MacBook Air M4 Review: The Laptop That Makes Every Other Ultrabook Look Lazy
Fast, silent, all-day battery, and a webcam that finally doesn’t embarrass you on calls.
The M4 Air is the laptop most people should buy, full stop. It does the work without the fan, the battery lasts a flight, and the only real complaint is the notch and the port count.
Score
9.1/ 10
★★★★★
Verdict
Buy
For most people, this is the move.
Published
Who it's for
Writers, students, and anyone whose heaviest workload is a browser and the occasional export.
The good
- +M4 is fast enough for video editing and builds, fanlessly
- +18-hour battery claim is real for writing and browsing
- +12MP Center Stage webcam is a genuine upgrade for calls
The bad
- −Only two USB-C ports, still
- −Notch still eats menu bar space on a 13” screen
- −16GB RAM is the new floor but you pay for it
The MacBook Air used to be the laptop you bought because you didn’t want to think about laptops. The M4 version is the laptop you buy because it’s genuinely the best one, and it’s not close.
The chip
The M4 in the Air is the same family that powers the iPad Pro and the base Mac. In a fanless chassis it does what the M2 did with a heatsink, only quieter. I edited a 4K timeline in Final Cut without the machine breaking a sweat or making a sound. That used to require a Pro.
For the work most people actually do — writing, browsing, a Slack, a video call, maybe a Lightroom export — this is overkill in the best way. It will stay fast for years.
Battery
Apple claims 18 hours. In real use (browsing, writing, a couple of calls, brightness around 60%), I got through a full travel day and into the next morning. That’s the honest version of the claim. For a flight, this is a laptop you don’t need to charge.
The webcam
The 12MP Center Stage camera is the upgrade nobody talks about and everyone notices on the other end of the call. It keeps you framed. It looks like a webcam and not a 2010s potato. If you’re on video calls all day, this matters more than the chip.
The compromises
Two ports. Still. On a machine this capable, two USB-C ports is the one place Apple is being cheap. If you use an external display and a peripheral, you’re buying a dongle.
The notch. It’s less offensive than it was, but on the 13-inch it eats menu bar real estate and you learn to live with it.
16GB RAM is now the base, which is good — 8GB was a lie at this price — but it raised the floor. The Air is no longer the cheap Mac.
Should you buy it
If you want a laptop that does everything most people need, silently, for a full day, with a keyboard and trackpad that embarrass the competition, this is it. The only reason to look elsewhere is if you need more than two ports or you’re allergic to macOS.
Specs at a glance
- Display
- 13.6" or 15.3" Liquid Retina IPS, 500 nits
- Chipset
- Apple M4 (10-core)
- RAM / Storage
- 16GB / 256GB – 2TB
- Battery
- ~18 hrs mixed use
- Weight
- 1.24kg (13")
- Ports
- 2× USB-C, MagSafe, 3.5mm
What we like
- +M4 is fast enough for video editing and builds, fanlessly
- +18-hour battery claim is real for writing and browsing
- +12MP Center Stage webcam is a genuine upgrade for calls
- +Keyboard and trackpad remain best-in-class
What we don't
- −Only two USB-C ports, still
- −Notch still eats menu bar space on a 13” screen
- −16GB RAM is the new floor but you pay for it
- −No external display support with the lid open on the base model
Lytyear
Reviewer
Lytyear tests laptops for the work, not the spec sheet — writing, video calls, builds, and the occasional export. If the trackpad is awful or the fan spins up under a Zoom call, that’s the review.
