The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air is the perfect laptop for me (and most people)

I know that the M-series MacBook Air redesign has been around for a while now, but with the M4 MacBook Air, I’ve finally gotten my hands on the 13-inch version of Apple’s popular laptop for the first time.

I’ve covered the 15-inch MacBook Air over the years, and while I appreciate its larger screen and sleek design, I also find it a little too large and heavy for my taste, especially when I’m on the go at events like WWDC, CES or Galaxy S Series device launches. This has resulted in me reaching for my MacBook Pro over the 15-inch MacBook Air in nearly every case, but not anymore. Now that the M4 chip has made its way to the MacBook Air and Apple has surprisingly dropped the laptop’s price by $100, it’s one of the best overall Mac packages Apple has offered in several years in terms of value and portability, especially when it comes to the 13-inch version.

This makes the M4 MacBook Air my new go-to recommendation for anyone looking to buy a new MacBook. Across the board, Apple’s new MacBook Air is by far the most cost-effective Mac in Apple’s laptop lineup (except for maybe the Mac mini). With that out of the way, after using the M4 MacBook Air for the last few days, here’s what I appreciate about it the most so far.

MacBook Air (M4)

Apple’s M4-powered MacBook Air features the tech giant’s latest chip, a new 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price.

Operating System

macOS

CPU

M4 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU

RAM

16GB, 24GB, 32GB

Storage

256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB

Battery

18 hours

Display (Size, Resolution)

13-inch, 15-inch

Camera

12-megapixel Center Stage

Colors

Midnight, starlight, silver, and sky blue

Memory

2 Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4.0 ports ports

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Light as a feather

For the first time, it feels like there’s nothing in my backpack

The older I get, the less I want to lug around a heavy backpack, especially when I’m at tech product launch events (my rapidly aging back can’t take it anymore). I recently moved to Peak Design’s smallest Everyday backpack and pared down my kit to just a few cables, a power brick, and a DSLR with two lenses. This has made my backpack feel much lighter — at least until I drop my hefty MacBook Pro (M3 Max) in it.

I appreciate the power my MacBook Pro offers, but it’s overkill for what I typically need to do, which includes photo editing with Photoshop and Lightroom CC, cutting the occasional video in Premiere CC, and sometimes, a little bit of audio editing in Audition CC. The M4 MacBook Air easily handles all of these tasks without noticeable lag or hiccups (it’s worth noting that earlier M-series chips can probably handle that workload easily, too).

When I slid the MacBook Air into my backpack for the first time on a recent trip to Toronto for a few hands-on product briefings, my bag felt so light that I had a brief moment of panic when I assumed I had forgotten the M4 MacBook Air on my desk at home. To put the M4 MacBook Air’s weight in perspective, the laptop weighs 2.7lbs (1.25kg) compared to my M3 Max MacBook Air’s 3.6lbs (1.62kg). This doesn’t seem like that big a difference on paper, but you really feel it when you’re lugging the laptop around on your back all day.

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16GB of RAM in the base model is long overdue

Couple that power and lightness with the fact that the new M4 MacBook Air is $100 cheaper despite starting at 16GB of RAM (finally, right?), bringing its cost to a very reasonable $1,000, and for the first time in several years, Apple is offering a solid, cost-effective laptop package that blows away a lot of the top Windows competition in the battery life, power, and overall lightness departments (these are all important factors to me as a laptop user).

In fact, the M4 MacBook Air is so good that I question whether the base-level M4 MacBook Pro is even worth it anymore. It offers a slightly larger 120Hz display, the option for matte nano-texture (which really does look great), and a bit more thermal headroom since it features a fan and a bigger design, but the M4 MacBook Air’s screen already looks stellar, and its chip is plenty powerful. For most people, including myself, those extra features aren’t worth the additional $600 the $1600 entry-level MacBook Pro costs over the $1,000 M4 MacBook Air.

Other welcome upgrades include a solid 12-megapixel camera with Center Stage. While I have a great DSLR camera setup at home for meetings, my job requires me to often attend conferences, keynotes, and other events, which means I don’t have access to that high-end equipment in my dimly lit hotel room. Though I’ve only used the M4 MacBook Air’s 12-megapixel camera a few times, it’s a massive step above its predecessor’s lackluster 1080p FaceTime HD camera regarding its low-light performance and white balance.

Dual monitor support is a great addition, too. While I only use one external monitor in my home office, I can see myself upgrading that setup at some point, so it’s great to know my go-to laptop is future-proofed if I happen to want to use two monitors and the M4 MacBook Air’s display at the same time.

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The M4 MacBook Pro is a near-perfect laptop package

Do I wish the m4 MacBook Air had a nano-texture screen and a 120Hz refresh rate? You bet. Those additional features would sweeten the deal, for sure. But they’re also more nice-to-haves than absolute musts, and I’ll take the M4 MacBook Air’s smaller build and lighter weight over those upgrades. My back has certainly appreciated the shift to a lighter laptop, that’s for sure. If you prefer macOS and don’t need a Windows laptop, the M4 13-inch MacBook Air is one of the best laptops around right now.

Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1000 and releases on March 12th.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Apple.

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