Apple Unveils M4 MacBook Air: Enhanced AI Performance and Lower Price

M4 MacBook Air: Is This the Most Powerful Ultraportable?

The M4 MacBook Air represents Apple's latest innovation in its lightweight laptop lineup, combining enhanced performance, thoughtful design updates, and a competitive price point. Starting at $999, this model introduces the powerful M4 chip, improved base specifications, and subtle design refinements. It is a highly appealing option for casual users and those seeking a dependable laptop for everyday tasks. The review video below from Marques Brownlee gives us a detailed look at Apple's new M4 MacBook Air. At the heart of the M4 MacBook Air lies the M4 chip, a significant advancement over its predecessor. This processor is designed to excel in AI-driven tasks, allowing faster and more efficient performance for activities such as photo editing, machine learning, and multitasking. Despite its fanless, passively cooled design, the M4 chip demonstrates impressive capabilities, handling demanding workflows like video editing with ease. While it may not cater to professional-grade workloads, it provides ample power for everyday tasks, making sure smooth operation across productivity apps, creative software, and light gaming. The M4 chip also enhances energy efficiency, contributing to the laptop's extended battery life. This balance of performance and efficiency makes the M4 MacBook Air a practical choice for users who prioritize reliability and speed in their daily computing needs. The base model of the M4 MacBook Air comes equipped with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage, offering a solid foundation for general use. This configuration is ideal for tasks such as web browsing, document editing, and light media creation. For users with more demanding requirements, Apple provides upgrade options for storage and memory, though these can be costly. The base specifications strike a balance between performance and affordability, making the M4 MacBook Air an attractive option for new Mac users or those upgrading from older models. Its versatility ensures that it meets the needs of a wide range of users, from students to remote workers. The M4 MacBook Air retains the iconic thin and lightweight aluminum design that has long defined the Air series. Its portability is complemented by its durability, making it an excellent choice for users who are frequently on the move. Key updates to the design include the return of MagSafe charging, which offers added convenience and safety by preventing accidental cable disconnections. Another notable improvement is the inclusion of a 12MP webcam with center-stage tracking, which enhances video call quality by keeping the user in focus even when moving. This feature is particularly useful for remote workers and students who rely on virtual meetings. Connectivity options include two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, covering essential needs for most users. The 53.8Wh battery is slightly larger than previous models, offering extended battery life that supports all-day use for typical tasks. Additionally, the introduction of the "Sky Blue" color option adds a fresh aesthetic to the lineup, replacing the previous Space Gray variant and appealing to users looking for a modern, stylish device. The M4 MacBook Air features a 60Hz LCD display, which remains unchanged from its predecessors. While it delivers crisp visuals and accurate colors, it lacks advanced features such as Mini LED technology or higher refresh rates found in the MacBook Pro lineup. For casual users focused on productivity and media consumption, the display is more than adequate, offering a reliable viewing experience for tasks like streaming, photo editing, and document work. However, users seeking innovative display technology may find this aspect of the M4 MacBook Air less impressive. The decision to maintain the same display technology reflects Apple's focus on balancing cost and performance, making sure the laptop remains accessible to a broad audience. Priced at $999, the M4 MacBook Air is one of the most affordable Mac laptops available, offering a compelling combination of performance, portability, and price. Its enhanced processing power and AI capabilities make it a strong contender for users looking for a long-term investment. For those with lighter computing needs, the discounted M2 MacBook Air remains a viable alternative. However, the M4's improved performance and energy efficiency provide a clear advantage, particularly for users who plan to keep their device for several years. The M4 MacBook Air strikes a balance between affordability and functionality, making it an excellent choice for entry-level users and beyond. The M4 MacBook Air is designed with casual users in mind, excelling in tasks such as web browsing, productivity apps, and light creative work. Its lightweight design and reliable performance make it particularly appealing to students, remote workers, and professionals who require a dependable laptop for everyday tasks. While capable of handling more intensive workflows, such as video editing or multitasking, the M4 MacBook Air is not intended for professional-grade use. Instead, it serves as a versatile and accessible option for users who value portability, performance, and affordability in a single package. Enhance your knowledge on M4 MacBook Air by exploring a selection of articles and guides on the subject.

Apple launches new MacBook Air models with latest M4 chip, cuts price

March 5 (Reuters) - Apple on Wednesday unveiled new MacBook Air models with latest M4 chip and artificial-intelligence features at a price $100 lower than the previous generation, as the company looks to spur sales and persuade customers to upgrade their devices. The base version of the new series of laptops with the 13-inch screen will be priced at $999, while the 15-inch MacBook Air will start at $1,199. Pre-orders will begin on Wednesday and the devices will be available in-store from March 12. The introduction of AI-enabled personal computers is expected to drive a recovery in the PC market this year after a post-pandemic slump. Apple Intelligence is a set of features with access to ChatGPT that allows users to write emails, messages and edit photos among other capabilities. The suite of AI features debuted on Apple's iPhone devices late last year, and the company has been rolling out the tools in various languages and regions to capture more users. Apple's Mac sales were $8.99 billion in the holiday quarter, above analysts' estimate of $7.96 billion, according to data complied by LSEG. Separately in the day, the company unveiled its M3 Ultra processor, which promises better performance than prior generations of Apple's silicon. The new processor will be provided as an option on Apple's new Mac Studio product, unveiled on Wednesday, enabling it to run large language models with more than 600 billion parameters within the computer. The new series of Mac Studio devices, aimed at AI developers, video and photo editors, will start at $1,999. The Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra chip will come with at least 96 gigabytes of memory, while the computer with the M4 Max chip will start at 36 gigabytes of memory. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

Apple's New M4-Powered MacBook Air Is More Powerful and Affordable

As Tim Cook teased online earlier this week, it is the week of Air at Apple. Following an upgraded iPad Air yesterday, Apple announced a new more powerful MacBook Air today, which now sports Apple's latest M4 chip, a new sky blue colorway, and a new lower starting price. The move to M4 brings the MacBook Air, "the world's most popular laptop," up to speed with Apple's other laptop series, the MacBook Pro, which moved to M4 last fall. The M4 chip features a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, promising up to twice the performance of the first M-series MacBook Air with M1. Compared to the final MacBook Air with an Intel chip, the new M4 MacBook Air delivers up to 23 times better performance. Unsurprisingly, Apple Intelligence is a big part of Apple's M4 push, and the MacBook Air is no exception. Its dedicated Neural Engine is three times more powerful than the one featured in the M1 chip. Apple says this makes its new thin notebook much faster with AI tasks like automatically enhancing photos and removing background noise from video. Regarding photo and video editing, Apple shares some key specs to consider. Photo editing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 3.6 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air and up to twice as fast as the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1. Video editing in iMovie is up to eight times faster than the Intel-based MacBook Air and twice as fast as the M1-powered notebook. While performance is new and improved, much of the laptop's design remains familiar. It is still a strikingly thin and lightweight machine whether users opt for the 13-inch or 15-inch version. The 13-inch model is 0.44 inches thick (1.13 centimeters) and weighs just 2.7 pounds (1.24 kilograms). The 15-inch MacBook Air is ever-so-slightly thicker at 0.45 inches (1.15 centimeters) and weighs 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms). In both cases, the machines feature a Liquid Retina Display (13.6 versus 15.3 inches diagonally) with up to 500 nits of peak brightness and wide color (P3) support. However, there are a few noteworthy differences in the MacBook Air's design and physical features. The laptops feature a new 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with improved video quality. This camera also supports Desk View, which can simultaneously display the user and a top-down view of their desk. Thanks to the move to M4, the new MacBook Air can more powerfully handle multi-display workflows. It now supports up to two 6K external displays in addition to its built-in Liquid Retina display. It also now comes in a brand-new sky blue colorway. Apple calls it a "beautiful, metallic light blue that creates a dynamic gradient when light reflects off of its surface." The new sky blue color choice lives alongside existing midnight, starlight, and silver options. All the colors, including the new blue one, ship with a color-matched MagSafe charge cable. "MacBook Air is by far the world's most popular laptop, and today we're giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, and a beautiful new sky blue color," says Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of $999, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time." As Joswiak says, the MacBook Air now starts at a new lower price of $999 for the 13-inch MacBook Air, while the 15-inch version starts at $1,199. The base 13-inch version starts with an eight-core GPU, while the base 15-inch model starts with 10 cores. Although users can configure different amounts of memory, storage, and select a more powerful power adapter, each MacBook Air configuration ships with the standard M4 chip -- no Pro upgrades here.

Apple finally unveils the MacBook Air with the M4 chip - but the best news is the new price

Apple's MacBook Air, arguably the most popular Mac and a laptop that regularly sits near the top of our best laptops list, is finally getting the M4 chip, a piece of Apple silicon that first appeared in the iPad Pro last year and later the MacBook Pro. It's also, rather surprisingly, seeing a price drop. While fundamentally the same laptop as last year's MacBook Air M3 (and the M2 from the year before), there are a handful of upgrades and even one aesthetic change. In addition to the M4 chip, Apple is upgrading the 12MP FaceTime camera with Center Stage functionality, and the laptop now has two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Those ports offer roughly the same throughput as last year's Thunderbolt 3 port (up to 40 GBps) but with one noticeable difference. The MacBook Air M4 can now drive two external screens through those ports while still powering the laptop's main Liquid Retina Display. That's right, the laptop stays open. There's also a new color to consider: Sky Blue. It replaces Space Gray and joins Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. These updates run across the 13-inch and 15-inch models, which now, somewhat remarkably, are $100 cheaper than last year. The 13-inch MacBook Air M4 starts at $999 with 16GB of memory, and the 15-inch model starts at $1,199. The M4 chip brings more power in the form of a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. You can also specify up to 32GB of unified memory. In practice, this makes the MacBook Air M4 a better system for creativity and business. While I didn't get to try the laptops for myself, Apple did show me some impressive live demos. We watched as photo editor Pixelmator Pro, which Apple bought last year, tapped into the 12MP Center Stage camera, took a headshot, and then used backgrounds and other presets to make a passport photo quickly. The M4 does support Apple Intelligence, and the MacBook Air puts it to good use. We saw Apple Intelligence quickly pull numbers from a disorganized document and instantly create a helpful table. Writing Tools were used to generate an executive summary from a long document. We saw some integrations of Apple Intelligence in third-party apps. In one case, we selected an Image Playground button to quickly generate a colorful image of a backpack in a forest. Apple's generative image work still leans more toward cartoon than realism. Apple then switched to Blender, an open-source 3D app that has been optimized to run natively on Apple Silicon. With it, we could render a complex arctic ice scape image in just 18 seconds. The M4's powerful 16-core neural engine isn't just for Apple's AI tools. In one case, we switched to Companion from WebAI, a large language model with 22 billion parameters, and, using the App Intents Framework that connects third-party apps to Apple Intelligence capabilities, started entering prompts about a document we had open. Companion answered the prompts and even opened the native Mail app to send a report. Apple's been working hard to convince the world that the Mac is AAA game ready, so I was not surprised to see Wuthering Waves running on the MacBook Air M4. The gameplay was smooth, with zero tearing, stuttering, or visible frame loss. Perhaps most surprising was that everything Apple showed me was running at once. It was a nice demonstration of the M4's raw power. Apple is claiming 18 hours of battery life and showed us how the demo MacBook Air wasn't even plugged in, a further demonstration of how performance wouldn't change if you're not tethered to a wall outlet. Other than price and performance, the MacBook Air M4 13 and 15-inch are identical to the M3 units. In my very brief time with them, they looked and felt the same. The 13-inch is still 2.7 lbs. and the 15-inch model is 3.3 lbs. They still feel thin and light. Aside from that higher-resolution Center Stage camera, the screen specs are unchanged. Both offer Liquid Retina Displays with 2560x1664 resolutions and 500 nits of brightness. The notch, which accommodates the Face ID camera, remains. It's a great-looking display with vibrant colors and crisp images. Sadly, it did not get the MacBook Pro's reflection-defeating nano-texture glass. The keyboard, which includes the Touch ID power button, is unchanged and feels just as good as it does on the M3 MacBook Air. Oh, and the almost pastel-like Sky Blue is lovely. There'll be a tiny bit of shuffling as the MacBook Air M4 enters the market. The M3 model will be discontinued, and the M2 MacBook Air, which launched the new design language, will remain a lower-cost option. And, yes, the OG MacBook AIr M1 is still in the channel (usually Walmart) at a sub-$700 price. Considering the well-established and generally pleasing design, M4-grade power, and a more attractive price, the MacBook Air M4 stands a good chance of moving up our list of Best Laptops. You can pre-order the MacBook Air M4 in 13 or 15-inches today, and it ships on March 12.

Apple unveils M4 MacBook Air with better performance and a lower price

In a nutshell: This year's MacBook Air looks nearly identical to its predecessor on the outside, but prospective buyers will benefit from better performance, a higher memory ceiling, and a slightly lower price. The main improvement is the introduction of Apple's M4 processor to the Air line, which focuses primarily on enhanced AI performance. The new MacBook Air equipped with Apple's latest M4 processor is now available for pre-order in 13-inch and 15-inch configurations, starting at $999 - $100 less than last year's model - or $899 for students. It will be available beginning March 12. The M4, which debuted in the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac last year, is the highlight of this update. It retains the core features of the M3, which arrived for the MacBook Air last year, but increases the CPU core count from eight to ten by adding two extra efficiency cores. With 38 TOPS of NPU performance, the M4 is Apple's leading chip in the AI PC race against Intel's new Core Ultra series and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors. Apple's AI suite includes an image generator, notification summaries, a proofreader, enhanced organization tools, and more, though consumer interest has been tepid so far. While the M4 MacBook Air offers only modest performance gains over last year's model, users still relying on the M1 edition from 2020 may see performance double in most tasks (Apple's benchmarks). Compared to the last Intel-based MacBook Air released that same year, Apple claims the M4 version delivers a massive 23x uplift. Another notable addition is a new 12-megapixel camera that supports Center Stage, which keeps the frame focused on the user during calls and meetings. The Desk View feature allows the camera to capture both the user's face and their desk simultaneously. Otherwise, the M4 MacBook Air's design remains nearly identical to its predecessor. The base storage configuration is still 256GB (in the $999 model, with subsequent expensive upgrades for a larger SSD), though the highest-tier model now supports up to 32GB of RAM, likely to accommodate Apple Intelligence. Apple also announced a new Mac Studio, arriving next week, which introduces the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. These new processors introduce significant increases in RAM capacity and core counts over the previous M2 Max and M2 Ultra models. Additionally, the maximum storage option now expands to 16TB. All four Thunderbolt ports have been upgraded to Thunderbolt 5, and the M3 Ultra model adds two additional ports. Pricing starts at $1,999, with availability beginning the same day as the new MacBook Air.