After Apple announced a new M3 iPad Air and 11th gen entry-level iPad yesterday, the company is following up today with new versions of its 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air powered by its M4 chip. The company is also dropping the price of the 13-inch MacBook Air to $999, and both models are available in a new sky blue color.
While the design of the M4 MacBook Air is unchanged, the 13-inch and 15-inch models get a 12MP Center Stage camera with support for Desk View, and they also support up to two 6K external displays. All of Apple’s laptops now start with 16GB of RAM, and the M4 MacBook Air can now be upgraded to 32GB (M3 models were limited to 24GB).
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Apple’s M4 chip made its debut in the 2024 iPad Pro and MacBook Pro last year, and it comes with up to 10 GPU cores compared to 8 cores on the M3. However, battery life is unchanged and Apple still promises up to 18 hours of battery life on the 13-inch and 15-inch models, which is inferior to the 24 hours on the base M4 MacBook Pro.
Apple said that its M4 MacBook Air is up to 2x faster than the M1 model from 2020 and up to 23x faster than the fastest Intel-based model. “Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of $999, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air starts at $999 and the 15‑inch model at $1,199, and there’s still a $100 discount for education customers. Both models are available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver, and you can pre-order them today ahead of their release on March 12. Apple also announced today a new Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips, and I’ll have more details on this new workstation in a separate post.
