
M4 MacBook Air Review: The Best Laptop Gets Slightly Better And Cheaper
www.forbes.com
The 15-inch M4 MacBook AirBen SinApples been releasing new silicon at a breakneck pace, sometimes shorter than the usual one year period. The M4, for example, debuted just 10 months after the M3. As a result, Apples computing products are also seeing more frequent updates, because selling a laptop with a chip that is not the newest version out isnt a good look.And so, just barely 12 months after the last update comes a new MacBook Airthis time powered by Apples latest M4 chip. This update is purely a silicon bump (unless you count the new Sky Blue colorway), meaning the only physical change is the chip inside. Otherwise, from the display resolution to the memory used; chassis design to the number of ports, everything remains the same from the M3 and M2 versions.In other words, the M4 MacBook Air is a so-called boring update, but thats okay. I am much more forgiving of laptops and tablets keeping the same design/look/hardware for years than smartphones, because these are productivity machines that sit on a desk. Its not a phone that is with us every waking moment of our life, becoming a far more personal item.M4 MacBook Air in new Sky Blue colorBen SinPlus, Apples MacBooks are so mainstream and dominant, and Apple fans are so loyal to the ecosystem, that these frequent updates make sense, because theres always someone out there trying to buy a new MacBook.And most impressively, Apple managed to cut the price on the new MacBook Air line at a time when consumer tech products are increasing in price. The 13-inch model starts at $999 and the 15-incher starts at $1,199. This is $100 lower than the M3 models launched last year.For this review, I opted for the larger 15-inch machine. Its just about the perfect size for someone who does the bulk of their work off a laptop on the go. The extra two-inch in screen real estate makes a difference when pinning two windows side-by-side, or when scrubbing through a video timeline in Final Cut Pro.M4 MacBook AirBen SinThe display is an IPS LCD panel which Apple calls Liquid Retina, meaning its resolution (2880 X 1864) is sharper than 1080p, which is beyond where human eyes can pick apart individual pixels. The screen does look great, with accurate color reproduction, excellent viewing angles without color shift, and a max brightness of 500 nits which is good for a laptop.I do wish the refresh rate would be 120Hz instead of 60Hz, and an OLED panel would produce deeper blacks. I also wish it had the option to add an anti-reflective nanotexture matte coating like the Pro MacBooks can, but these are minor nitpicks. I suppose had Apple added any of those, the price jumps up.There are six speakers in the MacBook Air, which are hidden in seams between the body and lid hinge. Surprisingly, for speakers that are out of the way, the MacBook Air pumps out full audio with support for spatial audio. This makes the MacBook Air a good media consumption machine for most people.The keyboard and trackpad are great as usual: backlit keys, over 1mm of travel, large trackpad that can be tapped or clicked anywhere, with tremendous haptic feedback. Apples MacBooks and iPad trackpads are the best in the business in my opinion.The laptop weighs 3.3lbs.Ben SinThere are still only just two USB-C ports on the left side, along with a MagSafe port. On the right is a headphone jack. I think Apple should give us one extra USB-C port on the right. Even if not one extra one, then move one of the ports on the left to the right. Having all the ports on left side could result in awkward situations such as when you want to run an external screen on the right side of the laptop, but need to have a cable run all the way across to the left.The hardware is excellent, but again, nothing new. Youve seen this laptop at least 100 times in the past year. Heck, if you live in major cities like Hong Kong or New York and you go to cafes, youve seen this laptop 1,000 times.What improvements does the M4 chip bring? The M4 isnt as big a jump over the M3 as the latter was over the M2. The M4 is still built on 3nm architecture like the M3, but its a second-generation 3nm architecture and it does carry more transistors 28 billion to 25 billion in the M3.This translates to more power, of course. But more efficiency too. I find the M4 MacBook Air to last slightly longer than the M3 machine doing the same workload. Ive actually been sitting at a cafe typing words on this M4 machine for three and half hours, with 19 Safari tabs opened and Spotify streaming music the whole time, and the laptop only drained 19% battery.The M4 chip also allows the MacBook Air to connect to two external monitors while keeping its screen on (so, three screens at once). The M3 could not do this (maximum two screens). In benchmarks, the M4 is 30% faster than the M3 in GPU, which is no small task.I edited multiple videos on Final Cut Pro on the M4 MacBook Air entirely on battery, and there was never a delay, a lag, or any stutter in performance. Everything ran smooth, and a 12-minute 4K/30 video exported in under five minutes.M4 MacBook Air screenBen SinOn the software front, the new laptop ships with MacOS Sequoia. It brings some useful new features like ability to mirror an iPhone on the laptop screen, and also a slightly more capable Apple Intelligence. Theres also automatic windows tiling just move a window to left or right side of the screen and it snaps into exactly left or right half of screen, allowing for faster multi-tasking.I like MacOS much more than Windows, and its been my computing platform of choice for 6-7 years. Sequoia continues the refined experience.Ultimately, the MacBook Air is the worlds best selling laptop for a reason, and with a new chip and lower price, the M4 models will continue that dominance.
0 Comments
·0 Shares
·35 Views