an uncharacteristically good value for the base model fades a bit for power users who need upgrades.
It's hard not to love the new MacBook Air. It packs everything we loved about the previous version while also addressing almost all the critiques. The lack of ports continues to be my biggest gripe, but I digress. Of course, it's important to note that these are minor improvements. So, I'd only recommend upgrading if your older Intel model is on its last legs or you have an M1 and want access to the M4 features to use for video and photo editing, gaming, and other graphics-intensive tasks (if you need more power, you'll want to look into the MacBook Pro). Need a bigger display? Apple launched a 15-inch version with M4 as well.
Gast
