MacBook Air

Apple refreshed the MacBook Air in March 2025, adding a new light Sky Blue color option and a faster M4 chip. The MacBook Air is at the beginning of its product cycle, which means now is the best time to buy. A new model is not expected until 2026 at the earliest.

The 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models feature M4 chips, with price, display size, and speakers as the only significant differentiating factors between the two sizes. If weight and portability are a concern, the 13-inch MacBook Air may be the better option than the 15-inch MacBook Air, which is larger and heavier.

The MacBook Air is Apple's most popular computer. It is the best machine for most people because it is ideal for day-to-day tasks. The exception would be those who need the MacBook Pro for more system intensive apps for video editing, photo editing, and 3D rendering.

Pricing on the M4 MacBook Air starts at $999 for the 13-inch version, and $1,199 for the 15-inch model. The MacBook Air is Apple's most affordable notebook machine.

• M3 vs. M4 Chip Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M4?
• M2 vs. M3 vs. M4 MacBook Air Buyer's Guide: 25+ Differences Compared

Apple updated the MacBook Air line in March 2025, refreshing the 13.6-inch and the 15.3-inch models. Both of the new MacBook Air machines include the updated M4 chip, which is built on a newer 3-nanometer process. With 13- and 15-inch options, the MacBook Air lineup is suitable for those who want portability and those who prefer larger displays, with no need for those who want a bigger screen to shell out more money for the MacBook Pro lineup.

Apple did not change the design of the MacBook Air with the 2025 update, using the same design that was first introduced in 2022. The MacBook Air continues to feature the same uniform, flat body, similar to the MacBook Pro.

The 13-inch MacBook Air measures in at 11.97 inches wide and 8.46 inches tall. It is 11.3mm thick and it weighs 2.7 pounds. The 15-inch MacBook Air is 13.4 inches wide and 9.35 inches tall. It is 11.5mm thick, and at 3.3 pounds, it weighs a half pound more than the 13-inch model. It is, however, lighter than the 3.6 pound 14-inch MacBook Pro.

Thin black bezels surround a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display for the 13-inch model and a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display for the 15-inch model, both of which support 1 billion colors and feature 500 nits brightness.

There is a notch at the top of the MacBook Air display, which allows for more screen space around the new 12-megapixel FaceTime camera that also supports Center Stage and Desk View. There is a four-speaker sound system in the 13-inch MacBook Air that supports spatial audio and wide stereo, while the 15-inch model has a six-speaker system. Both models include a three-microphone array.

The MacBook Air comes in Silver, Starlight, Midnight, and Sky Blue, a light blue shade that is new this year. Sky Blue replaces Space Gray, and there is no Space Gray MacBook Air this year. The MacBook Air continues to feature a black keyboard with Touch ID and a large Force Touch trackpad.

Two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports are available on the MacBook Air along with a MagSafe port for charging purposes and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones.

The battery in the MacBook Air lasts for up to 18 hours when watching movies or TV, and up to 15 hours when browsing the web. It supports fast-charging with an optional 70W USB-C power adapter. Both models have the same battery life.

The MacBook Air models use Apple's M4 chip, which replaces the prior-generation M3 chip. The M4 has a 10-core CPU, along with an integrated GPU that has up to 10 cores.

The M4 offers up to 30 percent faster CPU performance than the M3 chip, and up to 20 percent faster GPU performance. It also includes an updated 16-core Neural Engine capable of executing 38 trillion operations per second.

Base unified memory starts at 16GB, and the MacBook Air can be upgraded with up to 32GB unified memory, an improvement over the prior 24GB memory cap.

Pricing on the 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 chip starts at $999, while the 15-inch MacBook Air is priced starting at $1,199. There are SSD, memory, and processor upgrades available for both models at higher prices.

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The M4 MacBook Air can be ordered from Apple's online store and other retailers. Pricing starts at $999 for the 13-inch machine, while pricing on the 15-inch machine starts at $1,199.

Reviews of the MacBook Air were unsurprisingly positive, given that the machine is the same as the prior-generation model but with a new chip. The MacBook Air is generally always well-received, and this year's model is an exceptionally good value. It's priced starting at $999, and comes with an M4 chip and 16GB RAM, making it more powerful than the $999 M2 version it replaced.

With no design changes, the MacBook Air's update isn't the most exciting, but reviewers liked the new 12-megapixel Center Stage camera that provides better image quality during video calls. Reviewers found that the battery lived up to Apple's stated claims, lasting for up to 15 hours when browsing the web.

There's a new Sky Blue color, but reviewers weren't impressed with the subtlety of the shade. In some lights, it's more silver than blue, and not particularly saturated at all.

For the most part, the reviewers said that the M4 MacBook Air is an excellent choice for those coming from an Intel-based Mac or a Mac with an M1 chip, but there's no reason to upgrade to the M4 if you already have an M2 or M3 MacBook Air.

For more MacBook Air reviews, check out our review roundup.

Apple redesigned the MacBook Air in 2022, introducing a flat MacBook Pro-style body that's the same thickness from front to back, a departure from the tapered look that previous models used. With the 2025 refresh, Apple is using that same design, and we won't be due for a new look for a few more years.

The 2025 MacBook Air models are available in 15.3-inch and 13.6-inch sizes, both of which use the same design. The two models look the same except for the screen size. The 13-inch MacBook Air is 11.97 inches (30.41 cm) long, 8.46 inches (21.5 cm) deep, and 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick, and it weighs in at 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg).

The 15-inch MacBook Air is notably larger. It is 0.45 inches (1.15 cm) thick, so just a touch thicker than the 13-inch version. It is 13.4 inches (34.04 cm) long and 9.35 inches (23.76 cm) deep, and it is heavier at 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg).

Two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports are available at the left side of both machines, along with a MagSafe charging port on the left and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right. There are four rubber feet on the bottom of the machine, another MacBook Pro-style design touch.

There are black bezels around the display, similar to the prior-generation model, and the MacBook Air features a black Magic Keyboard with no Touch Bar, along with a large Force Touch trackpad.

Apple sells the MacBook Air models in Silver, Starlight (a light gold), Midnight (a dark blue color), and Sky Blue, a light blue color that is new in 2025. Space Gray has been removed from the lineup this year.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The 2025 MacBook Air uses the same Magic Keyboard from the prior-generation model. It features a scissor switch mechanism that is able to hold up to dust and particulates without failing, unlike the butterfly keyboards that Apple used in older Macs.

The scissor mechanism in the MacBook Air's keyboard offers 1mm of key travel and a stable key feel, plus it uses an Apple-designed rubber dome that stores more potential energy for a more responsive key press. The keyboard also features backlit keys controlled by an ambient light sensor to light up the keys in dark rooms. The MacBook Air has a full row of function keys with no Touch Bar. Apple made a small tweak to the keyboard this year, adding a line through the mute function key to indicate that sound has been disabled.

Below the keyboard, there's a large Force Touch trackpad that is unchanged from prior models. The Force Touch trackpad has no traditional buttons and is powered by a set of Force Sensors, allowing users to press anywhere on the trackpad to get the same response. A Taptic Engine powered by magnets provides users with tactile feedback when using the trackpad, replacing the feel of a physical button press.

The Force Touch trackpad supports a light press, which is used as a regular click, along with a deeper press or "force click" as a separate gesture that does things like offer up definitions for a highlighted word.

Touch ID

The M4 MacBook Air has a Touch ID fingerprint sensor that's located next to the function keys at the top of the keyboard. Touch ID is powered by a Secure Enclave that keeps your fingerprint data and personal information safe.

Touch ID on the MacBook Air can be used instead of a password, unlocking the Mac when a finger is placed on the sensor. It also replaces a password for password-protected apps, and it can be used to make Apple Pay purchases in Safari.

Ports

The MacBook Air features two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports that support transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s, plus there's a MagSafe 3 charging port. Apple opted not to add more versatile Thunderbolt 5 ports, present in its latest higher-end Macs, to the MacBook Air.

Apple still includes a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones.

There are two MacBook Air models, one with a display that measures in at 13.6 inches and one with a display that measures in at 15.3 inches. Both models have slim bezels and use "Liquid Retina Display Technology," with no new changes to display technology in 2025. Like the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air has a notch to allow for more display space while still providing access to a 12-megapixel webcam.

The 13-inch MacBook Air has a 2560 by 1664 resolution with 224 pixels per inch, while the 15-inch MacBook Air has a 2880 by 1864 resolution, also with 224 pixels per inch. Both displays offer support for 1 billion colors and P3 Wide color for vivid, true-to-life colors. Brightness maxes out at 500 nits.

The display in the MacBook Air uses True Tone, which is designed to tweak the color of the display to match the lighting in the room. True Tone works through a multi-channel ambient light sensor that's included in the MacBook Air models, which is able to determine both the brightness of the room and the color temperature.

After detecting the white balance, the MacBook Air is able to adjust both the color and intensity of the display to match the room's lighting for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience that also cuts down on eyestrain.

The MacBook Air models feature Apple's M4 chip, built on its next-generation N3E technology. The M3 chips were also 3nm chips, but were built on the N3 node. Compared to the M3, the M4 has 12 percent more transistors at 28 billion instead of 25 billion.

Rather than an 8-core CPU, it has a 10-core CPU with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. There is a built-in 8-core to 10-core GPU that's more power efficient than the GPU in the M3 chip.

The M4 continues to support Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and mesh shading like the M3, for better performance for pro apps and games.

Dynamic Caching allocates the use of local memory in hardware in real time, so only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task. It increases the average utilization of the GPU, thereby increasing performance for demanding pro apps and games.

With hardware-accelerated ray tracing, light looks more realistic as it interacts with a scene, allowing for more physically accurate images. Game developers can use the ray-tracing and mesh shading for more accurate shadows and reflections as well as more efficient geometry processing.

When it comes to single-core CPU performance, the M4 is up to 25 percent faster than the M3, and it is up to 30 percent faster in multi-core CPU performance. The GPU is up to 21 percent faster.

Neural Engine

With the M4 chip, Apple debuted an upgraded 16-core Neural Engine that offers an 111 percent improvement in performance. It is able to execute 38 trillion operations per second, up from 18 trillion operations per second in the M3.

The M4 supports Apple Intelligence, and AI and machine learning tasks are faster than ever thanks to the Neural Engine.

Media Engine

Apple includes a media engine in its Apple silicon chips to speed up video processing while preserving battery life. The M4 offers dedicated acceleration for the ProRes video codec, along with video encode/decode engines and hardware accelerated support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW.

Memory

The M4 uses a system-on-a-chip architecture with support for up to 32GB unified memory, up from a 24GB maximum in the prior-generation MacBook Air. Memory bandwidth has also increased, and it is now at 120GB/s, up from 100GB/s.

Display Engine

The M4 chip has an included display engine that is able to drive multiple external displays.

With the new chip, the 2025 MacBook Air supports two external displays at 6K resolution at 60Hz. The 2024 model supported just one external display at 6K resolution, and while you could use two displays at 5K resolution, the functionality only worked in clamshell mode. The M4 model supports two displays without compromises.

Storage

The base model MacBook Air machines have 256GB SSDs, but they can be updated with up to 2TB of storage.

The 13-inch MacBook Air is equipped with a 53.8-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, while the 15-inch MacBook Air has a 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. Though the 15-inch MacBook Air's battery is larger, both machines last for up to 18 hours when watching movies using the Apple TV app, or up to 15 hours when wirelessly browsing the web.

The base model 13-inch MacBook Air ships with a 30W USB-C power adapter, but for an additional $20, customers can upgrade to a 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter or a 70W USB-C power adapter that supports fast charging. The higher-tier 13-inch models and all 15-inch MacBook Air models ships with the 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter, but customers can opt for the 70W USB-C power adapter at no additional charge.

Connectivity

The MacBook Air supports Wi-Fi 6E, which means it is able to connect to 6GHz networks. It also supports the Bluetooth 5.3 specification.

Speakers and Microphone

The 13-inch MacBook Air features a four-speaker sound system with improved stereo separation and vocal clarity from two tweeters and two ultra-thin woofers. There is more space in the 15-inch MacBook Air, so it is equipped with a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers for superior sound. The sound system is one of the few differences between the 13- and 15-inch models.

Both MacBook Air speaker systems support wide stereo sound and Spatial Audio. Spatial Audio is available when playing music or video with Dolby Atmos on the built-in speakers, and Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking can be used with the third-generation AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

The MacBook Air is also equipped with a three-microphone array with directional beamforming for enhanced voice clarity in audio and video calls, with support Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum microphone modes.

FaceTime Camera

The 2025 MacBook Air has been upgraded with the same 12-megapixel front-facing FaceTime camera that's in the MacBook Pro, and it's a major upgrade over the prior 1080p FaceTime camera.

An image signal processor built into the M4 chip ensures that images are sharp, and it allows for natural-looking skin tones. The MacBook Air is also able to use an iPhone as a webcam.

The camera supports Center Stage for keeping you in frame no matter where you move in a room, and it works with Desk View, so you can show what's on your physical desk in front of you if you need to demonstrate something on a video call.

13-Inch MacBook Air

There are three stock 13-inch M3 MacBook Air configurations available from Apple, in Silver, Starlight, Midnight, and Sky Blue

• $999 - 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD.
• $1,199 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.
• $1,399 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD.

Entry-Level 13-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 10-core GPU - +$100
• 24GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 32GB Unified Memory - +$400
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• 2TB SSD - +$800
• 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter - +$20
• 70W USB-C Power Adapter - +$20

Middle-Tier 13-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 24GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 32GB Unified Memory - +$400
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600

Higher-End 13-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 32GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600

15-Inch MacBook Air

There are three stock 15-inch MacBook Air configurations available from Apple as well.

• $1,199 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD.
• $1,399 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.
• $1,599 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD.

Entry-Level 15-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 24GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 24GB Unified Memory - +$400
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• 2TB SSD - +$800

Middle-Tier 15-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 24GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 24GB Unified Memory - +$400
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600

Higher-End 15-Inch MacBook Air Upgrade Options

• 32GB Unified Memory - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600

Apple is working on an updated MacBook Air with an M5 chip, and it is expected to launch sometime in 2026.

Apple plans to add a more advanced LCD panel to the MacBook Air in 2027, with the display set to use Oxide TFT technology instead of amorphous silicon, which is used now. Oxide TFT panels provide better power efficiency and improved performance that brings smoother scrolling, sharper images, and better battery life.

After upgrading to Oxide TFT LCD panels, Apple will bring OLED to the MacBook Air sometime around 2029.