Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 review: Rarified Air

The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 lands an interesting position in Apple's lineup, one that could be overlooked in favor of the cheaper 13-inch MacBook Air M4 or the more powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro M4. But, like its siblings, it deserves to be in the conversation for the best laptops overall.

Its increasingly rare 15-inch size may be partly to blame, as most laptop manufacturers have settled around 14-inch and 16-inch sizes for mainstream laptops. However, that rarified size might make it the right fit for you.

Beyond a new M4 chipset, the 15-inch MacBook Air gets a Center Stage webcam, a fresh Sky Blue colorway, and perhaps most importantly a $100 price drop for 2025.

It's not a massive transformation, but those changes add up. Let's take a closer look at how the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 held up to our rigorous testing and review process.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Specs and benchmarks

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Price and configurations

Like its smaller sibling, the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 gets a $100 price drop across the board from last year’s M3 pricing. Considering we’re expecting the exact opposite from most consumer tech in 2025, this is certainly a welcome surprise from Apple, particularly considering the base model still starts with 16GB of RAM — double what the 15-inch M3 offered when it launched in March 2024.

The base configuration of the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is now $1,199 and includes 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an Apple M4 processor with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. If you're looking to get the best band for your buck, the key is trying to stay as close to this base configuration as possible.

Apple hasn’t lowered the prices on any of the MacBook Air's upgrades, so just a few tweaks to this configuration will have you waving goodbye to that startlingly affordable opening price.

My review unit is valued at $1,399 and doubles the base model storage to 512GB, but otherwise matches it exactly. This is a smart choice if you plan on keeping your laptop for at least five years, as it will help keep things running smoothly as your files pile up.

If you consider yourself a power user, you may also want to consider paying an additional $200 to upgrade to 24GB of RAM. You'll get a smoother computing experience under heavy load, but you’ll now face a $1,599 price tag, the same starting price for the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4. If you're unsure which of these devices suits you best, consider perusing our MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro buying guide for a helping hand.

If you are a student, the parent of a student, a faculty member, or staff at any school (including homeschool teachers), you are eligible to shop through Apple’s Education Store, which will take another $100 off the price of any configuration.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Design

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 didn’t get any major design changes this year, but I’ll take it in exchange for that price drop. Apple is likely a generation or two away from another design shakeup for the Air. But, for now, this is a comfortable classic.

One potentially notable change is that “Sky Blue” replaces “Space Gray” as a color option. That said, I would challenge you to identify it as blue without a Silver or Starlight MacBook next to it to differentiate. I’d love to see at least one bold color option for the Air in the future, but, for the time being, a slight shift in hue is all we get.

Inside, things remain similarly unchanged. The MacBook Air's bezels are small enough on the display that they don’t call attention to themselves, and the build quality of the laptop remains impeccable.

As mentioned, the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is in somewhat rarified air these days as a 15-inch laptop. Most laptop manufacturers have abandoned this size, so we’re comparing it to some of the best 14-inch laptops, but if you want something even larger, some of the best 16-inch laptops are still quite thin-and-light.

At 3.3 pounds and 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.44 inches, the MacBook Air 15-inch is slightly heavier than its 14-inch rivals here but manages to maintain a very similar footprint, so you should have no problem fitting it in any of the best laptop bags. Here’s how the competition measures up.

• Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406): 2.6 pounds, 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.51 inches
• MacBook Air 15-inch M3: 3.3 pounds, 12 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches
• Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): 2.9 pounds, 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Ports

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The MacBook Air 15 M4’s port selection mirrors the minimal collection found on the 13-inch Air:

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C
• 1 x MagSafe 3
• 1 x headphone mic/jack

I’m more disappointed in the 15-inch model's port selection than its 13-inch sibling, as there is unquestionably space on the larger chassis to accommodate additional I/O. Even as little as a third Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C port on the right-hand side of the laptop would make for a welcome addition.

With that said, the MagSafe 3 connection alleviates some of the pain as the two Type-C Thunderbolt ports aren’t tied up with charging. If you opt for the dual charger, you’ll also have a second USB-C port available on the charger itself to charge another device rather than connecting to the laptop as an accessory.

For users with more robust port needs, we’ve tested and reviewed the best MacBook docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs to identify the perfect port partner for your Apple laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Battery life

You haven’t had to worry about battery life on a MacBook Air since the transition to Apple Silicon in 2020, and that isn’t changing this year. However, as you’ll see in our benchmark testing at the bottom of this section, there's also no notable uptick in battery life to anticipate either. Fortunately, that’s not much of a complaint given that the MacBook Air's uptime was already clocking in at above 15 hours.

After almost four years of dominance, MacBooks finally face serious competition in power efficiency with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops all claiming spots among our laptops with the best battery life throughout 2024. In 2025, Apple still offers the most consistently solid blend of performance to battery life, but it’s no longer a runaway victory.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves navigating a set group of websites with video and static images while the display is set at 150 nits of brightness, the MacBook Air 15 M4 lasted an average of 15 hours and 14 minutes. Here’s how that stacks up against the battery life of the Air M4’s rivals.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Display

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 features a 15.3-inch 2880 x 1864 Liquid Retina LCD display. Many of the best Windows laptops in this price range offer either OLED or 120Hz refresh rate displays, but Apple has kept high-end display features as a MacBook Pro exclusive.

I watched the trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps on YouTube in 2160p for my real-world testing, and the '60s action looked sharp, although not as vibrant as I've seen on some of the OLED laptops I have tested previously. However, that's only really noticeable when viewing them side-by-side, which presumably isn't something you would be doing — in a vacuum, the colors are accurate and look good.

Brightness is stellar with the Air M4 averaging 463 nits in our testing. In practical terms, this means you’ll be fine in anything other than direct sunlight, so you have nothing to fear from that table next to the window in your local coffee shop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Keyboard and touchpad

The notorious butterfly keyboard MacBooks were one of the key factors that had me switch to Windows in 2019, but, thankfully, Apple returned to a scissor switch in 2020 and has offered consistently excellent keyboards ever since.

Apple’s still guilty of not offering generous key travel, it's roughly 1mm on the 15-inch Air M4, but the responsiveness of the keys renders this a non-issue for me. In the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I hit 94 words per minute with 99% accuracy, outpacing my average of 88 words per minute with 99% accuracy.

I spent dozens of hours typing on this keyboard over the last few days and my fingers never felt fatigued. If key travel is a larger concern for you then our best laptops for writers guide includes some laptops with up to 1.5mm of key travel, or if you are regularly using your MacBook Air at home or the office, you could pair it with one of the best keyboards.

The touchpad measures 5.8 x 3.6 inches, which takes up a considerable amount of the laptop deck, but I didn’t find that it interfered with my hand placement while typing. Apple’s touchpads remain the gold standard, allowing for easy navigation and reliable multi-touch gestures.

I’m often working at my desk where I will always use one of the best wireless mice, but Apple’s touchpad doesn’t slow me down when I’m working away from home.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Audio

Both Air M4 models feature a quad-speaker system with support for Spatial Audio. Apple hasn’t unlocked the magic of delivering rumbling bass in this small chassis, but it's loud, clear, and does a remarkable job of creating a surround sound effect.

Relaxing Film Scores is one of my typical workday audio companions, “Time” by Hans Zimmer on the Inception soundtrack stuck out to me as I was running the 15-inch Air M4 through its paces. Subtly building from just a lone piano and strings to a thunderous collection of instruments echoing in my office, the Air did the song justice.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 speakers are certainly equal to the task if you need some ambient music or to watch a video with a friend, but if you’re in public and can’t blast your audio, the best wireless headphones will save you from silence.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Performance and heat

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is powered by a 10-core Apple M4 CPU, which represents a fairly significant performance boost over the M3, helping the Air once again challenge some of the strong Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite laptops that arrived in mid-2024.

The most notable jump among our benchmarks was the HandBrake video transcoding test, where the Air M4 shaved a full two minutes off the time it took to convert a 4k video to 1080p, dropping from 7:40 to 5:40. While the Air isn’t going to supplant the MacBook Pro on our best video editing laptops page, it’s certainly capable if the need arises.

For more general tasks, like loading up far more Chrome tabs and windows than is wise, the Air M4 is also game and easily handled three windows with roughly six tabs each, including three running 1080p YouTube videos. The Apple M4 is a match for as much of this kind of workload as you can throw at it, but if you are like me and have questionable window management habits, you may want to pay to upgrade the RAM to 24 or even 32GB.

Despite this powerful performance, the Air M4 keeps its cool, with the hottest point on the laptop only reaching 85.2 degrees Fahrenheit in our testing. That’s well below our 95-degree comfort threshold, making it a laptop-friendly laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Gaming and graphics

The MacBook Air is not a gaming laptop, but that doesn't mean you can't game on it. In fact, there are plenty of games that play perfectly fine on the Air, but if gaming is a primary interest for you, one of the best gaming laptops or best cheap gaming laptops will likely serve you far better.

We ran four gaming benchmarks on the MacBook Air M4, and only two were above our 30 frames-per-second playability standard. Those were the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Keep in mind, those games are over 6 years old, if your plans include modern AAA titles, look elsewhere.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: AI features

There are several Apple Intelligence features available on the MacBook Air 15-inch M4, but as with most of the best AI PCs, we are still in the early days of AI with the features always improving. The Air M4 is certainly well-equipped from a hardware standpoint to deliver on the promise of Apple Intelligence.

Writing Tools are one of the more universally applicable Apple Intelligence features available currently, offering editorial advice on your writing throughout macOS in addition to summarizing long text passages and notifications.

Several image-based AI features allow you to either generate images like Genmoji and Image Playground or craft memory movies from your own photos and videos. Finally, Siri has gained some expanded features with AI, including integration with ChatGPT.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Webcam

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 benefits from an upgrade to a 12MP Center Stage camera, and it is equally as impressive as the one found in the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4. The camera produces a sharp image that tolerates shifting lighting conditions better than some of the best webcams.

Even deliberately tiling it to catch the glare from the overhead lighting in my office, the camera adjusted effectively to avoid blowing out the image, a common failing of built-in webcams. Apple also added Desk View, which allows you to show your desktop and your face on camera simultaneously. This is a niche feature, but it works well for those that need it.

I hope to see other laptop manufacturers rise to the challenge now that Apple has brought a high-quality webcam to its entire laptop lineup, we still see far too many weak webcams in 2025, considering the prevalence of video calling for work and personal use.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Software and warranty

The MacBook Air 15 M4 comes with macOS Sequoia 15.3, which means the typical assortment of Apple apps installed by default. However, Apple is good about avoiding bloatware, so you shouldn’t have anything pressing to remove. Particularly if you have other devices in the Apple ecosystem, there are benefits to using Apple’s native apps like Notes, so consider giving them a try if you haven’t previously.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 ships with a typical one-year limited warranty, but it can be extended with AppleCare+ for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year on the MacBook Air 13-inch. AppleCare+ gives you access to technical support along with reduced costs for repairs, including a $99 fee to repair screen or external enclosure damage or $299 for other accidental damage.

Bottom line

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is a fairly unique laptop, delivering a larger screen in what is basically a 14-inch chassis, but it has far more than that to offer.

The M4 chip brings the Air back among the top-performing mainstream premium laptops while offering over 15 hours of battery life. The bright display makes it ideal for frequent travelers or anyone who is often working in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. That combination along with its reasonable pricing makes this one of the best student laptops.

While I would like to see Apple upgrade the display on the MacBook Air, that's more of a wish than a serious complaint as it is a good LCD panel. The limited ports are my biggest frustration with the 15-inch Air, and I'd concede it isn't a concern that will bother many users.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is an excellent laptop that will find its way to several of our buying guides in the coming weeks, but if you're unsure if it's the right choice for you, consider checking our best laptops page for our current top recommendations across numerous categories.