A brand-new MacBook Air will land on UK store shelves this week. This lightweight laptop boasts a more powerful M4 chipset, an improved 12MP webcam, and a new Sky Blue colour. It also supports the latest Apple Intelligence features, which released in the UK as a free software update late last year.
Despite all these improvements, the new MacBook Air costs £100 less than its predecessor. It's available with either a 13" or 15" screen with up to 2TB of built-in storage.
The new Sky Blue finish is available on both the 13" and 15" screen sizes
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Starting from £999, MacBook Air with M4 will release on March 12, 2025. Discussing the latest addition to its Mac lineup, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said: "MacBook Air is by far the world’s most popular laptop, and today we’re giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Centre Stage camera, and a beautiful new Sky Blue colour.
"Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of £999, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time."
Unlike the previous generation of MacBook Air, the more powerful M4 system-on-a-chip inside the new model enables the lightweight laptop to power two external 6K displays while the built-in Liquid Retina screen stays on
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Powering the refreshed MacBook Air is the M4 system-on-a-chip, featuring a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. Apple introduced this cutting-edge chipset with the pricier MacBook Pro last year.
Coupled with at least 16GB of RAM, Apple says you should expect performance up to 2x faster than the M1 model and up to 23x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air released before the transition to Apple's own M-branded processors.
Specific improvements include spreadsheet calculations in Microsoft Excel that are up to 4.7x faster than Intel-based models and 1.6x faster than M1-powered MacBook Airs, which launched back in November 2020. Browsing the web will be up to 60% faster compared to laptops with Intel Core Ultra 7 processors, Apple says.
And those who want to edit video footage in iMovie can expect to see 8x faster performance compared with earlier Intel-based MacBook Air models and twice as fast as M1 versions. Photo editing in Adobe Photoshop will be as much as 3.6x faster than Intel models, Apple tests show.
Some of the biggest improvements in the M4 system-on-a-chip are found in the Neural Engine, which is 3x faster than the M1, which should significantly speed up AI-based tasks. Apple Intelligence is designed to process on-device as much as possible, meaning you can use these AI features without an internet connection. There are also speed and security benefits to this approach.
Apple's M4 system-on-a-chip can be paired with up to 32GB of RAM for an extra £400 at checkout. That's an increase from the M3-equipped MacBook Air, which could only be paired with a maximum 24GB of RAM.
All of this extra grunt means the new MacBook Air can be used with two external displays with up to 6K resolution while keeping its built-in Liquid Retina screen active. The previous generation could be used with two external screens, but the laptop lid had to be closed.
The upgraded 12MP Centre Stage camera enables Desk View, which shows a live feed of the space on your desk in-front of the laptop alongside the view of the person looking into the camera. It's designed for live demonstrations
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Apple has upgraded the webcam on the new MacBook Air. It now uses the same 12MP Centre Stage camera as the MacBook Pro, which offers better video quality and "Centre Stage" that keeps people centred in the middle of the viewfinder during video calls, even if they move around.
It also supports Desk View, which simultaneously shows you alongside a top-down view of your desk, so you can provide demoes in real-time during calls on FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Zoom, to name a few.
According to tests conducted by Apple, MacBook Air owners can expect 18-hours of battery life. If you own one of the last MacBook Air models powered by an Intel-branded chipset, that's an extra 6 hours of battery before you'll need to think about finding a plug.
MacBook Air with M4 boasts fast Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. It supports the latest MagSafe charging, which uses magnets to secure the cable, so that tripping over the cable will not send your new laptop flying across the room.
It also sports two Thunderbolt ports for accessories like external storage, displays, and wired accessories. Thunderbolt can be used to mirror a myriad of connections, including HDMI, Ethernet, USB A, SD card, and more.
There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio. Elsewhere, Apple has included a three-microphone array that should offer improved voice clarity for calls.
Touch ID is built into the keyboard, so you can unlock the MacBook Air with a quick tap of your fingertip. This can also be used to authenticate banking apps and other secure applications as well as Apple Pay payments online
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The MacBook Air retains the Touch ID fingerprint scanner to unlock the device, authenticate payments via Apple Pay, and verify your identity for secure apps, like banking.
Despite the new hardware improvements, MacBook Air maintains its signature thin and lightweight design, with both 13-inch and 15-inch models measuring less than half an inch thick.
Apple Intelligence is available out-of-the-box on the new MacBook Air with M4.
You'll be able to use features like Writing Tools, which can offer detailed proof-reading of your emails, documents and text messages. Apple Intelligence can also be used to summarise lengthy email threads, PDFs, and webpages. Multiple unread notifications will also be recapped by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) to get you up to speed faster.
Siri can now answer thousands of questions about your Mac, offering step-by-step instructions for common requests without searching the internet. You can also type queries to Siri if you're somewhere that barking orders to the hands-free AI assistant could be awkward.
A range of new Writing Tools, powered by Apple Intelligence, will help you summarise, proof-read, and rewrite everything on your Mac in a variety of tones APPLE PRESS OFFICE Genmoji lets you generate never-before-seen emoji characters based on a brief written prompt. These can be used across macOS, including iMessage, WhatsApp, emails, documents, and more. Likewise, Image Playground is a new app that allows you to tap-into Apple Intelligence to combine concepts, text descriptions, and people from your photo library to create stylised images within seconds.
ChatGPT integration is seamlessly built into Writing Tools and Siri, with no account required for free access. Privacy protections will obscure your IP addresses and ensure no request is stored by OpenAI.
Apple MacBook Air is available with either a 13" or 15" screen in a choice of Sky Blue (pictured), Midnight, Starlight, or Silver finishes
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The 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 starts at £999, or £899 for those in education. Meanwhile, the larger 15-inch model begins at £1,199, with an education price of £1,099.
Both of these screen sizes are available in the new Sky Blue colour, alongside Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. The new MacBook Air is available to pre-order now, with the first laptops arriving from March 12, 2025.
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When Apple launched its MacBook Air with M3 last year, the Cupertino company kept the previous generation — the MacBook Air with M2 — around in the Apple Store at a lower price tag. For those hoping to secure additional savings on the M3-equipped version of this laptop, that's not the case this time around.
While other retailers, like Amazon and Currys, still offer the MacBook Air M3 at a discount — these deals are likely to only stick around while existing stocks last. Apple will continue to sell this model from its Refurbished Store.
