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MacBook Air M4 Review: The perfect computer for practically everybody?
Mar 21, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/reviews/m4-macbook-air-review More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:18 What I ordered 2:32 Design 4:20 Sky Blue 5:53 Display 7:09 Ports & Connections 8:32 Performance 9:40 Miscellaneous 10:29 Conclusion The 2025 #Apple #MacBook with Apple's #M4 processor comes as close as you can get to a perfect computer for just about everyone. As I found during testing for this review, Apple crammed tons of power into a svelte, lightweight #MacBookAir design. And this combination has never been more affordable. Follow us!
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0:00
the 2025 M4 MacBook Air might be as
0:03
close as you can get to the perfect
0:05
computer for just about everyone Apple
0:09
crammed tons of power into a slim
0:12
lightweight design that has never been
0:14
more affordable it may look familiar on
0:17
the outside but the M4 chip is a whole
0:20
different Beast the leap from M3 to M4
0:23
is the biggest jump in performance since
0:26
the original transition from Intel
0:28
processors to Apple Sil con here's my
0:33
review if someone needs a Mac you always
0:37
start with the MacBook Air it's only if
0:40
they insist that they never need to take
0:42
it anywhere that you recommend an iMac
0:44
or Mac Mini instead only if they're a
0:47
professional graphic designer video
0:49
editor programmer or in another such
0:52
trade that you tell them to get a
0:53
MacBook Pro ever since Apple began
0:56
putting its own custom-designed chips in
0:58
the Mac the MacBook Air has had a sort
1:00
of elevated status it's no longer just
1:03
the cheap one or just the lightweight
1:06
one it's now powerful enough for nearly
1:09
everybody's daily work it just so
1:12
happens to also only weigh 2.7 lb and
1:15
get 18 hours of battery life I bought
1:18
the entrylevel MacBook Air the one
1:20
nearly everybody will be buying for
1:23
$999 you get a 13.6 in Retina Display
1:27
256 GB of storage 16 GB of unified
1:31
memory two Thunderbolt 4 or USBC ports a
1:36
30 W mag safe power adapter Wi-Fi 6E and
1:40
Bluetooth 5.3 there's no longer an old
1:43
MacBook Air artificially lowering the
1:45
entry-level price point the $999 model
1:49
is Apple's latest and greatest and in
1:53
the Apple education store it's an even
1:55
cheaper
1:56
$899 thankfully all MacBook airs now now
2:00
come with 16 GB of unified memory so the
2:03
only spec you're likely to upgrade is
2:06
the storage 256 GB of storage can feel
2:09
pretty cramped if you use a lot of pro
2:11
desktop apps upgrading to 512 GB of
2:15
storage only costs
2:17
$200 and comes with a slightly nicer M4
2:20
chip upgrading to 24 GB of unified
2:23
memory costs an extra $200 but you're
2:26
not as likely to need that and upgrading
2:28
to the 15-in display also adds $200 the
2:32
M4 MacBook Air carries on the design of
2:34
the prior M2 and M3 models that is to
2:37
say that it no longer has the iconic
2:39
wedge shape it dawned through the 2010s
2:43
but instead looks like a Slimmer MacBook
2:45
Pro and it is much Slimmer the body
2:49
without the feet is thinner than an
2:51
iPhone 16 Pro the rounded body and
2:54
squared off lid means your hands no
2:56
longer get confused about whether you're
2:58
grabbing the top or the bottom you can
2:59
can feel the different edges it's
3:01
attractive well balanced and lightweight
3:04
the feet on the bottom are a little
3:06
thick raising the MacBook over the
3:08
surface of the desk but hopefully offer
3:10
a degree of protection if a drink is
3:12
spilled on a table nearby though I did
3:15
not test that myself the hinge continues
3:18
to be the best in the industry holding
3:20
the display perfectly still while it's
3:22
easily adjustable with a single finger
3:24
the keyboard is fine for a laptop
3:26
keyboard I felt a little clumsy typing
3:28
on it since I'm using to larger keys
3:31
with more travel it's odd that it no
3:33
longer has keyboard backlight brightness
3:35
controls as F5 and F6 and if you set up
3:39
your Macbook Air from the backup of a
3:41
desktop Mac you won't find the keyboard
3:43
brightness control in control center you
3:46
have to add it yourself in system
3:48
settings I feel like I would use the
3:51
keyboard brightness control more often
3:53
than I would use dictation or do not
3:56
disturb keys but you can customize it
3:59
yourself using an app like carabin or
4:01
elements the large trackpad is absolute
4:05
perfection it's completely smooth
4:07
frictionless glass the force touch
4:09
feature with haptic feedback is
4:11
unparalleled the Palm rejection which
4:14
prevents your wrist from errantly
4:16
tapping the trackpad while you're typing
4:17
on the keyboard is Flawless of course I
4:20
had to order the new Macbook Air in its
4:23
new color sky blue in the lighting of
4:25
the Apple Store it actually looked about
4:27
as blue as its promotional IM Imes
4:30
online when you take it home it's more
4:32
of a cooler silver it has more color to
4:35
it than Starlight but it only looks blue
4:39
in the brightest of rooms you know how
4:41
when you're at a fast food restaurant
4:42
and you want to get a cup of water but
4:44
the fountain drink machine only has a
4:46
combined water and lemonade dispenser so
4:49
you press the little water lever but a
4:51
little squirt of lemonade comes out in
4:53
the beginning and so your cup of water
4:55
is like slightly
4:56
off that's about how blue it is Apple
4:59
has previously stated that the reason it
5:02
doesn't use Bolder colors on its
5:04
computers is that in practice users find
5:07
the colors to be distracting and that
5:09
very well may be true the iMac is super
5:12
vibrant on the back but more muted on
5:15
its face but any parent will tell you
5:17
that at some point you just need to let
5:19
the kid make the mistake for themselves
5:21
let them eat too much sugar for dinner
5:23
once so that they get a little sick and
5:26
don't ask again Apple should release un
5:29
obnoxiously blue MacBook Air that's as
5:32
blue as the blueberry iBook G3 just once
5:36
some people will buy it some people will
5:39
realize that it was a terrible mistake
5:42
then either Apple can pair back the
5:44
colors and people won't complain anymore
5:47
or it will have been so popular that
5:49
Apple will have been proven wrong it's a
5:51
win-win scenario even on Apple's
5:54
entrylevel laptop the company can't help
5:56
but make a fantastic display it's a
5:59
bright 500 nits which is plenty bright
6:01
for a well-lit indoor environment while
6:03
the M4 MacBook Pro puts out a brighter
6:06
1,000 nits for outdoor yes I had no
6:09
trouble at all using the M4 MacBook Air
6:11
in broad daylight on a clear day in fact
6:14
I wrote this very part of the review
6:16
Outdoors on my back porch the MacBook
6:18
Pro also supports HDR and well that's
6:21
also absent on the air its P3 color
6:24
gamut gives you over a billion vibrant
6:27
colors the 13.6 in re a display has
6:30
resolution of 2560 X
6:33
1664 while it's a midsized laptop the
6:36
high resolution and slim bezzel gives
6:38
you plenty of desktop space you can run
6:41
it in a scaling mode for even more space
6:43
if you need it if your eyes are sharp
6:45
enough although text will be slightly
6:47
fuzzier you have enough room to
6:49
passively use the Pro apps that
6:51
typically demand Acres of screen real
6:53
estate like Affinity photo Final Cut Pro
6:57
or logic pro but you probably won't be
6:59
bouncing between them side by side as
7:02
you might on a desktop if you use these
7:04
apps regularly and plan on doing so on
7:06
the go I'd recommend the 15-in model but
7:09
of course it's not all about the
7:10
built-in display you can plug in up to
7:12
two 6K desktop displays in addition to
7:16
the built-in display now all I had on
7:19
hand to test it with were two 5K
7:22
displays like some kind of filthy
7:25
peasant but I ran each in a scaling mode
7:28
to get the gist of 6K resolution and I
7:31
was absolutely swimming in screen space
7:35
and thanks to the magic of Thunderbolt 4
7:38
a single cable can connect you to both
7:40
displays while charging the computer and
7:43
powering extra accessories you can keep
7:46
your mag safe cable permanently tucked
7:48
away in your bag for when you're on the
7:50
go and instantly dock your MacBook when
7:53
you're at home my only complaint is that
7:55
the headphone jack is on the wrong side
7:58
most headphones are wired up to the left
8:00
ear cup so most headphone Jacks are on
8:03
the left side but the headphone jack on
8:06
the MacBook Air is on the right side on
8:08
the opposite side of all the other ports
8:12
but it's a mild inconvenience the M4
8:14
chip is capable of handling much more
8:17
than the MacBook Air comes with the Mac
8:19
Mini for example comes with three
8:21
Thunderbolt 4 ports and two USBC ports
8:24
HDMI and ethernet but the two
8:27
Thunderbolt ports it has offer all the
8:29
connectivity you'd ever really need with
8:32
apple silicon the MacBook Air continues
8:34
to defy all expectations of performance
8:37
it continues to Astound me what a device
8:40
so impossibly thin is capable of I timed
8:44
various tasks I do in my regular work I
8:47
rendered a video in Final Cut Pro
8:49
exported an episode of the cultcast
8:51
created an AI transcription using Mac
8:54
whisper ran a benchmark test and xcode
8:57
and ran a data mining python script via
8:59
the command line it seems I can now get
9:01
better performance out of this thin
9:04
fanless laptop than I can out of my M2
9:07
Pro Mac Mini from Just 2 years ago that
9:09
I spent much more money on that is
9:13
trickle down performance unlike
9:15
performance PC laptops the MacBook Air
9:17
performs identically when it's plugged
9:20
in as it does on battery in fact I
9:23
completed all these tests unplugged over
9:27
the course of an entire morning and the
9:29
battery it only drained to about
9:32
94% and it's under 3 lb and it's under
9:36
half an inch thick the difference could
9:38
not be more Stark the camera is fine
9:41
it's good enough for the occasional
9:42
meeting or FaceTime call but it's too
9:44
grainy and smudgy for much more than
9:47
that it now supports center stage and
9:49
desk view both of which are excellent
9:51
features the speakers are plenty loud
9:54
for personal use watching a video but
9:57
unsurprisingly they're pretty tinny with
9:59
virtually no base Apple has slightly
10:01
tweaked the keyboard icons the mute icon
10:05
now has a slash over the speaker making
10:07
it easier to differentiate from the
10:09
volume down icon the symbols on the
10:11
command option and control keys are now
10:14
aligned outwards with the space bar
10:16
rather than inwords also the underscore
10:19
symbol has been lowered relative to the
10:22
parentheses and plus symbols next to it
10:24
making it more obvious that it's an
10:26
underscore and not an N Dash most people
10:30
if they own anything other than a phone
10:32
keep one additional device and if you
10:35
decide that device should be a laptop
10:37
the MacBook Air is the best choice there
10:39
is it's light as a feather and powerful
10:42
enough to handle everything I could
10:44
throw at it with absolute Grace although
10:48
personally I don't have room for a
10:50
Macbook in my life I always plan on
10:52
having some manner of desktop Mac to run
10:54
my Plex server and store my media
10:56
libraries and I'm happy with my Apple
10:58
vision Pro for handling lighter work and
11:01
home entertainment if I were to add
11:03
another form factor to the mix I would
11:05
add an M3 iPad Air for its unique
11:08
capabilities as a tablet but still I was
11:11
impressed by the MacBook Air it's good
11:13
to know that the vast majority of people
11:15
who prefer using a laptop still have an
11:18
excellent choice I'm deerin Jones with
11:21
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