Read our review of the 15-inch MacBook Air (M4).
In previous iterations of this guide, we liked to recommend MacBook Airs that were one generation removed because they were always cheaper than their current-gen counterparts. But with Apple’s brand-new 13-inch M4 model priced at just $999 to start, there’s no need to defer to an older version in order to snag a great deal. (For reference, $999 was the going price of the 13-inch M2 base model from 2022 right before it was discontinued; it was our previous “best cheap MacBook” pick.) This is a no-brainer recommendation for budget-conscious Apple users in need of a fast and portable laptop for everyday tasks.
Our favorite MacBook is also our favorite cheap MacBook — that’s never happened before. Apple’s $999 pricing for the 13-inch M4 model with 16GB of storage and 256GB of RAM is ridiculously competitive and even a little extraordinary in the current market, when many popular laptops are getting more expensive because of tariffs.
We haven’t put it through the full paces of our testing process just yet, but we’re comfortable giving it a spot on this guide based on our time with the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air, which has two extra speakers, a slightly higher-resolution display, and a 10-core GPU instead of an eight-core GPU. Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder called it “impressively powerful” while noting how quiet it ran; it got a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 14,992, which is one of the highest in our testing database. (It’s faster than many more expensive laptops.) I don’t expect the 13-incher’s score to be that much different. For reference, PCMag’s CPU benchmarking for the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air resulted in a multi-core score of 15,048.
The 13-inch Air comes with the same new 12MP FaceTime camera as the 15-inch model, which now supports Apple’s zooming Center Stage feature. Schroeder called it a “big upgrade” compared to the 1080p webcam on his daily driver, an older 16-inch MacBook Pro — “the image is sharper, a bit brighter, and more detailed,” he writes. Its other notable upgrade is added open-lid support for two external displays, meaning you can still use its own screen even when it’s hooked up to monitors.
Looks-wise, this is the same MacBook Air we’ve had since the M2 era. (There is a new sky blue colorway, but it’s very subtle.) It could still use some more ports and a bump to its 60Hz refresh rate, said Schroeder. Still, he wound up rating it a 4.5/5 overall, helping it clinch our Mashable Choice Award.
