M4 MacBook Air: What you need to know about the soon-to-launch Mac laptop

The M4 MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini are all available, but the M4 MacBook Air is nowhere to be seen. Just how long will we have to wait to see the new MacBook Air and what specs and price can we expect?

We look at the rumors and keep track of what’s being reported, as well as offer a perspective based on Apple’s current lineup.

Update Feb. 28, 2025: GPU results have leaked that show that the new laptop offers GPU performance similar to that of the M4 iPad Pro.

M4 MacBook Air: Release date

• March release; we predict it will go on sale after March 13, 2025

Back in April 2024, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that the Mac’s version of the M4 chip would be introduced in the MacBook Pro and iMacs later in 2024, and indeed it was. At that time, Gurman predicted that the M4 MacBook Air release wouldn’t come until spring 2025, about a year after the M3 MacBook Air was released.

In June 2024, Gurman again reported that the M4 MacBook Air is not expected until the spring of 2025. In October 2024, Gurman reported that Apple is getting ready to start production on the M4 MacBook Air, with a possibility of a release between January and March of 2025.

In January 2025, Gurman reported that the M4 MacBook Air will ship “relatively soon” with the new laptop is already in production. In February 2025, Gurman stated that Apple is preparing for a March release. He also points out that inventory of the M3 MacBook Air is “being drawn down at stores.”

So, an update does seem to be coming, but when? One indication that Apple won’t be updating the MacBook Air until after March 13 comes from Australia where Apple is currently running its Higher Education Offer 2025 until March 13. For that student-targeted deal, they are offering free AirPods with MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac. Apple is unlikely to change the specs of a device currently in a promotion.

On this basis, we anticipate that the new MacBook Air won’t go on sale until March 13 at the earliest. This could point to a product launch a week before, pre-orders on Friday March 7, and on sale on March 14. A March 4 or 5 launch is conceivable. This would allow Apple to get it on sale in time for the end of its second quarter on March 28.

M4 MacBook Air: Processor

Apple surprised us with the release of the M4 chip in the iPad Pro in early May, barely six months after the M3 debuted in the MacBook Pro. In October 2024, Apple released the M4 MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini. Here are the specs:

MacBook Pro & Mac mini M4 Pro

• 12-core or 14-core CPU (10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores)
• 16-core or 20-core GPU
• Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 273GBps memory bandwidth
• 24GB RAM

MacBook Pro M4 Max

• 14-core or 32-core CPU (12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores)
• 32-core or 40-core GPU
• Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 546GBps memory bandwidth
• 36GB RAM or 48GB RAM

How will Apple allocate the M4 in the next MacBook Air? We could see the company use the 10-core CPU version of the chip. It doesn’t seem likely that the 9-core version will be in the Air.

Compared to the 8-core M3, the M4 has two extra efficiency cores and higher memory bandwidth (120GBps versus 100GBps). Apple will likely use the same design for the Mac.

Before the M4 arrived in the iPad, Gurman reported that the chip would focus on AI enhancements. Apple talked briefly during its Let Loose event about the improved Neural Engine and its ability to deliver over 38 trillion operations per second but didn’t get into much detail about real-world use.

Will Apple continue to sell a cut-price M3 MacBook Air?

It’s been Apple’s habit in recent years to keep the previous generation model on sale to offer a lower price of entry to the range. This time, however, there is some speculation that the M3 MacBook Air will be discontinued with Apple perhaps keeping the M2 MacBook Air in the lineup instead.

The manufacturer of the M3 chip, TSMC, found that it was costly to produce and yields were lower than those of previous processes. The M4 chip uses a more efficient 3nm fabrication process. This goes some way to explain why Apple jumped from M2 to M4 for the iPad Pro and completely bypassed the M3 for the Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro.

The M2, on the other hand, is being used in the iPad Air so Apple could keep the M2 MacBook Air in the lineup since it utilizes that same chip and will therefore keep costs down. See: Apple’s M3 nightmare is coming to an end.

M4 MacBook Air: Design

The M4 upgrade would be the fourth generation of the M-series chip in the MacBook Air, but it’s not the fourth time around for the current Air design. Apple shipped the M1 MacBook Air in 2020 with an older design that was used with Intel chips and the current design wasn’t introduced until the M2 chip upgrade in July 2022. Apple isn’t expected to change it at all for the M4.

Apple made a slight change to the Air’s design with the M3 update in March 2024, but only for one specific color. The Midnight version now has an anodization seal to help cut down on fingerprints–it’s a similar process introduced with the Space Black MacBook Pro. Apple is not expected to offer the process for the Silver, Space Gray, and Starlight colors. 

M4 MacBook Air: Specs

The MacBook Air is guaranteed to get an M4 chip. This chip is already well known, featuring first in the iPad Pro, then the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini. Based on leaked GPU results from Geekbench 6 it appears that the new MacBook Air will offer GPU performance similar to that of the M4 iPad Pro. The Geekbench results show a Metal score of 55516 and another score of 54806. The M4 iPad Pro scored 54231. In our tests, the M4 MacBook Pro’s GPU Metal score was 57082.

The lower result compared to the MacBook Pro is likely to be a result of necessary throttling to allow the machine, which lacks a fan, to stay cool. The M4 in the MacBook Air may also have fewer GPU cores than the MacBook Pro.

When Apple released the M4 MacBook Pro in October 2024, the company increased the base amount of RAM to 16GB. It also did the same with the M2 and M3 MacBook Air that is currently for sale. Apple will no longer release a laptop that starts with 8GB of RAM.

Another feature that could get an upgrade is battery life. If the MacBook M4 follows the iPad Pro’s chip design, it could be more energy-friendly with two extra efficiency cores. That could mean more battery life.

AppleInsider reported that it has seen a regulatory document for the M4 MacBook Air that refers to a “Front Ultra Wide Camera.” That could mean that the 1080p FaceTime camera will be replaced with a 12MP Center Stage camera, like the one in the M4 MacBook Pro.

Macwelt

Everything else about the MacBook Air will likely stay the same with an M4 upgrade. The display, size, weight, mics, speakers, ports, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are expected to remain unchanged.

TheElec reports that Apple is developing an oxide thin-film transistor liquid crystal display for the MacBook Air, but this feature won’t be ready until 2027. The new display would replace the standard TFT LCD that is currently in use.

M4 MacBook Pro: Price

With concerns about Trump’s tariffs making headlines, are the prices of the MacBook Air likely to increase? It seems inevitable that they will if Apple decides to pass on the extra costs to the consumer. Costs outside the U.S. may also increase due to currency fluctuations.

Here are the prices for the current standard configurations of the M3 MacBook Air for reference.

Apple will likely offer similar configurations, so hopefully the M4 MacBook Air prices won’t change. Alternatively, Apple may introduce a less powerful entry-level model to combat the higher prices of components.