MacBook Air M4 (Early 2025) Unveiled: A Comprehensive Review

Apple continues its tradition with the release of the new MacBook Air in 2025, featuring yet another update to its System on a Chip (SoC). The MacBook Air 15 remains a sleek and portable laptop, perfect for office work, boasting impressive battery life and a stunning display. While it may not excel in running PC games, the MacBook Air's primary focus is on being a reliable, everyday workhorse, and it succeeds admirably in that role.

Purchasing Guide

The MacBook Air (M4, Early 2025) is now available, starting at $999 for the 13-inch model and $1,199 for the 15-inch model reviewed here. True to Apple's customization options, you can enhance your MacBook Air to meet your specific needs, such as upgrading to a 15-inch model with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for $2,399.

MacBook Air (M4, 2025) – Photos

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Design

The MacBook Air epitomizes the modern laptop, blending thinness and lightness into a package that weighs just 3.3 pounds, making it remarkably portable for a 15-inch device. Its slim profile is achieved through a sleek unibody aluminum chassis, less than half an inch thick. This thin design, a hallmark of the MacBook Air, continues to impress, particularly when compared to bulkier gaming laptops. The laptop's aesthetic is further enhanced by its clean lines, with speakers discreetly integrated into the hinge, allowing sound to be directed towards the display. This innovative approach not only maintains a fanless, sleek design but also leverages the laptop's lid as a natural amplifier for enhanced audio output.

The fanless configuration of the M4 chip contributes to a seamless, hole-free exterior, broken only by four rubber feet to protect the bottom from scratches. The top features the same reliable keyboard with deep travel, despite the laptop's slimness, and includes a fast and accurate TouchID sensor. The expansive touchpad, spanning the space between the 'Command' keys, offers excellent palm rejection, ensuring smooth and precise control. However, the port selection remains minimal, with two USB-C ports and a MagSafe connector on the left, and a headphone jack on the right. While the inclusion of a headphone jack is appreciated, the lack of additional ports like an SD card reader is a notable limitation.

Display

The MacBook Air's display, while not as advanced as the MacBook Pro's, is nonetheless impressive. It offers vibrant colors and good brightness, covering 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 100% of sRGB, making it ideal for a variety of tasks. The 15.3-inch, 1880p screen reaches up to 426 nits, providing sufficient visibility in most environments, though it shines best indoors. While it doesn't match the quality of an OLED display, it's more than adequate for everyday use, as evidenced by my enjoyable experience watching shows like The Clone Wars.

Performance

Benchmarking a MacBook can be challenging due to the limited compatibility of standard tests with macOS. However, the MacBook Air, equipped with a fanless M4 chip, is not designed for gaming but rather for productivity. In games like Total War: Warhammer 3 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, performance is understandably limited, with frame rates struggling at higher settings. Yet, for its intended purpose—productivity—the MacBook Air excels. With 32GB of RAM, it effortlessly handled multiple Safari tabs and Apple Music playback, demonstrating its prowess as a multitasking machine. It also managed light Photoshop work, though it faced challenges with more demanding tasks like noise filtering in Lightroom. For everyday productivity, the MacBook Air's performance is outstanding, especially given its thin and light form factor.

Battery

Apple boasts that the MacBook Air can last up to 18 hours for video streaming and 15 hours for web browsing. My testing, using local video playback in VLC Media Player, surpassed these claims, with the laptop enduring for 19 hours and 15 minutes. Although this test doesn't perfectly replicate streaming conditions, it's clear that the MacBook Air offers exceptional battery life, making it ideal for travelers. The included charger is compact, enhancing the laptop's portability, and the device's ability to run for several days on a single charge makes it perfect for extended work sessions without needing to plug in.