15-inch MacBook Air (M4, 2025) Review: Bluer and Better

Supports 2 outer monitors without closing the lid. $100 cheaper than before. Higher-resolution, 12MP webcam. The M4 makes it adjacent much powerful. World-class speakers, keyboard, trackpad, and portability.

Apple charges a ton for other storage. Charging ports are each connected 1 side.

Some person called it the cleanable laptop. Others, including myself, person wondered who it’s for. I’m talking astir the 15-inch MacBook Air, of course—the tiny yet large, almighty but fanless, middle-of-the-road MacBook. I ever considered it a spot niche among the lineup of the champion MacBooks, squeezing a constrictive tier betwixt the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

But with the M4 model, the summation successful show and capabilities, paired with a little price, marque it consciousness similar the 15-inch MacBook Air has yet travel into its own.

A Blue MacBook!

The plan of the MacBook Air hasn't changed since 2022, but radical are inactive marveling astatine it. For those who haven't seen the 0.45-inch thickness successful person–or are coming from a overmuch older laptop–they’re inactive successful for a treat. In the past 3 years since this plan primitively launched (or 2 years for the 15-inch model), nary different laptop has travel on to instrumentality its sleekness crown. It's inactive the thinnest laptop you tin bargain successful its respective category.

For those who've seen this before, the lone noticeable exterior alteration is the caller Sky Blue colour option. I've seen radical telephone this underwhelming for however not-blue it is, but let's not hide however overmuch flack Apple took for its bolder iMac colors a fewer years back. I similar this subtler approach. It mostly resembles a airy silver, but successful the close earthy light, it sparkles with a unsocial bluish hue. I bash person to determination 1 retired for Space Grey, which has present been wholly replaced. It volition ever beryllium my favourite laptop color, and I'm a spot perplexed arsenic to wherefore it's gone. RIP.

There haven’t been immoderate changes to the 15.3-inch LED 60Hz screen, the fantabulous keyboard and trackpad, oregon the wide signifier and physique prime of the device, truthful let's spell implicit what else has changed.

The astir important caller diagnostic this clip astir is enactment for up to 2 outer displays. In what seems to beryllium an added capableness of the M4, the MacBook Air nary longer requires closing the laptop to enactment 2 monitors similar the M3 model. This allows Apple to presumption the MacBook Air arsenic a much adaptable enactment for a broader scope of buyers, which present includes tiny concern owners and hybrid workers. People successful this demographic mightiness not request the improved show oregon show of the MacBook Pro, but truly request that 2nd screen. You nary longer person to wage an other $300 to leap up to the 14-inch MacBook Pro, and that's a bully thing.

When it comes to ports, my lone remaining ailment is that each the powerfulness connections are connected the near side, including some USB-C ports and MagSafe. Only the headphone jack is flanked connected the close side. For however fewer ports determination are here, I would astatine slightest similar to spot 1 USB-C larboard moved to the close broadside for much convenient charging.

Leap Ahead

Of course, the biggest upgrade to this year's 15-inch MacBook Air is the M4 itself. If you retrieve the MacBook Pro refresh past fall, the M4 provided a important bump to some single-core and GPU performance.

As we've seen successful the past, there's nary discernible show quality betwixt the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, but the starting configurations. The smaller exemplary comes with the enactment for an 8-core GPU and 10-core CPU, portion the 15-inch starts with a 10-core GPU. This means there’s nary longer an 8-core CPU enactment available, though that was ever exclusive to the 13-inch exemplary anyways.

The main configuration quality this clip is successful RAM. Apple began selling the M3 MacBook Air starting with 16GB of RAM past year, and now, you tin summation that to 32GB alternatively of being constricted to 24GB. As always, Apple charges insane prices for other storage. It’s $200 to get 512GB, $400 for 1TB, and $800 for 2TB. In astir cases, you’re amended disconnected opting for outer storage.

The M4 besides gives the MacBook Air its AI boost with Apple Intelligence. The 38 TOPS of section AI processing done the faster 16-core Neural Engine makes the M4 MacBook Air person to the 48 TOPS connected Intel’s Lunar Lake chips and 45 TOPS of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.

This is hard to judge, due to the fact that Apple Intelligence is precise overmuch inactive unfinished, but determination are immoderate caller third-party apps that Apple is showcasing that usage Apple Intelligence close retired of the container successful third-party applications, specified arsenic the note-taking app, Bear. You tin present bash things similar automatically format substance into tables oregon summarize a report. It besides comes with Image Playground, the updated mentation of Siri with ChatGPT integration, and tons more. On the different hand, you’ve ne'er needed accelerated section AI processing to get Apple Intelligence, arsenic AI tasks connected older devices conscionable get tally connected Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system.

The earthy show bump you’ll spot connected the M4 MacBook Air implicit past year’s M3 is 22 percent faster GPU, 31 percent multi-core, and 18 percent single-core, arsenic measured successful Cinebench R24. That’s a truly coagulated measurement up for 1 generation, peculiarly successful single-core performance, wherever Apple Silicon continues to predominate the competition. In presumption of the graphics, that’s besides implicit treble the show from the M2. Whether you’re photograph editing oregon doing 3D modeling, that’s capable to feel the quality if you’re coming from an M1 oregon M2 MacBook Air.

As with each MacBook Airs, it’s a wholly fanless machine. That feels unthinkable astatine definite points, particularly erstwhile you’re successful heaving applications similar a game. I whipped retired Baldur’s Gate 3, and portion it’s acold from perfect performance, the utterly soundless strategy means you won’t adjacent request headphones to play. But astatine 1200p, mean settings, and upscaling, it wasn’t excessively hard to find a equilibrium of show and representation prime that felt enjoyable. Achieving that show without fans is thing that can’t beryllium done connected immoderate different laptop close now.

The downside of being fanless, of course, is you’re not getting rather arsenic overmuch retired of the M4 arsenic you would connected a strategy with progressive cooling, namely the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The Air’s strategy has to throttle frequencies down to forestall a meltdown, and adjacent still, I recorded CPU temperatures arsenic precocious arsenic 102 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, the aboveground temperatures ne'er got unbearable successful my clip with it, adjacent portion moving nether afloat load.

As for artillery life, the MacBook Air remains among the best. Apple claims the M4 MacBook Air tin past up to 18 hours but doesn’t specify nether what conditions. That’s the aforesaid assertion arsenic was made connected the M3 MacBook Air, truthful you tin expect precise akin artillery life. In my testing, I saw it past implicit 20 hours successful section video playback, but obviously, it tin drain overmuch faster depending connected the circumstances. For example, portion installing a ample crippled successful Steam, the artillery drained astatine a complaint that would lone past for astir 4 and a fractional hours. On a afloat time of enactment for me, I got done a afloat time distant from the partition without breaking a sweat.

Clearing the Lineup

The show and features of the M4 MacBook Air are bully connected their own, but they’re adjacent much awesome erstwhile considered successful their caller context. For the archetypal clip since 2020, Apple has wholly reset its MacBook Air lineup, with the M3 and M2 having been discontinued and the caller M4 exemplary replacing some of them.

For the 15-inch exemplary that I reviewed, it besides comes successful astatine $100 much than the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air, creating immoderate much abstraction betwixt it and the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which has astir dangerously adjacent starting prices. In the past, I usually recommended the 14-inch MacBook Pro, acknowledgment to its acold superior mini-LED surface and broader larboard selection, particularly if you dabble successful contented creation. But now, the much meaningful separation successful terms makes the 15-inch MacBook Air acold easier to recommend.

You'll inactive apt beryllium capable to find refurbished versions of the M2 and M3 models astatine third-party retailers, and Walmart volition inactive beryllium selling the M1 exemplary for its debased price. But successful my mind, the M4 MacBook Air makes for a overmuch cleaner and simpler lineup for buyers to parse through. In theory, this is bully for some Apple and us.

Meanwhile, the prime betwixt the 13-inch and 15-inch models remains the same. Performance and artillery beingness aren't discernibly different, but determination are 2 main upgrades that the 15-inch exemplary provides. The archetypal is the surface itself, which mightiness dependable obvious, but until you've seen these broadside by side, you mightiness not recognize conscionable however overmuch bigger it is. Despite being incredibly thin, the 15-inch MacBook Air remains rather heavy and agelong to accommodate its 15.3-inch screen. It adjacent has a importantly larger footprint than the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

That other surface existent property is immense for those who enactment chiefly disconnected conscionable a laptop. Side by broadside divided surface is considerably easier, and if you person occupation seeing, the further abstraction to show larger substance is essential. The 15-inch exemplary achieves this without giving sharpness either, arsenic Apple ever scales up the solution for the larger screen.

As idiosyncratic without a tv successful their home, I tin attest to the information that it makes for a acold amended instrumentality for watching movies oregon shows than the 13-inch model. The six-speaker audio setup besides plays an important relation there, which is simply a important betterment implicit the 13-inch model. It's not been changed implicit the M2 oregon M3 versions, but it remains an added bonus for the $100 upgrade to the larger size. It’s inactive not rather arsenic bassy arsenic the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but it’s superior to the immense bulk of laptop speakers retired there.

Overall, the M4 15-inch MacBook Air is simply a wide winner. In my mind, this laptop’s astir fierce rival is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition. The Snapdragon X instrumentality gets large artillery life, and portion the show doesn’t rather lucifer the M4 (especially successful graphics), it comes with a 120Hz refresh complaint screen, much ports, and is somewhat cheaper. I inactive see the MacBook Air to beryllium a much well-rounded enactment though, acknowledgment to the amended speakers, webcam, and thinner chassis.

It’s hard to kick erstwhile the 15-inch MacBook Air improves upon the erstwhile exemplary successful noteworthy ways portion also dropping the price.