Apple’s new MacBook Air is out, and it gets the latest Apple M4 chip along with some other improvements. So is this just a cursory upgrade or time to relegate your old laptop to the e-waste bin and treat yourself to something shiny, blue and new?
Touch the sky
Going straight into visuals, there’s a new Sky Blue colour to tantalise you. I almost thought I was sent a silver model when I took it out of the box, but on closer inspection Sky Blue is actually a subtle, light blue tint. The finish will look different depending on the light, as I could see metallic ‘sparkles’ under direct light, but this becomes a little less noticeable when the light is flat.
Regardless, Sky Blue is very appealing, and there’s also a colour-coded MagSafe cable in the box. The 35-Watt power adaptor, however, is plain white but thankfully it comes with two UBC-C ports so you can charge your laptop and another item, like an iPhone, at the same time.
| MacBook Air (15-inch, 2025) – Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Starting Price (AUD) | A$2,399 for the 512GB SSD model |
| Warranty | 1-year limited warranty with 90 days of complimentary technical support. AppleCare+ is available for extended coverage. |
| Processor | Apple M4 chip with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. |
| Memory (RAM) | 16 GB unified memory (configurable to 32 GB). |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD (configurable to 1 TB or 2 TB). |
| Display | 15.3-inch Liquid Retina with a native resolution of 2880 x 1864 pixels (224 ppi), supporting True Tone technology and 500 nits brightness. |
| Battery Life | Up to 18 hours of web usage or video playback. |
| Weight | Approximately 1.51 kg. |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 1.15 cm x 34.04 cm x 23.76 cm. |
| External Display Support | Supports up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz. |
| Camera | 12 MP Center Stage camera. |
| Speakers | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers, wide stereo sound, and support for Spatial Audio. |
| Ports | Two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, MagSafe 3 charging port, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. |
| Operating System | macOS Ventura. |
| Colors | Available in Midnight, Starlight, Silver, and Sky Blue. |
Design dimension
Apple hasn’t changed the MacBook Air’s physical appearance since the 2022 redesign, and the M4 version is nearly identical.
Like the model before, it’s thin, measuring just 15.1mm with the lid closed, and weighs 1.51kg. For something a little lighter, the 13in model weighs 1.24kg.
There are other laptops out there that weight less than 1kg, however, and these often come with plastic or composite cases. For example, ASUS’s ZenBook A14,which we just reviewed, is around 910 grams thanks to its “Ceraluminum” case.
Apart from being a bit heavier, aluminum can be scratched relatively easily, so you’ll need to treat it with care, however, there’s no denying that it’s sturdy – and beautiful.
There are two USB-C connectors and MagSafe plug on the left hand edge, with a lone 3.5mm audio jack on the right. The bottom of the case is unobstructed, apart from for rubberised feet, and you won’t find any ventilation or speaker grills anywhere.
There is a channel of vents hidden beneath the screen’s hinge, however, and this allows some heat dissipation, and the Air is completely fanless there’s not a lot of need for large venting.
Another good thing about no fans is no fan noise, so the Air is as quiet as a mouse (the rodent kind). However, if it does start to heat up past its limits, it reduce the M4 chip’s processing speed to cool things down. This is called “thermal throttling” but more on this later.
Apple M4 chip features:
| Specification | Apple M4 10-Core GPU |
|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 |
| CPU | 10-core (4 performance cores + 6 efficiency cores) |
| GPU | 10-core |
| Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing | Yes |
| Neural Engine | 16-core |
| Memory Bandwidth | 120GB/s |
| Media Engine | Yes |
| Hardware-Accelerated Video Codecs | H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW |
| Video Decode Engine | Yes |
| Video Encode Engine | Yes |
| ProRes Encode and Decode | Yes |
| AV1 Decode | Yes |
Key and pad
The keyboard is centrally placed above large trackpad. The key action is solid, with medium travel when the keys are pressed. They do feel a bit hollow though, but this isn’t a major concern.
A combined fingerprint ID sensor and power button rests at the top-most right key position, and quickly unlocks the machine with a light touch of your finger.
Apple’s trackpad is the haptic kind, so it has no moving parts or buttons to jam up. It’s by far one of the best in the business; great for swiping and tapping, plus it’s responsive, and not overly sensitive to accidental contact from your palm or thumbs.
Sight and sound
There’s an upgraded 12MP ultra-wide FaceTime HD camera, along with Centre Stage and Desk View support. Next to the camera in the more expensive MacBook Pro (2024), it seem similar, with good dynamic range, smoothness and skin tone.
Otherwise, having the camera track your position in the frame, or going wide to squeeze in a few people is handy, and Desk View might appeal to some.
The 6 speakers support Dolby Atomos, and during testing didn’t distort at max volume. There’s a good amount of bass for a laptop speaker, and separation from left and right, however, I can’t say that I noticed much surround sound when running a Dolby Atomos test video. Still, these are great for day-to-day use, listening to music and watching videos.
Dreamy display
Apple’s Liquid Retina display looks great, and there’s not much to complain about here. The 15.3 size is excellent for getting things done on the go, and the 2,880 x 1,864 resolution mean you can fit a lot of detail. It’s bright at 500nits, with clean text edges and sharp lines thanks to its 224 pixels per inch (ppi).
If you need more screen real-estate the new M4 Air can support two external monitors at 6K resolution each, along with the main display running at the same time. This is fantastic considering earlier MacBook Airs could only support one external display, and you’d need to choose a MacBook Pro to get dual-monitor support.
Connectivity choices
While the MacBook Pro is the model to go for if you need a lot of ports, the new Air does support two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C type connectors. These operate at 40Gbps, which is blisteringly fast, and you can connect high-speed SSD storage or displays via them.
The MagSafe 3 connector is handy as it frees up the USB-C ports when charging, or you can plug in a USB-C cable to charge it as well.
There’s Wi-Fi 6E included, which is a bit disappointing as Wi-Fi 7 would provide more future proofing and there are a number of Wi-Fi 7 routers available now. Otherwise, there’s Bluetooth 5.3 included.
M4 Performance
The 2025 MacBook Air’s key upgrade, apart from that lovely Sky Blue colour option, is the Apple’s M4 silicon. The M3 model was no slouch, however, the M4’s performance belies the Air’s “entry-level” positioning. This new chip has a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine (NPU), however there is an ‘entry’ version that only has an 8-core GPU. All MacBook Air models now start with 16GB of unified memory, instead of 8GB from last year, with 24GB and 32GB upgrade options.
In Apple’s own comparisons the CPU is 1.8x faster than the M1, GPU is 2x faster than the M3 and NPU is 3x faster than the M1. Apple even states that the 2025 model is 23x faster than the last Intel Core i7 based model.
We’ve also done some testing, which is summarised below:
| Benchmark | MacBook Air 15″ (M4, 32GB RAM) | MacBook Pro 14″ (M3 Max, 64GB RAM) | ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM) | HP OmniBook Ultra Flip (Intel Core Ultra 7, 16GB RAM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speedometer 3.0 (Safari) | 46.3 | 44.2 | N/A | N/A |
| Speedometer 3.0 (Chrome) | 42.5 | 43.6 | 17.3 | 15.3 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core | 3,751 | 3,096 | 2,371 | 2,000 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-Core | 14,789 | 21,124 | 14,308 | 9,272 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU | 35,626 | 94,633 | 19,244 | 24,379 |
| Geekbench 6 AI Single Precision | 4,696 | 4,688 | 1,935 | 1,755 |
| Geekbench 6 AI Half Precision | 37,831 | 29,279 | 2,850 | 946 |
| Geekbench 6 AI Quantized Score | 53,892 | 32,232 | 6,182 | 3,583 |
| Cinebench 2024 Single-Core | 173 | 142 | 105 | 100 |
| Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core | 746 | 1,329 | 470 | 464 |
| Cinebench 2024 GPU | 3,820 | 11,529 | N/A | N/A |
| CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5 Read (MB/s) | N/A | N/A | 6,991 | 6,613 |
| CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5 Write (MB/s) | N/A | N/A | 6,084 | 4,822 |
| Disk Speed Test (BlackMagic) Read (MB/s) | 3,011 | 5,037 | N/A | N/A |
| Disk Speed Test (BlackMagic) Write (MB/s) | 3,429 | 6,525 | N/A | N/A |
From the results, where we’ve also included scores from our latest AI PC reviews of the ASUS Zenbook A14 and HP OmniBook Ultra Flip, the Apple M4-equipped Air and earlier M3 Max MacBook Pro have higher scores in nearly every test, except disk speed read and write, where the Air has a slower SSD. Compared against the much more expensive MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip from last year, it’s interesting to see that the M4 MacBook Air beat it on the Geekbench AI tests, showing that the Neural Engine in the M4 is very strong. Also, it fared well versus the MacBook Pro M3 Max on single core tests, but was beaten by multi-core, where the Max version of the chip will shine. This also indicates that the new cores in the M4, although fewer of them in the non-Max version, are very quick. The net result is that the MacBook Air with M4 has loads of performance, and does an admirable job of keeping pace with an older, more expensive and more equipped M3 Max laptop.
Battery life
Apple rates its battery for 18 hours, and while you won’t achieve this exactly, you should still get a healthy 8 hours or more. Essentially, you can just use the Air and forget about charging for a couple of days, if you’re not doing something very computationally intensive, such as running a local LLM, rendering a huge 3D file or editing a long video.
Price and configuration
You can pick up the 15-inch version of the MacBook Air, starting at $2,099. This comes with 16GB of RAM, which is up from 8GB of the previous model, and 256GB of storage. However, the next rung up, with 512GB of storage for $2,399 is likely the sweet spot for power-users and is the one reviewed here.
However, to get the price down, you can save about $300 if you choose the smaller 13 inch models. However, the lowest possibe entry point is just $1,699, and for this you get the 13.3 inch display, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, however, the M4 chip has been reduced from a 10-core GPU to 8-cores. This probably won’t make the tiniest difference for most tasks, and given the M4’s amazing power already, it offers a fantastic bang-for-buck option.
Oh, and if you’re into another colour aside from the Sky Blue, you can go for Silver, Midnight or Starlight, all great looking options.
Should you buy one?
PC laptops really have moved leaps and bounds in the past year or so, thanks to the rise of “AI PC” chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. These are closing the gap with Apple’s silicon, and they finally offer decent performance at much greater energy efficiency. However, while good, the new M4 chip shows that few can compete with the MacBook Air’s outstanding combination of design, capability and quality.
When it’s all said and done, what I value the most about the 15in MacBook Air is its amazing ‘unplugged’ processing power while still delivering 8+ hour battery life, the large 15.3-inch screen, the quiet, fan-less operation and lovely, sleek design. Yes, it’s an “entry-level” machine with a premium price, however, when it comes to paying for quality, the MacBook Air delivers.
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