Apple MacBook Air M4 review: Apple’s best everyday laptop gets even better

Apple M4 MacBook Air

If the MacBook Air were a footballer, it’d be Luka Modrić—maybe not the flashiest on the pitch, but dependable, classy, efficient, and quietly brilliant year after year.

The 2025 M4 MacBook Air sticks to that Modrić playbook, keeping the same sleek design while refining what matters under the hood. With better performance, new AI chops, and support for two external displays, it’s a classic Apple move: evolutionary, not revolutionary.

But you know what? That’s exactly why it works. The MacBook Air remains the laptop most first-time Mac buyers want—and frankly, the one most of them need. Whether you’re a student, a remote worker, or someone just looking for a reliable, featherweight machine that won’t choke under pressure, this is still the sweet spot in Apple’s lineup.

It’s not trying to be a Pro, and that’s its strength. It knows its role, nails it,  without breaking a sweat. I have used the new M4 MacBook Air for a while and here’s a detailed review of Apple’s ‘most popular’ laptop.

Apple M4 MacBook Air review: Design and display

The MacBook Air’s design hasn’t changed a bit since 2022—and honestly, it hasn’t needed to. Even now, that ultra-thin 0.45-inch chassis manages to turn heads, especially for folks upgrading from a much older machine. Three years (or two, if we’re talking about the 15-inch version) and still no laptop has managed to edge it out in terms of overall design.

You’ve seen this design before, the only visible tweak is the new Sky Blue colour. And before you say, “Wait, this isn’t blue,” it is actually a nice shade of blue. Apple has chosen to be understated—this is more moonlight blue than your sky blue.

Under certain lighting, it shimmers with a hint of blue. It’s quite a subtle shade and it’s nice of Apple to experiment with colors when it comes to the MacBook Air. Still, let’s have a moment of silence for Space Grey, which has officially been booted from the lineup. It was the brooding, serious shade that really grew on me.

Aside from that colour shift, the 13.6-inch 60Hz LED display, the famously excellent keyboard and trackpad, and the overall premium build quality all remain untouched. Apple is wisely sticking with a design that works. No complaints here.

So, if you’re looking for radical reinvention, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for a laptop that still turns heads without trying too hard, the MacBook Air delivers. Yet again.

However, not all is perfect in port-land. All the action —MagSafe and both USB-C ports — is still on the left side, leaving the lonely headphone jack stranded on the right. For a laptop that’s already light on ports, it’s mildly annoying for me that you can’t charge it from the right side when your power outlet is inconveniently placed (which it always is). A single USB-C on the right would’ve solved that. Maybe next year, Apple.

Apple M4 MacBook Air review: Performance

One of the most useful upgrades this year — though not the flashiest — is the MacBook Air’s new ability to power two external displays without needing to shut the lid. Yes, finally. Thanks to the M4 chip, you can now plug in a dual-monitor setup and still use the Air’s own display. No workarounds, no lid-closing gymnastics. This instantly makes the Air a more flexible, desk-friendly machine for a wider audience, including hybrid workers and small business owners who’ve been eyeing a Pro but don’t necessarily need one. You no longer have to fork over an extra Rs 70,000 or so for the 14-inch MacBook Pro just to get that second screen. That’s a big win. Having said that, most MacBook Air users I know would not ever use this feature but it does give it a leg up for sure.

The star of the show with this year’s MacBook Air is the new M4 chip. I had been using the M4 MacBook Pro before this, so I know that this chip means business. There are noticeable gains in both single-core and GPU performance. It’s not just a small speed bump; it’s more like a subtle flex.

The MacBook Air also comes in a 15-inch display variant. Now, performance-wise, there’s still no real difference between the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air—Apple made sure of that. What has changed, though, are the base specs. The 13-inch model gives you a choice between an 8-core GPU and a 10-core CPU, but the 15-inch skips the warm-up and jumps straight into 10-core GPU territory.

Where things get a little more interesting is RAM. Apple started offering 16 GB as the base for the M3 Air (a few months after its launch), and now, the ceiling has been raised permanently to 16 GB. That’s great for heavier workflows, especially if you’re juggling large apps or multiple tabs at once.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Apple without the usual eyebrow-raising storage upgrade prices. Yes, you can max out your internal SSD, but unless you enjoy spending like a kid given a free hand by your folks in a candy store, you’re probably better off picking up some external storage and calling it a day.

The M4 chip gives the new MacBook Ai deeper access to the AI party, thanks to Apple Intelligence. It now flexes 38 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of local AI processing, courtesy of a beefed-up 16-core Neural Engine.

That said, Apple Intelligence is still very much in infancy. There are glimpses of potential scattered all over the place but not a fully cooked dish. There’s Image Playground, a revamped Siri with ChatGPT integration, and a handful of other AI tricks that are mostly neat, if not yet life-changing.

True to its lineage, the M4 MacBook Air remains fanless. That means it’s dead silent, even while doing surprisingly heavy lifting.

The speaker setup is powerful—it fills a room better than you’d expect from something so flat. Sure, it doesn’t hit Pro-level bass, but it’s still leagues above your average laptop.

Battery life has always been one of the MacBook Air’s biggest flex—and with the M4 model, that doesn’t change. Apple claims it can last up to 18 hours. In my testing, it went well past that mark on many occasions. It’s still not at the M4 MacBook Pro’s level or perhaps I ended up using the charger less and less with the Pro. Still, I easily powered through a full workday -- and then some more on the next day -- unplugged, which is what most people really care about.

Apple M4 MacBook Air review: Verdict

Apple has smartly dropped the starting price, finally made 16GB RAM a base option with a starting price of Rs 99,990. The MacBook Air with M4 chip retains the winning combo of power, portability, and polish intact.

No, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But when the wheel already runs this smoothly, Apple is right in not tinkering with it. The M4 chip brings solid performance gains, and for everyday users — students, professionals, casual creators — this is the right blend of speed and efficiency.

The MacBook Air continues to be the no-brainer recommendation for first-time Mac buyers and even seasoned upgraders who don’t need the Pro muscle. It’s still the laptop to beat — and now, with better value and future-proof specs, it’s somehow even harder not to recommend.