Intro

The MacBook Air M4 is the current crowning achievement of Apple's advances in the ultraportable laptop space. 

With the efficient Apple M4 chip on deck, the same ultra-compact and premium design, as well as double the memory in the base version, the latest MacBook Air generation is the one you should probably upgrade to if you're coming from the first MacBook Air with Apple Silicon or any of the even older Intel-based laptops.

For a couple of years now, Apple has offered two versions of the MacBook Air––a more compact 13-inch one as well as a larger 15-inch model that's a bit more generous in screen real estate, but is also harder to lug around. 

Which one should you get?  

 Design

Just a size difference, really

The difference between the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models (Image Credit-Apple)

Apple hasn't changed the overarching design language that has been ruling the MacBook Air lineup since the MacBook Air with the M2 chipsets landed, and honestly, we don't think we actually need a redesign here. 

The slab-like design that synergizes extremely well with the more powerful and posh MacBook Pro lineup is still pretty stunning and has no major flaws that in the way it looks. 

The 15-inch flavor provides some useful extra screen real estate (Image Credit-Apple)

The main difference between the 13-inch and the 15-inch versions of the MacBook Air with M4 is their size (if it wasn't obvious). The 13-inch version is naturally more compact at 30.41 x 21.5 x 1.13 cm, while the 15-inch version of both generations measures 34.04 x 23.76 x 1.15 cm. The smaller one weighs just 1.24 kg, while its 15-inch peer weighs 1.51 kg. 

This essentially means that you're trading portability for some extra screen real estate: the smaller Air is truer to the philosophy behind the lineup, while the 15-inch is geared towards those that don't take their laptops on the go that often. 

Both devices feature the same keyboards, with 78 buttons in the ANSI variant or 79 buttons in the ISO one. The keyboard features the no-nonsense scissor switches that work much better than the problematic butterfly ones on older MacBooks. There's also a Touch ID sensor embedded in the power button, allowing you to easily unlock your laptop and authenticate Apple Pay purchases on the web. 

Despite the onslaught of Face ID on the iPhone, Touch ID is alive and well on the MacBook line (Image Credit-Apple)

In terms of colors, we get an exclusive color version with the MacBook Air M4 family: Sky Blue. This one joins the already standard Silver, Midnight, and Starlight hues, which deliver unprecedented color variety to the MacBook Air lineup. Interestingly, the USB-C to MagSafe 3 cables that Apple bundles with each laptop match its color, which is a great attention to detail. 

Ports

The MacBook Air M4 has more ports than Apple used to give us back in the day (Image Credit-Apple)

The I/O port selection on the MacBook Air M4 has been identical to most previous MacBook Air models, giving us dual Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. 

The only major change here has been an upgrade from Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 4. This unlocks some more advanced display expansion with the latest MacBook Air, which now supports up to external 6K monitors running at up to 60Hz and the native laptop screen working at the same time. 

With the MacBook Air M3, you could also use dual monitors, but you had to close the lid, while older MacBook Air models only supported a single monitor. 

Display

The notched display is now a staple feature of all Apple laptops (Image Credit-Apple)

Size is the main differentiator here once again.

The smaller model features a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, while the larger one has a 15.3-inch one. As a result, the display resolution is also different (2560 x 1664 vs 2880 x 1864), but Apple has kept the display sharpness identical at 224 pixels-per-inch. 

Other than that, you get the same display packages. Both are IPS LCD screens with a display notch for the 12MP FaceTime camera, a standard 60Hz refresh rate, >100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage, True Tone, and a fairly decent 500 peak brightness. 

Neither the 13-inch nor the 15-inch models support HDR image output, but if you hook up an HDR-capable external monitor, either device will happily feed it an HDR signal. 

Performance & Memory

The fastest base Apple chip so far 

The Apple M4 continues the legacy of Apple's pioneering M1 chipset, but amps things up to eleven. It's a second-generation 3nm chipset and comes with four performance and six efficiency cores. You can configure the smaller 13-inch model with either an 8-core or a 10-core GPU, but the 15-inch one always features a 10-core one. 

Two external monitors? No problem, the M4 has got you covered (Image Credit-Apple)

The thing about the MacBook Air is that it's all about passive cooling, so neither the 13-inch nor the 15-inch versions of these two laptops have a fan inside. 

This is both good and bad. On one hand, it ensures for a completely silent machine without any moving parts inside, but on the other hand, this means that the thermal management here is not as good as on, say, a MacBook Pro or most other regular laptops out there. If you push the MacBook Air too hard, it will overheat faster than a MacBook Pro, and in some extreme cases, it would cause the chipset to throttle down (at around 100ºC). 

Here's how the Apple M4 compares against other Apple Silicon representatives according to synthetic benchmarks. As expected, it performs better than previous base Apple Silicon, but loses to its more souped-up versions with higher core count that are available on the MacBook Pro. 

macOS 15.3 Sequoia brings many Apple Intelligence features (Image Credit-Apple)

macOS 15.3 Sequoia is running the show on either one here. 

We also got an enhanced and more capable Safari browser, as well as improved gaming capabilities thanks to GPTK 2, which enables advanced game emulation through Wine. This means that you can use the MacBook Air M4 to emulate many Windows-only games that are normally not natively supported on the Mac. 

In terms of software support, we don't know what to expect as no Apple Silicon device has been dropped from the support list yet. Supposedly, we might get around seven years of software support, just as much as Apple's Intel-based MacBooks were supported for, but it remains to be seen.  

Battery and Charging

MagSafe 3 is now a standard feature on the range (Image Credit-Apple)

Despite the advances in performance and efficiency, Apple hasn't really updated its official battery life expectations for the MacBook Air in a long time. This means that both the 13-inch and 15-inch versions of the M4-equipped laptop will last for 15 hours in web browsing and up to 18 hours in video-streaming, just as much as most of their predecessors.

Apple MacBook Air M4	Apple MacBook Air M2
Battery size 53.8Wh (13-inch)	Battery size 66.5Wh (15-inch)
Battery life (web) Up to 15 hours	Battery life (web) Up to 15 hours
Battery life (video) Up to 18 hours	Battery life (video) Up to 18 hours
Charging MagSafe 3 30W USB-C with 8-core GPU 35W Dual USB-C with 10-core GPU  Fast charging with 70W+ wall adapter	Charging MagSafe 3 35W Dual USB-C with 10-core GPU Fast charging with 70W+ wall adapter

Apple still includes charging bricks in the box. The difference is that you get a slightly faster 35W dual USB-C charging brick with the 15-inch laptop and a 30W one with the base version of the 13-inch one. If you hook up either of these laptops to a 70W or larger charger, they will charge rapidly.

MagSafe 3 is available on both laptops, but you can also charge through any Thunderbolt port if you wish so.

Audio and camera

You get quad speakers on the 13-inch version of the MacBook Air M4, but the larger version gets two extra force-cancelling woofers bringing the total to six. Sound is excellent on both, with deep and rich room-filling sound, but naturally, the larger model sounds better thanks to the extra bass. 

Both support spatial audio when playing Dolby Atmos audio/video content. There are 3.5mm audio jacks that support high-impedance headphones as well as three microphones with directional beam forming on board, too.  

The MacBook Air M4 features a superb FaceTime camera (Image Credit-Apple)

Inside the notch, a 12MP FaceTime camera is available, with support for the Center Stage feature that always keeps you in the center of the frame, as well as the Desk View feature that skews the recording in such a way that you can present your desk from a top-down view. 

While the 15-inch version of the MacBook Air M4 is the better one with a larger screen giving you valuable real estate for extra productivity and activities, as well as better audio, it's a bit less portable than the standard 13-inch version and somewhat defeats the purpose of a MacBook Air. 

Getting the 13-inch version just makes sense. It's super compact, which has always been the core principle behind a MacBook Air. It also has battery life just as good as the larger model, and the performance is identical. You're only losing some extra screen space and two extra speakers, but the value is unmatched here: starting at $999, the 13-inch MacBook Air is unmatched value.