It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Apple with the release of the iPhone 16e and the recent upgrades to the iPad Air, culminated last night when it announced the ‘new’ MacBook Air – now boasting the company’s M4 chipset – among a few other updates. Those include a new Sky Blue hue, revised camera, and most importantly, a slightly more affordable price.
As ever, the M4 MacBook Air is available in two sizes – 13in and 15in – and is already available for pre-order in the US, with an expected launch date of 12 March. The 13in model starts at $1000 (∼R18,300) while the larger model begins at $1,200 (∼R22,000). Local pricing and availability details are still a mystery, though we can expect some parity with the U.S. launch considering the tight release schedule of the iPhone 16e.
A breath of stale Air
Don’t expect much in the way of design upgrades. Apple’s slapped on a fresh coat of paint (Sky Blue) and updated the camera to match the 12MP Centre Stage webcam that you’d find on the MacBook Pro. Other than that… this is still just a MacBook Air. It’s the thinnest, lightest, and sexiest of the lot, making it an ideal laptop for travelling – or a quick visit to the local Starbucks.
The upgrades rely on the M4 chipset to carry the still-expensive price tag. The lowest-spec model will set you up with the M4 chipset, a 10-core CPU and 8-core GPU, 16GB of physical memory, and a bare-bones 256GB storage. That can go as high as 32GB and 2TB, respectively, with the most expensive model’s 10-core GPU matching the baseline 14in MacBook Pro.
Read More: Apple announces new M3-powered iPad Air
It’s not all M4 this, Sky Blue that. Apple has at least updated the Air’s display abilities. The M4 MacBook Air now supports up to two external 6K displays in addition to the MacBook’s own Liquid Retina display. Before, users were forced into a Sophie’s Choice decision of which display to ditch and which to keep.
Apple has always been shady about revealing exact benchmarks, comparing performance to that of the now-ancient Intel-boasting MacBooks. “When compared to the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, the M4 model delivers up to 23x faster performance,” it said in an announcement. The same goes for the battery, with Apple claiming eighteen hours on a single charge, or six additional hours for “Intel-based upgraders”. Uh, thanks?
