Intro
The MacBook Air M4 is here, but aside from a second-generation 3nm chip inside and double the base memory, it doesn’t boast that many extra new features in comparison with the older MacBook Air M3.
Is that a problem? No! There’s no inherent issue with the MacBook Air lineup that needs addressing. The older MacBook Air, on the other hand, isn’t that much different than the MacBook Air M2, so we’ve hit an evolutionary plateau at the moment.
That’s a non-issue, as the most important factor about a computer are the performance and efficiency, and by upgrading the chip inside, Apple has delivered on both fronts.
MacBook Air M4 vs MacBook Air M3 differences explained:
| MacBook Air M4 | MacBook Air M3 |
|---|---|
| The same design language, new Sky Blue color available | The same design language as the MacBook Air M2 |
| Available in two sizes, 13-inch and 15-inch | Also available in two sizes, 13-inch and 15-inch |
| 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch 60Hz Liquid Retina display | 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch 60Hz Liquid Retina display |
| 500 nits peak brightness and display notch | 500 nits peak brightness and display notch as well |
| Apple M4 chip (10-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU, 3nm) | Apple M3 chip (8-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU, 3nm) |
| Apple Intelligence support | Apple Intelligence support |
| Up to 32GB unified memory | Up to 24GB unified memory |
| Four (13-inch) or six (15-inch) speakers Spatial Audio support |
Four (13-inch) or six (15-inch) speakers Spatial Audio support |
| 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports 3.5mm audio jack |
2x Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 ports 3.5mm audio jack |
| MagSafe 3 charging port 30W USB-C (13″ M4 w/ 8-core GPU) 35W USB-C (13″ M4 w/ 10-core GPU or 15″) |
MagSafe 3 charging port 30W USB-C (13″ M3 w/ 8-core GPU) 35W USB-C (13″ M3 w/ 10-core GPU or 15″) |
| Fast-charging w/ 70W+ wall adapter | Fast-charging w/ 70W+ wall adapter |
| Supports two external displays with up to 6K resolution | Supports one external 6K display w/ the lid open Supports 6K+5K external displays w/ the lid closed |
| 12MP 1080p FaceTime camera with Center Stage | 1080p FaceTime camera |
| Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 |
Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Starting at $999 (13-inch), $1199 (15-inch) | Starting at $1,099 (13-inch), $1299 (15-inch) |
| Sky Blue Silver Starlight Midnight |
Midnight Silver Space Gray Starlight |
Table of Contents:
Design
A new color option sums up the changes
The MacBook Air M4 and MacBook Air M3 look the same, which comes to no surprise. In this device category, design changes are usually much rarer than, say, smartphones or tablets, so we’re usually stuck with the same design language for multiple years.
That’s the case here, with both devices reiterating the new slab-like design language that debuted with the MacBook Air M2 that synergizes pretty well with the MacBook Pro lineup in terms of aesthetics.
Both laptops are available in two different-sized versions: a 13-inch one measuring 30.41 x 21.5 x 1.13 cm and a 15-inch one with dimensions of 34.04 x 23.76 x 1.15 cm. Fairly compact and delightfully thin.
Touch ID remains a staple (Image Credit-Apple)
The only major difference here is the color selection. The MacBook Air M4 also comes in four colors: Silver, Starlight, Midnight, and the exclusive for the range Sky Blue color, while the MacBook Air M3 could be yours in Silver, Space Gray, Midnight, and Starlight colors.
In terms of I/O ports, only a few differences separate the two laptops.
The MacBook Air M4 comes with dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the MacBook Air M3 features dual Thunderbolt 3 ports. That’s pretty much the only difference. Both machines support up to 40Gb/s data throughput speeds, so you’re not losing much.
Common features are the MagSafe 3 port for charging and the 3.5mm audio jack.
The new MacBook M4 can output a signal to up to two 6K external monitors with the lid open, a first on the MacBook Air lineup. Interestingly, the older MacBook Air M3 can output to a single 6K monitor with the lid open or output to a 6K and a 5K monitor with the lid closed.
Extend the screen to up to two external screens on the MacBook Air M3 with the lid closed (Image Credit-Apple)
Display
No differences in the display section.
The 13-inch versions come with Liquid Retina 13.6″ IPS LCDs with 60Hz refresh rate and 2560 by 1664-pixel resolution. The 15-inch ones span 15.3 inches across and feature a slightly higher 2880 x 1864-pixel resolution.
Games like Sid Meier’s Civilization VII look great on either screen (Image Credit-Apple)
The display notch housing the FaceTime camera is a common feature, and so are the True Tone support, the >100% sRGB support, DCI-P3 color space, and 500 nits of peak brightness.
| MacBook Air M4 | MacBook Air M3 |
|---|---|
| Peak brightness 500 nits |
Peak brightness 500 nits |
| Display Size 13.6-inch 15.3-inch |
Display Size 13.6-inch 15.3-inch |
| Display resolution 2560 x 1664 (13″) 2880 x 1864 (15″) |
Display resolution 2560 x 1664 (13″) 2880 x 1864 (15″) |
Neither laptop can properly display HDR content, but if you hook up an HDR-capable external monitor, you can view such HDR content as intended.
Performance & Memory
3nm beasts
With the Apple M3 chip, Apple finally stepped into the realm of the 3nm manufacturing node, which unlocked the potential for denser chip dies with more transistors, and therefore faster performance and better efficiency.
The Apple M4 is one powerful chip, but the M3 doesn’t lag behind either (Image Credit-Apple)
However, the transition to a smaller node hasn’t been totally scot-free. 3nm chips generate more heat than their 5nm predecessors, which wouldn’t have been that much of a hassle if the MacBook Air had active cooling, but… that’s the thing, MacBook Air relies on passive cooling, so thermal throttling is definitely a real possibility here, especially in more intensive tasks and games.
Another difference between the base M4 and M3 chips is in the core count, too. The M3 utilized the same quad performance + quad efficiency core setup as all previous Apple Silicon chips, only boosted the clock rate. However, with the Apple M4, two extra efficiency cores were added, boosting the total tally to ten cores.
| Apple M4 Chip | Apple M3 Chip |
|---|---|
| 10-core CPU (4 performance @4.41GHz, 6 efficiency cores @2.59GHz) | 8-core CPU (4 performance @4.05GHz, 4 efficiency cores @2.75GHz) |
| 28 billion transistors | 25 billion transistors |
| 3nm technology | 3nm technology |
| Up to 10-core GPU | Up to 10-core GPU |
| 16-core Neural Engine | 16-core Neural Engine |
| 120GB/s memory bandwidth | 100GB/s memory bandwidth |
| Hardware-accelerated ray tracing | Hardware-accelerated ray tracing |
| Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW | Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW |
| ProRes encode and decode engine Video encode/decode engine |
ProRes encode and decode engine Video encode/decode engine |
| AV1 decode | AV1 decode |
Other than that, the rest of the chip specs are common. Both feature hardware ray-tracing, and support nearly all relevant software codecs, including the latest AV1 one.
Here’s how the Apple Silicon performance has evolved through the years.
| Chipset | Geekbench Single-Core Score | Geekbench Multi-Core Score |
|---|---|---|
| Apple M4 (10-core CPU) | 3692 | 14819 |
| Apple M3 (8-core CPU) | 3043 | 11687 |
| Apple M2 (8-core CPU) | 2596 | 9728 |
| Apple M1 (8-core CPU) | 2346 | 8356 |
The MacBook Air M4 is available with 16, 24, or 32GB of RAM, shared between the M4’s CPU and GPU. Yep, that’s double the base memory with the M4, which definitely boosts the value of the newer device. Meanwhile, the older MacBook Air M3 arrived with 8, 16, or 24GB of unified RAM. The more memory you have, the better the experience will be, but it will cost you.
Software
The MacBook Air is easily a producitivity machine thanks to the wide variety of pro software available (Image Credit-Apple)
Some other features that arrived with macOS 15.3 Sequoia include iPhone Mirroring, an improved Safari browser, and vastly better gaming capabilities thanks to GPTK 2. The latter supercharges the Wine compatibility layer, allowing macOS gamers to emulate games and other software through Crossover or Whisky.
We expect Apple Silicon devices to be supported for at least seven years after launch. That was the case with Apple’s Intel-based Macs, and we don’t really expect the company to treat its own chips any worse than Intel’s wares.
Battery and Charging
A decent selection of ports, but falling short of a MacBook Pro (Image Credit-Apple)
Surprisingly, over the past few years, MacBook Air laptops have had the same official battery life figures, despite the differences in chipset efficiency. This means Apple expects that both a MacBook Air M1 and a MacBook Air M4 boast the same official battery expectations: 18 hours of video streaming and 15 hours of browsing.
The same applies to the MacBook Air M4 and M3, which have similar-sized batteries: 53.8 and 52.6Wh on the 13-inch models, respectively, as well as a 66.5Wh on the 15-inch model.
| Apple MacBook Air M4 | Apple MacBook Air M3 |
|---|---|
| Battery size 66.5Wh (15-inch) 53.8Wh (13-inch) |
Battery size 66.5Wh (15-inch) 52.6Wh (13-inch) |
| Battery life (web) Up to 15 hours |
Battery life (web) Up to 15 hours |
| Battery life (video) Up to 18 hours |
Battery life (video) Up to 18 hours |
| Charging MagSafe 3 30W USB-C with 8-core GPU 35W Dual USB-C with 10-core GPU Fast charging with 70W+ wall adapter |
Charging MagSafe 3 30W USB-C with 8-core GPU 35W Dual USB-C with 10-core GPU Fast charging with 70W+ wall adapter |
Both devices arrive with wall adapters in the box: 30W ones in the base 13-inch versions and slightly faster 35W ones in the 15-inch variants.
Both Air laptops support MagSafe 3 charging. If you hook the laptops to 70W+ wall adapters, you can also enjoy fast-charging on both.
Audio and camera
We get four speakers on the 13-inch versions and six speakers on the 15-inch ones. The difference is a duo of force-cancelling woofers, which greatly improve the bass on the larger model.
All models support spatial audio when playing Dolby Atmos audio/video content. There are high-impedance 3.5mm audio jacks on both laptops.
Other than that, both laptops deliver outstanding, surprisingly decent sound that might surprise you the first time you hear it: it’s a room-filling, warm audio with a wide sound stage and enjoyable frequency response that makes just about anything sound great here.
The cameras at the front are mostly similar, but the one on the M4 model is better. It’s a 12MP camera that supports the Center Stage feature, which intelligently keeps your face in the center of the frame during video calls. The MacBook Air M3 doesn’t support Center Stage.
Which one should you buy? Should you upgrade?
The differences between the MacBook Air M4 and M3 are very, very few. You basically get a faster new chip as well as double the native memory in the base version, which is a decent upgrade, all things considered.
By no means should you feel forced to upgrade, though. The MacBook Air M3 is perfectly adequate and capable of serving you well for many years to come.
Furthermore, we are happy that Apple reverted to the older and more affordable $999 starting price with the M4 model; the M3 one started at $1,099 at launch, which was a dangerous precedent.
