Our Rating:
5.0
MacBook Air M4 Review
Ranked #1
Best Laptop of 2025!
Authors: Cynthia Q, Nicole R, Andy F, Marc K
Introduction
​The MacBook Air has long been the gold standard for laptops. We've tested and owned the previous MacBook Air models and have always found them to be solid performing laptops - durable, lightweight, and great for all tasks!
With the new 2025 model being released with the M4 chip, Apple seamlessly has elevated this gold standard to a whole new level. When we compared all of the current best laptops, it became clear the MacBook Air topped our rankings for 2025 because of it's strong performance, excellent build quality, and quiet all-day use! It is this balance that solidifies its rank #1 position as the best laptop of 2025!
Design & Build Quality
Apple's design of the MacBook Air continues to be of exceptionally high quality.
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Color Options: Alongside the classic Midnight, Starlight, and Silver finishes, the new Sky Blue color is an absolute standout. After many days with the laptop, we can only describe the color as subtle, sophisticated, and catches your eyes without being overly flashy. While the darker Midnight finish still tends to attract fingerprints, the new anodization seal does seem to help resist them a lot better than previous models we've tested.
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Construction and Durability: The moment you pick it up, the quality is undeniable. The all-aluminum build feels incredibly rigid and durable, yet it remains astonishingly light. At just 2.7 pounds for the 13-inch model, carrying it around all day and slipping it into a backpack is something you do almost without thinking.
It's the ideal laptop for students, travelers, and professionals who work on the go. Its razor-thin profile (less than 1/2-inch when closed) is a testament to Apple's design philosophy, a device that is as beautiful to look at as it is to use.
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Silent Operation: One of the most remarkable features of the MacBook Air is something you can’t hear: the complete absence of a fan. This fan-free design results in a machine that operates in total silence, no matter the task. Our hands-on experience using it in a quiet library for hours on end was transformative; the silent operation allows for a level of focus that laptops with whirring fans simply cannot match. This laptop is a silent powerhouse!
Display
The Liquid Retina display is a bright, sharp, and vibrant screen for everything from movie watching to editing videos.
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Liquid Retina Quality: It delivers exceptional P3 wide color gamut coverage and 1 billion colors, ensuring that photos and videos appear vibrant, rich, and true-to-life. In our daily use of the Air, we found the experience of editing and watching videos to be exceptionally satisfying to say the least. The screen was engineered for both consumers and creators in mind.
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Brightness and Clarity: With a peak brightness of 500 nits that makes it comfortable to use even in well-lit rooms or near a window, the screen remains legible and impactful. The pixel density (~224ppi) is so high that individual pixels cannot be seen at a normal viewing distance, resulting in text that is razor-sharp and images that are crisp and detailed.
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True Tone Technology: This is a feature you don’t notice until it’s gone. True Tone automatically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the ambient lighting of your environment. The result is a more natural, paper-like viewing experience that is noticeably easier on the eyes, especially late at night.
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A Deliberate 60Hz Refresh Rate: The display operates at a standard 60Hz refresh rate. While some competitors offer faster screens, the motion clarity here is more than sufficient for the vast majority of tasks. For professionals who require the buttery-smooth motion of a 120Hz ProMotion display for tasks like high-end video editing or motion graphics, the MacBook Pro line is the logical next step.
Performance
The M4 chip delivers a level of performance that gives it a clear advantage over other laptops.
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Effortless Everyday Performance: The M4’s next-generation performance and efficiency cores deliver more than enough power for everyday tasks and heavy multitasking. Apps launch the moment you click them, complex websites with dozens of elements load without hesitation, and navigating the operating system is utterly fluid. In our daily use of the laptop, we found the new M4 chip made everything just feeling faster and quicker to do.
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GPU Enhancements: The upgraded GPU provides a dramatic boost in graphics performance that allows for surprisingly smooth light gaming and significantly accelerates creative apps like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Lightroom. Our testing proved the Air processed complex video timelines and performed other tasks quicker than most other laptops and also the previous models of the Air.
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AI-Powered with Apple Intelligence: The Neural Engine in the M4 is substantially more powerful, designed to accelerate the on-device artificial intelligence features integrated into the latest version of macOS. It enables powerful system-wide writing tools that can rewrite, summarize, and proofread your work, generates creative images on the fly, and makes Siri smarter and more context-aware.
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Sustained Silent Speed: Even when pushed, the fanless thermal design does an impressive job of managing heat. While the most intensive, long-running tasks might eventually see some slow down to prevent overheating, the M4’s efficiency ensures that performance remains high for the vast majority of user workflows. The ability to render a video or compile code in complete silence is an experience that never gets old.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The primary points of interaction on a laptop are the keyboard and trackpad, and in this area, the MacBook Air continues its tradition of excellence.
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Magic Keyboard: The keyboard provides a tactile, satisfying typing experience. The keys are stable thanks to the scissor-switch mechanism which results in a comfortable balance between responsiveness and low-profile design, making it suitable for both quick emails and long-form writing sessions.
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Touch ID Convenience: Unlocking the machine, approving purchases, and switching user profiles with a fingertip became second nature and saved valuable seconds throughout the workday.
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Force Touch Trackpad: The glass trackpad is precise and a joy to use. Its key advantage is the lack of physical moving parts. Instead, haptic feedback perfectly replicate the sensation of a click anywhere on the surface.
Its ability to register clicks anywhere on its surface, combined with flawless palm rejection and incredibly smooth tracking, makes it a pleasure to use.
Tracking is also flawless, with movements and multi-touch gestures registering with perfect accuracy.
Battery Life and Connectivity: The All-Day Laptop
The Air promises on true all-day power and modern connectivity.
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All-Day Battery Life: The M4 chip was engineered to help the MacBook Air handle a full workday of mixed-use productivity with power to spare for an evening movie. In our testing, we were averaging around 16 hours of mixed use, which included web browsing, video streaming, and document editing.
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Thunderbolt / USB 4: The two Thunderbolt/USB-4 ports offer immense versatility. They provide very fast data transfer speeds, support for high-resolution external displays (including the ability to use two external displays with the lid open), and charging capabilities, creating a clean and powerful single-cable docking solution.
MagSafe-3 Charging: The magnetic charging connector snaps on and off effortlessly and provides peace of mind by safely detaching if the cord is accidentally snagged. Most importantly, it's a dedicated charging port, which means both of the powerful Thunderbolt 4 ports remain free for your accessories, displays, and high-speed storage.
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Connectivity: With support for Wi-Fi 6E, the MacBook Air offers the latest in wireless technology. This ensures a faster, more reliable connection with lower latency, especially on congested networks. It’s a forward-looking feature that ensures your connection will be rock-solid for years to come. Bluetooth (5.3) connectivity was flawless and did not notice any lag at all.
Audio and Webcam
The M4 Air delivers major upgrades to its audiovisual capabilities, making it a stellar device for communication and media consumption.
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Upgraded 12MP Center Stage Webcam: The new 12-megapixel webcam is a massive leap forward and a standout feature. The image quality is crisp, clear, and excels in various lighting conditions. Our team immediately noticed the drastically improved clarity in our daily video meetings. The addition of Center Stage, which uses AI to automatically keep you framed perfectly during calls, makes video conferencing more dynamic and professional.
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Immersive Speaker System: For such a thin device, the audio quality is astonishingly good. The 13-inch model packs a four-speaker sound system, while the 15-inch model boasts a six-speaker array with force-cancelling woofers for richer bass. Both support Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, creating a wide, immersive soundstage that makes watching movies a cinematic experience. The audio is loud, clear, and perfect for video calls and content consumption.
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Three-Mic Array: The studio-quality three-microphone array uses directional beamforming to focus on the user's voice while minimizing background noise (even in coffee shops). On video chats we noticed echo-free, clear voice quality even in rooms that tend to have a lot of echo.
Conclusion: Top Winning Rank!
The 2025 MacBook Air M4 isn’t great because of just one feature - it’s the perfect mix of many well-designed parts in a ultra-light portable device that gives it the #1 ranking!
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The outstanding power of the M4 chip, the visual fidelity of the liquid retina display, the silent fanless design, and the long-lasting all-day battery life all combines to create a laptop that feels practically flawless. Combine this with it's premium build quality and reliability, it sets a new standard benchmark for what an everyday laptop should be!​
In the end, the Air's better performance and more unified system give it a clear advantage over all other laptops for 2025! 🎉🎉🎉