Now that Apple‘s refreshed MacBook Pro 16 and MacBook Pro 14 with the M4 chipsets have launched alongside an updated Mac Mini and iMac, the MacBook Air is ready for a chipset update.
The MacBook Air M3 launched in March of this year, so a refresh is likely not just around the corner. But we’ve already heard rumors about the next line of MacBook Airs and will only hear more as we get closer to the expected launch date.
Here’s everything we know about the rumored Apple MacBook Air M4 from the expected release window to expected specs and more.
MacBook Air M4: Release date
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman is well known for keeping on top of Apple rumors across the tech spectrum, and the MacBook Air is no different. In a September newsletter, Gurman cites sources close to Apple that have pinned the MacBook Air M4 launch date as coming in Q1 2025.
This timing lines up for the MacBook Air, which is now scheduled for calendar Q1. January – March. https://t.co/PeiR2WLHDN https://t.co/05qJCCon29September 19, 2024
Apple could launch the MacBook Air earlier in the first quarter, however, Apple has historically tended to stick to March-April windows for the MacBook Air. Of course, the 2022 M2 MacBook Air launch did come in late July alongside the final MacBook Pro 13, so this is far from a hard rule.
However, Gurman’s report also lines up with sources for MacRumors which indicated panel shipments for the MacBook Air would be heading to Apple’s factories in October 2024.
We can safely expect the M4 Airs to launch by March 2025 at the latest.
MacBook Air M4: Specs
Apple didn’t entirely exclude the MacBook Air from the company’s week of announcements in late October, as the base spec of the MacBook Air M2 and M3 now starts with 16GB of memory. All without changing the base price. So we can expect the M4 MacBook Airs to follow the same pattern with 16GB taking over as the base RAM configuration.
Based on the MacBook Air M3 launch, the M4 MacBook Airs will likely feature the base M4 chipset, up to 24GB of memory, up to 2TB of SSD storage, and a 13 or 15-inch Liquid Retina display.
MacBook Air M4: Performance and battery life
The MacBook Air M4 will feature the same base M4 chipset we’ve seen in the MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) and iPad Pro (M4, 2024). The base M4 silicon houses a 10-core CPU, integrated 10-core GPU, and a Neural Engine capable of 38 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI performance.
We benchmarked the MacBook Pro 14 M4 with 16GB of RAM, which delivered a Geekbench 6.3 multicore average of 15,114. That result is nearly 50% higher than the premium laptop average (10,492). It’s also notably faster than the Asus Zenbook S 14 with Intel‘s Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” (11,157) and the Dell XPS 13 (9345) with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 chipset (14,635).
Of course, the MacBook Air is a fanless laptop design, which means it is more prone to thermal throttling than the MacBook Pro. So we do expect a bit of a dip in performance with both the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Air M4 laptops when compared to the MacBook Pro 14 M4.
Our MacBook Pro 14 M4 lasted 18 hours and 32 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is nothing to sneeze at. The MacBook Air typically lasts a few hours less on our battery test, as Apple’s 13 and 15-inch Air chassis house smaller batteries than their MacBook Pro counterparts. The MacBook Air 13 M3 lasted 15:13 while the MacBook Air 15 M3 lasted 15:03. Comparatively the MacBook Pro 14 M3 lasted 17:16. So we’d expect something closer to 16 hours on the MacBook Airs.
MacBook Air M4: Outlook
Apple traditionally announces new hardware once the pre-order period starts, which means there’s usually just about a week between the announcement and the launch. So we’ve got until at least January before we’re likely to hear anything official about the M4 MacBook Airs.
This means there’s plenty of time for more rumors to come in, perhaps hinting at the expected price tag. With Apple jumping the base MacBook Air configuration up to the 16GB RAM model, the M4 Airs could see a price hike. Or they could remain at the same starting price as in previous years. After all, Apple didn’t increase the price of the base MacBook Air M2 and M3 models when the change was announced.
So if you want to stay on top of all things Apple, keep this page bookmarked and be sure to check back for the latest leaks and rumors on the MacBook Air M4.
