Apple M4 MacBook Air 15 inch reviewed: utterly brilliant

More powerful and yet also a little less expensive this year, the M4 MacBook Air could be the year’s best laptop and an excellent deal.

It’s not always easy buying a laptop. There are lots of choices and not always a lot of clear overall winners. Models that are thin, models that offer great battery life, and models that are powerful and easy to use. Plenty of choices, but much like a meme, often you need to pick two.

But not with every laptop. Apple’s MacBook Air has long been an outlier, delivering performance and design and battery life aplenty.

And in its latest push, Apple might have finally nailed the whole package, bringing it all together for what is actually a lower price tag in 2025.

Design

It’s been a few years Apple changed the look of the MacBook Air, a good three years now. Back in 2022 Apple redesigned and refreshed the look of arguably its most popular laptop, and here we are, three years later with pretty much the same machine.

That means you get the sleek and thin sides with softened edges, the aluminium body, the big screen with the small shelf in the top, and a look that stands out.

There is one change to the design, as the MacBook Air now comes in a new colour: sky blue. A little like a cross between silver and blue, it’s a light metallic finish that some will like, though hasn’t quite warmed on us yet. Kind of like if starlight’s take on gold was applied to blue.

Give us the midnight blue-ish black any day of the week, but the Air is also still available in that, as well as silver and the aforementioned starlight, too. Whichever colour you pick, the MagSafe recharge cord will come coloured to match, which is why we have a sky blue slightly metallic cord, too.

Features

With a design that has largely stayed the same, you probably won’t be surprised to learn the features have also stayed pretty much the same in the 2025 Air, except for perhaps one area: the chip.

The processor is pretty much the only place the 2025 MacBook Air differs from its previous counterparts, featuring an Apple M4 with 10-core CPU (processing) and 8-core GPU (graphics) in the 13 inch, while keeping things consisting with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU on the 15 inch, the model we’re reviewing.

There’s no difference in the chip with the 15 inch generation. The only changes between models there are the amount of RAM (Apple’s “Unified Memory”) and storage, with a bigger cost giving you a little more of each.

Either model can be tweaked now to a total of 32GB RAM and up to 2TB storage, though that’ll hit the wallet each time, and you’ll find some of the other features specific to M4 here, such as improved memory speed, and a 16-core Neural Engine for the AI features.

Outside of the new chip, the only other major “new” feature is the webcam, which is now a 12 megapixel Centre Stage camera that can also handle “Desk View” mode for showing what you’re doing on your desk. Handy for demos and such, provided you don’t mind being a hand model at the same time.

You’ll also find other features here, such as Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 6E (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax), two Thunderbolt 4 ports that also work as USB-C and can charge the laptop, the MagSafe charge port Apple uses, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the keyboard, and a battery capable of handing between 15 and 18 hours of battery life, provided you keep the uses to web browsing or watching videos. Do a little more and you may see the life drop a little more.

Display

The screen also has stayed the same, offering a 15.3 inch screen with a 2880×1864 resolution on the MacBook Air 15 we’re reviewing. You won’t unfortunately see a fast 120Hz refresh rate — there’s no “Pro Motion” screen tech here — but the display is bright, easy to look at, and covers most of the frame.

In short, it’s the same lovely display Apple has been using for a few years now. While it could be a little better with a faster refresh rate, we’re not complaining.

In-use

It’s not just the screen and design that has stayed the same, but also how you use the Mac, with a great big trackpad and an excellent keyboard available at your disposal, both of which are some of the best in the business.

That spacious trackpad is definitely large, supporting several gestures the likes of which Apple is known for, while the keyboard is easy to type on, something we used constructing this review, for sure.

Thanks to macOS Sequoia on the Air, you’ll find a few AI features waiting for you, too, though whether you use them or not is up to you.

Like all MacBooks, however, one of the handy usability features we love is the fingerprint sensor and Touch ID: it’s an easy finger press to jump into work, and takes zero effort to set up and use.

The webcam’s “desk mode” is also a neat addition, allowing folks who like to demo things to do that with the one camera and some neat programming.

Performance

The biggest change between the M4 and the previous M3 Air or even the M2 MacBook Air model before it is the new chip.

While it may not seem like much has changed, it’s just that little bit more life your laptop will now have. For now and the future.

Much as we’ve seen from the M4 Mac Mini and the impressively fast M4 MacBook Pro (or the M4 Pro variant, anyway), Apple’s latest chip definitely has what it takes to show the world it’s a fighter, and will last several years for laptop owners.

That’s great, because updating laptops shouldn’t be an every two or three year thing if you can help it. Computers can be expensive, after all.

Testing the M4 MacBook Air against its predecessors gives owners of the Intel Air models a solid reason to upgrade: the speed and performance improvements are noticeable for sure.

There’s also the other factor that Intel laptops for Apple are pretty much heading towards an end-of-life factor in the near future, so it may be time to consider the move to Apple Silicon.

The last Intel Air was actually back in 2020, making it a five year old computer. It still probably works fine — this reviewer’s wife even has the one before it with a butterfly keyboard! — but between battery and performance, you’re probably going to want to start considering a move.

For folks maybe on the Windows side considering a move to the Mac, or even if you just want to see how the M4 Air handles Windows competition, the answer is also strong.

Granted, there’s no external graphics, giving some laptops like Dell’s XPS 14 a bit of an edge in some way. Still, the M4 MacBook Air is stellar all the same. It has heaps of performance, and it shows outside of the benchmarks, too.

Use it to write, and use it to code. Use it to edit photos or even play the odd game on Apple Arcade. Use it the way you want, and it’ll just deliver.

It’s everything we loved about the M4 Mac Mini in a design that marries a great keyboard and mouse with an excellent screen, too.

Battery

The other big drawcard the Air has going for it is battery life: it’s an area Apple nails again and again.

In the M4 MacBook Air, Apple’s promised time of up to 15 hours for wireless web browsing or up to 18 hours for watching videos isn’t far off the mixed use of 12 to 15 we had in our tests, often just waiting for the battery percentage metre to drop.

You can use the Air doing whatever you need and it will gradually see the battery life fall, particularly if all you’re doing is web browsing, document writing, and watching videos. Do something a little more intensive and the hardware is pushed some more, so that battery starts to fall faster.

Depending on your uses, you’ll find anywhere between 7 and 18 hours of life, but for the most part, we managed a day of use with no problems.

Given that the M4 Air can be charged from either the magnetic MagSafe strip on the side or one of the two USB-C ports, you’re typically never far from a recharge, either. That’s a win.

Value

And this year, the Air is actually a little less expensive than previous years.

That’s weird, right? Companies don’t typically make their products cost less, and yet that’s exactly what Apple has done with the M4 MacBook Air.

Granted, Apple has also removed all previous generations from the line-up, so you can only buy the M4 MacBook Air if you want an Air these days, but you do get the choice of either the smaller 13 inch model from $1699 or the 15 inch from $2099.

Either way, each is an excellent combination of its parts, and solid value overall.

What needs work?

So what could be improved? Gosh, it’s really difficult to come up with anything for this category, except maybe a colour matched charging brick.

It’s minor in the grand scheme of things, but your white colour 35W dual-port charging brick might look a little strange with a darker fabric-lined MagSafe charging cord, particularly if you opt for the midnight MacBook Air.

On the sky blue option, it’s a little less of an issue: the silvery blue works nicely with the white charging brick, so we have nothing to cry about.

There are also only two usable data ports on the Air, both of which are USB-C and Thunderbolt 4. That could be a deal breaker for some, but if you can’t recall the last time you plugged a lot of hardware in, it might not even matter.

Beyond these minor niggles, Apple has nailed the Air. It’s a picture perfect piece of portability.

What we love

That attention to pretty much everything is easily the thing we love most about the MacBook Air, especially in this generation.

Everything has been considered. From the premium design and materials to the excellent screen to the capable hardware to the stunningly good battery life and it’s slightly less expensive and very fair price.

It is difficult to argue against. If you were looking for an all round “best computer” for someone who wanted it for work, a little bit of play, the web, watching videos, and even to dabble in AI and creative arts, the MacBook Air nails it.

The MacBook Air is absolutely utterly brilliant.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

The good news is that there’s really nothing major to complain about with the M4 Air. It’s such a staggeringly good computer.

The latest MacBook Air is beautifully designed, more powerful, comes with a great screen and speaker system, and is now somehow slightly less expensive. It’s a dream and an easy recommendation.

This is easily one of the best laptops around. Highly recommended.