MacBook Air M4 Review – Bang for your buck hard to ignore at $1,699

An all-new Apple Silicon processor, and an upgraded webcam – not worth writing home about really, but as with many new product announcements from Apple they are incremental upgrades aimed at keeping devices at the forefront of specifications, and aimed at people with much older devices, not the previous version.

So comparing the MacBook Air with M4 to the one with Apple’s M3 let alone M2 is not worthy. Yes, this is more powerful, but in the end you’re not doing the correct comparison.

At $1,699 you can buy any number of laptops, what makes the MacBook Air so appealing is just that – for $1,699 you can own an Apple computer which might be a big ecosystem win for users of the company’s iPhone. It’s hard to argue with the simplicity of things like AirDrop, or Continuity which allows you to copy and paste across devices as if they were one.

Frankly, I think the MacBook Air is the best value laptop on the market. This incremental upgrade just further justifies that.

Upgrades to the camera mean you can take advantage of Apple’s “Centre Stage” technology which makes the camera “follow” you to keep you centred on the screen, or Desk View which means you can show people on a video call your desktop. Two features I’ve never used.

Performance is easy to measure with benchmarks and speed tests, but what I found staggering is that I’ve been using a MacBook Pro for some months now, and switching “down” to the MacBook Air I’ve got nothing but benefit.

MacBook Air is some 400 grams lighter, and sure it has a smaller screen by an inch, but the portability of a device that’s 1.13cm thick and weighs just 1.24kg make it a compelling device.

And while I like to think my usage is power intensive and requiring performance, I ran a test video project through the MacBook Pro and the 1.5 hour long video took around 11 minutes to render and export.

The same session across on the MacBook Air and the export took 14 minutes. A 3 minute “cost” for at least an extra $800 – more likely more, well, I’ll stick with the MacBook Air thanks.

Oh, and this new Sky Blue colour – yes please, I worried it would stand out a bit much, but in fact it’s quite subtle – it’s more like the silver with a dash of blue rather than a bold blue colour.

One thing I cannot argue against is the long term value of a Mac Computer. My wife has been using her MacBook Air for what I think now is five years, Likewise my Son’s MacBook Air made it right through high-school and is now part of his tertiary education.

The M4 processor in this device is powerful enough to do what you need to do in five years from now, frankly the M1 is still a cracker, so really you’re buying into something for the long term, something that’s hard to argue against at any time.

Of course you’ll spend more than $1,699 if you add specifications, but that’s up to you!

My only disappointment with the Apple MacBook Air M4 is the lack of the optional Nanotexture coating on the screen, while pricey, I loved it on the MacBook Pro and it should be on every device!

The new MacBook Air goes on sale today.