As foretold, there’s a new MacBook Air out today, powered by the M4. Apple:
Apple today announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the blazing-fast performance of the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price. It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display, 16GB of starting unified memory, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence — all packed into its strikingly thin and light design that’s built to last. The new MacBook Air now comes in an all-new color — sky blue, a metallic light blue that joins midnight, starlight, and silver — giving MacBook Air its most beautiful array of colors ever. It also now starts at just $999 — $100 less than before — and $899 for education, making it an incredible value for students, business professionals, or anyone looking for a phenomenal combination of world-class performance, portability, design, and durability. With two sizes to choose from, the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air are available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 12.
Like the other MacBook Air colors, the sky blue is pretty subtle, but I think it looks nice:
Here are all four colors side by side — silver, starlight, sky blue, and midnight:
RIP, space gray MacBook Air.
With that aside, let’s talk about some other things:
- Getting the starting price of the newest 13-inch MacBook Air down to $999 is huge. Previously, the M3 model was $1,099 with the M2 sticking around at $999.
- Related: It appears that the M2 and M3 models are both gone.
- The M4 Air can be topped out with 32 GB of unified memory and 2 TB of storage, in both the 13- and 15-inch models.
- The only differences in the M4 chips across the MacBook Air line comes down to the number of GPU cores. All models come with a 10‑core CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. GPUs can be had in 8 or 10 cores.
- The optional 70 watt USB-C charger enables fast charging, which is pretty cool.
- Wi-Fi 6E remains. Wi-Fi 7 is becoming more available in the world, and I hope Apple catches up with the M5.
- The new Center Stage camera supports that cool-but-kinda-weird Desk View mode, where it can show what’s in front of the laptop.
- The M4 MacBook Air now supports up to two 6K external displays in addition to its built-in display.
The new MacBook Air is available for pre-order today and ships March 12. If you have an Intel MacBook Air — or even an M1 — this seems like a great upgrade, particularly if you like blue.