A new version of MacBook Air powered by Apple’s M4 processor is right around the corner, it seems, and might be launched within a week. “Apple is preparing to make a Mac-related announcement as early as this coming week,” reports Bloomberg, adding that the reveal is imminent.
The current-gen MacBook Air with M3 silicon was announced in the first week of March in 2024, and it seems Apple is sticking with its refresh schedule rather strictly for its popular entry-level laptop. The machine will likely arrive in 13-inch and 15-inch formats, just like its predecessor.
The most significant tweak on the upcoming laptops, of course, will be the implementation of the M4 silicon, which elevates the raw processing capabilities and improves its energy efficiency metrics, as well.
The M4 chip serves a configuration of ten CPU cores, four of which are high-performance cores while the remaining six are optimized for efficiency to handle less demanding workloads. The graphics engine is a 10-core GPU cluster, an upgrade over the previous-gen Apple silicon.
The M4 has already appeared inside the MacBook Pro, and more powerful variants — M4 Pro and M4 MaX — are already on the shelves. Interestingly, as per alleged benchmark runs, the M4 chip inside MacBook Air will go toe-to-toe with the MacBook Pro.
Apple claims that the M4 silicon achieves a performance level roughly 1.8 times higher than the M1, and further notes that it is capable of delivering a speed enhancement of up to 3.4 times when handling resource-intensive operations, such as graphics rendering within the Blender software.
The next-generation neural processing unit, or NPU, shipping with the M4 stack is also touted to offer a threefold increase in speed. However, do keep in mind that the MacBook Air isn’t quite on the same footing as the MacBook Pro with the same base M4 processor.
That’s primarily because the MacBook Air lacks a fan, which means thermal throttling kicks into action rather quickly. My own experience with the M3 MacBook Air suggests that it can clock high on the benchmark tables, but can’t quite handle sustained load.
Not much is going to change from a design perspective, as rumors suggest that the MacBook Air’s M4 iteration will look roughly the same as the M3 variant. It would be interesting to see if Apple adds some new colors to the lineup. We’re not quite sure about the pricing situation yet, but if Apple doesn’t take the price hike route, we’re looking at a minimum ask worth $1,099 for the 13-inch model.
