Apple’s best just got cheaper AND better - MacBook Air M4

Apple's MacBook Air is everywhere—but the new M4-powered Air might be their best yet. Jake takes a hands-on look at what's actually new (spoiler: it's mostly inside), from the upgraded M4 chip and increased RAM, to improved battery life and gaming performance. Is it time to upgrade your old MacBook Air, or is this strictly for new buyers? Jake breaks it down.

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
0:26 Sky Blue color & accessories
1:42 Same exterior design & I/O
2:25 Display and trackpad
2:55 M4 chip, RAM upgrades & battery
4:00 M4 Air vs M4 Pro
5:01 Sponsor - Dbrand X-ray skins
6:00 Speaker test and sound impressions
6:38 Keyboard, webcam & microphone test
7:14 Gaming and productivity benchmarks
8:25 Battery life and power efficiency tests
8:54 Screen brightness results & summary
9:20 Conclusion
9:50 Credits

[ShortCircuit]

This video has been re-listed after making some changes to the Labs performance graphs, and a meaningful change has been made in the battery life performance results. Previously, the M4 beat the M3 significantly, which is no longer true. We’ve noted internally what went wrong during testing and implemented measures to prevent it from happening again. Thanks for your continued support!

[cristopherescorcia]

Hi LMG, hope you are doing well, iOS dev here with a recommendation, do you guys think is possible to include an xcode compile test with Labs? Since native development for anything Apple a Mac/MacBook is required I think it would be a great addition to us developer. Greetings from Colombia.

[ColJonSquall]

Apple: "Sky Blue." Me: "That looks like the next iteration of Space Grey, to use Apple's colouring book."

[qlnzky]

6:55 the M4 actually has a better sounding microphone in my opinions.

[DomGaskell]

For anyone wondering why this is unlisted: they posted an explainer. The general vibe is test result inconsistencies.

[AXYZE]

6:00 Air M4 15" does NOT have top firing speakers either, no Air has it since four years!
6:59 Air M4 has completly new 12Mpx ultrawide webcam with center stage.
7:22 All of these Macs have different performance depending if they are 13" or 15" because of surface area, all of them have either 8 or 10 GPU cores depending on what you choose, why none of that is noted in graphs at all?

[davidgonzalo]

Just updated from a 2017 MacBook Pro with an Intel i5 2.3 gHz to the 10 core Air M4 CPU 10 core GPU and is like a day and night difference, waiting was worth, totally worth it

[RealTheGO]

After all the recent apple videos, we miss Horst…

[mohdrones]

I still dont like that it doesnt have usb c on both sides

[bharath.garigipati]

Unlike what this video shows, M4 Air has a center stage webcam

[OriginalSniperLol]

Picked up the M4 13" Midnight 16/512 MBA on 3/17/25 . Loving this speedy, beautiful machine so much. Planning to keep this for several years. Great vid!

[marc_zdb]

0:35 I honestly thought for a second he was talking about an M3 MBA

[dannyurocks]

7:21 The hack what's that white freaky thing? 😂😂

[WhateverTechComestoMind]

7:29 “something is better” on the graph lmao

[opdd]

the mute symbol is not the same at the keyboard function row

[shrirangjoshi]

3:03 in specifications charts the M2 Air only supports Wi-Fi 6 not 6E only M3 and M4 support 6E

[launebaer]

To this day I believe my M1 Air with 16GB RAM for 699€ was a great deal. Never thought one second about an upgrade. (It was my first Mac ever by the way)

[SpicyChimkinSammie]

As a longtime Windows user I recently just pulled the trigger on a refurbished MacBook Air. I still run a Windows PC for most of my computational needs. But when it comes to laptops there's just no beating a MacBook.

Even in terms of value, it's much better to just buy an old M1/M2 MacBook and pair it with a Steam Deck for gaming. Compare that with the price of your average "gaming laptop", and you're actually saving money overall.

Repairability is an issue obviously. But realistically, a MacBook is more resilient than your average Windows laptop that breaks or starts having battery issues after just a couple years of use. Basically, I just see no reason to want to buy a Windows laptop in the current state of tech at all.

[moolcool]

The 15" Air also does not have top firing speakers

[JarosRC]

No thermal throttling test? Was hoping you guys would include that given it’s been raised as a concerned for these laptops?