Apple has been teasing “something in the Air” for a few days and opened up the hype with the announcement of the new iPad Air M3 and a new Magic Keyboard.
But we believe Apple still has more up it’s sleeve: the M4 MacBook Air.
Assuming Apple does announce the upgraded MacBook Air this week, we have some idea of what to expect thanks to a report from 9to5 Mac, and it’s more than just a new processor.
Here’s what the newest Apple MacBook Air should offer:
M4 Chip
The most obvious feature is the M4 chip.
Unlike the higher-end MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, the M4 Air should only have the base M4 chip, not the more powerful M4 Pro or M4 Max. That said, the base M4 still feature 10-cores on the CPU and GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine.
The Neural Engine is important for running Apple Intelligence features including writing tools, photo editing, and an improved Siri. The engine is supposed to be capable of 38 trillion operations per second, a necessary number for running on-device AI.
16GB RAM
At launch the M2 and M3-powered versions of the MacBook Air had a default configuration of only 8GB of RAM.
That changed toward the end of 2024 when all versions of the MacBook Air were upgraded to a new default of 16GB. The laptops could be configured up to 24GB.
The M4 MacBook changes that by making 16GB default from launch, and potentially configurable up to 32GB for those who desire all the memory.
Longer Battery Life
While the M4 is more powerful than the M3 and M2 on chips on current MacBook Airs, it’s also more efficient — promising significantly longer battery life.
The MacBook Air is already one of the best laptops for battery life and we can use the MacBook Pro and MacBook as examples.
Apple promised 24 hours of battery life when it launched the M4-powered MacBook Pro. Our own testing wrung nearly 21 hours of run time out of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, nearly double what the M3 offered.
The current M3 Air gets about 15 hours in the Tom’s Guide web surfing test, so we expect the M4 version to last even longer.
Better External Display support
The MacBook Air, currently allows you to run two external displays at the same time, though the laptop itself needs to be closed.
The M4 version should bring true support for an open laptop while still running two external displays.
It’s a relatively new feature to MacBooks as the MacBook Pro only just got the same upgrade with the M4 MacBook Pro last November.
12MP Center stage camera
Apple launched the 12MP Center stage camera with the iMac and MacBook Pro last year and should bring it to the MacBook Air as well.
Center Stage is a feature in the camera that lets it follow you during a video call.
It also introduces a feature called Desk View that can be used to show both your face and a view of your desk a the same time.
Nano-texture display?
Nano-texture displays could finally launch on the MacBook Air. Right now it’s only available on MacBook Pro, iMac and the iPad Pro.
We’re hoping it will be an add-on during configuration. It’s $150 for the MacBook Pro right now.
What’s staying the same and outlook
We don’t expect any external changes to the M4 MacBook Air. It should still come in 13 and 15-inch versions and look the same as the M2 and M3 models.
We’ll know more when Apple announces the new laptop, which is expected any moment now.
