Apple has continued a week of new product announcements with a new MacBook Air powered with an M4 chip. As an added treat it also comes in a new sky blue colour and a lower starting price of A$1,699.
The metallic light blue finish creates a dynamic gradient when light reflects off of its surface. Sky blue joins midnight, starlight, and silver and all colour options, including sky blue, come with a colour-matched MagSafe charge cable.
The M4 chip features a 10-core CPU, up to 10 GPU cores and support for up to 32GB of unified memory. Apple claims this makes it twice as fast as the M1 models – which is unsurprising given the current model is being compared to a device that was released over four years ago. With Apple iterating on the M-series architecture quite quickly, we’d expect performance to increase. But it’s telling that Apple does not compare new products with those they directly supersede.
Apple also notes:
When compared to the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, the M4 model delivers up to 23x faster performance. With battery life on the new MacBook Air up to 18 hours, Intel-based upgraders will get up to six additional hours, so they can get more done on a single charge.
Again, the focus seems to be on convincing people to upgrade devices every three or four years. Or to being the last of the Intel users along to the M-series world.
The performance boost between the M3 to the M4 is unlikely to be enough to convince users to upgrade (it’s not convincing me) but if you are running an older MacBook Air, then the jump to M4 may be tempting.
As you’d expect, the MacBook Air is “Built for Apple Intelligence” – but the true value of Apple Intelligence is unlikely to be realised for some time as Apple continues to play catchup with the likes of Google, Meta, Open AI and others.
As well as the processor boost, Apple has added a new 12MP Center Stage camera. And MacBook Air now supports up to two 6K external displays, in addition to its built-in Liquid Retina display.
You can pre-order the new MacBook Air from apple.com/au/store and in the Apple Store app. It will begin arriving to customers and in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers from 12 March 2025.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 starts at $1,699 and $1,549 for education. The 15‑inch MacBook Air starts $2,099 and $1,949 for education. Both are available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.