I have been using the MacBook Air with M4 since shortly after launch in the form of the 15 inch model, but about a month ago I also acquired the 13 inch model as well. This stands as my review of these two laptops jointly.
The 15 inch
It is easier to start with the 15 inch model as that is the laptop I have had the longest, being purchased at the beginning of April. Before this, I had a MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max (16 core CPU/40 core GPU) and a MacBook Air m2 (13 inch) that I was using jointly to work every day. I sold both of those laptops in favor of having a single laptop to do all of my work with.
At this point, I suppose it makes sense to explain what I do with my laptop(s). I am a software engineer and any ounce of free time outside of work and family is spent working on my personal projects. Those projects primarily consist of software development work (I have several things I have been building for years that I work on as I feel like it). In addition to that, I do a lot of writing (novels, blog posts, short stories) and browsing the web. In August, I graduated with my fourth college degree (an MBA) so up until recently I was also a full time student doing school work.
As I mentioned previously, my setup was a dual laptop setup where the 16 inch was handling any heavy software engineering that involved lots of containers, Android development, or cross platform applications that I utilized virtual machines for. The 13 inch was my carry laptop that I took everywhere with me. I did my school work on it, wrote nearly everything for my personal stuff, did light web dev work and scripting, and just generally browsed the web. This 15 inch laptop was to replace both of these so I specced it with a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM. I was confident that the M4 was plenty powerful for my workflow as long as it had enough memory for the virtual machines.
The good
The good things of this laptop are very apparent when you first start using it. The display is an IPS high resolution, highly color accurate 13.6 inch panel. The keyboard is a good travel distance and is very clicky. I did not notice any accuracy issues when typing on it as it is a standard layout without any weird key positions. The touchpad is a huge highlight of this laptop as all MacBook touchpads are. It is a haptic touchpad where you can click anywhere on the touchpad for the same actuation and it has excellent palm rejection. Windows laptops should really start coming standard with haptic touchpads as well, as some already are (Surface Laptop 7 for example). The aluminum body is another highlight as it is very rigid with no durability issues whatsoever. I find myself using it as a tray to carry things around including heavy textbooks and it still looks pristine. The starlight color is somewhere between silver and gold and looks excellent as well and I’ve noticed no issues there, not that I would expect to in such a short period of time. It is also very thin, which is great.
When we go inside the laptop, more good news. The M4 is plenty powerful for what I am doing the vast majority of the time. I noticed no lag at all in any of my software engineering workflows and have been able to use a VM alongside my normal applications without ever running out of memory. Obviously none of my other less demanding workflows have caused it any stress at all. The M4 sips power and I have been able to get through a full work day without issue. I can also confidently take it with me without worrying about bringing a charger. The laptop is also completely silent because of the fanless design so fan noise is not an issue. It is also cool to the touch for the vast majority of what I do. In fact, the metal chassis is actually cold most of the time. The speakers are also excellent especially for a laptop so thin. I find myself rarely using headphones when alone and instead just watching videos or listening to music out loud instead.
The bad
There isn’t really anything terrible about this laptop, but there are some minor issues. There area really three minor inconveniences that are worth mentioning.
1. The keyboard is good, but it also has a little less travel than the keyboard on the Pro laptops which makes it less comfortable to type on.
2. The fanless design, while it ensure silence, also means that the laptop cannot sufficiently cool itself when under load. Even though it is the entry level, the M4 is a very powerful chip, but is not allowed to stretch its legs in the MacBook Air’s chassis. Doing long compiles or other intensive work makes the MacBook heat up and can become slightly uncomfortable to use on my lap. Luckily, most of the time I am doing something like this, it is docked to a monitor and is not an issue.
3. The screen is only 60hz and has a notch. The refresh rate is fine for any work that I am doing but scrolling at 120hz is smoother and a lot of other laptops at this price point offer it. The notch is annoying and needs to go. Menubar icons just disappear behind it when you get too many or have an app with a lot of menu items and there is no way to use them or even see what other menu items you have open. You don’t notice it at all when using the laptop but there is no reason for it to exist as other laptop manufacturers have put better cameras in smaller bezels without issue.
The 13 inch
So with my pursuit of a single laptop, why did I buy another 13 inch several months later? Wasn’t the entire point of selling both of my current laptops and consolidating to one to avoid having multiple laptops? The answer to that is that I found the MacBook Air 13 is such a nice form factor that it was hard to give up. When laying in bed or propping it up next to some work on my desk, the 13 inch is lighter and physically smaller which makes it easier to maneuver. It is also the laptop I continuously grab if I am going out to a meeting and don’t want to take my backpack as it is easier to carry with one hand everywhere.
As far as the pros and cons of this laptop, they are identical to the 15 inch as everything else about the laptop other than the screen size and form factor are as well. This laptop was a 16 gb RAM / 512GB storage model and I have never felt it becomes sluggish or hot. That said, I have not subjected it to the same level of strenuous work as the 15 inch.
About the OS and pricing
As you may have noticed, I haven’t really mentioned the OS. Many people who don’t buy a MacBook don’t do so because they do not like macOS. I will say that there are pros and cons to the operating system and I plan to write a full blog post about this soon. I find that the main point of an OS is to run your applications and simply get out of the way and macOS does that just fine for me. It is also nice to sync up with your iPhone for easy transfer of files and pictures using airdrop. If I go out and take some pictures, I can easily airdrop them to my Mac and put them straight into my journal for example.
Pricing varies by region so I will simply talk about the US. Pricing there is excellent for these laptops, especially when on sale. Right now is Black Friday in the US so the $999 13 inch model is on sale for $749. There is no other laptop that comes close to offering the value of this laptop for that price. Even at regular price $999 is a very good price and $1199 is a good price for the 15 inch as well. The problem comes when you start upgrading memory and storage. It is well known that Apple’s upgrade pricing is highway robbery, charging $200 for 8GB of RAM or 256gb/512gb storage. The vast majority of people will be fine with the 16gb RAM / 512gb storage option which regularly runs on sale at retailers such as Best Buy for the normal $999 price of the 256gb model.
In conclusion
The MacBook Air M4 13 and 15 are incredible laptops that generally offer great value for money. They have excellent build quality and simply get the basics right that it is so hard for other laptop manufacturers to do. The pricing, at least in the US, makes these laptops excellent purchases especially if they are on sale. These are really the kinds of laptops you buy and don’t have to worry about.
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