Apple MacBook Air Apple 15" MacBook Air (M4, Silver) Review

The 15-inch MacBook Air with the M4 chip is a weirdly specific machine. It's got a massive 2TB SSD that puts it in the 93rd percentile for storage, and its reliability score is a near-perfect 96th percentile. That means it's built to last and you won't be running out of space anytime soon. But the story gets more interesting when you look at what it's best at. It scores an 86/100 for entertainment and an 85/100 for business, making it a fantastic all-arounder for media and work. Just don't expect it to be a gaming rig, as it bottoms out at a 39/100 in that category.

Performance is a tale of two halves. The Apple M4 10-core CPU lands in the 66th percentile, which is solid for a thin-and-light. It's more than enough for heavy multitasking, video calls, and creative apps, especially with that 24GB of unified RAM. The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display is also a star, sitting in the 86th percentile with its sharp 2880x1864 resolution and bright 500-nit peak. The big caveat is the GPU. That 10-core GPU is in the 18th percentile, which explains the terrible gaming score. This is not a machine for anything beyond casual titles.

At $2199, you're paying a premium for the Apple ecosystem, that legendary build quality, and that excellent screen. You get a ton of fast storage and good RAM, but the performance per dollar is heavily skewed by the weak GPU. Compared to a Windows ultrabook or even Apple's own MacBook Pro, you're trading raw power for portability and battery efficiency. It's a great value if your workflow is CPU-heavy and screen-dependent, but a poor one if you need any graphical grunt.

Stacked against its sibling, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Max, the Air gives up a huge amount of CPU and GPU power for a thinner, lighter chassis and a lower price. The Pro is in another league for creative work. Compared to a Windows machine like the ASUS Zenbook Duo, you lose the innovative dual-screen flexibility and likely get less raw performance for the money. Against a gaming laptop like the MSI Vector 16 HX, there's no contest in graphics performance; the Air isn't even in the same universe. The Air's win is in its seamless, reliable, and premium daily experience.

This MacBook Air M4 is a nearly perfect general-purpose laptop for someone who values a big, beautiful screen, tons of storage, and rock-solid reliability above all else. If your days are filled with web browsing, office apps, media consumption, and light creative work, it's fantastic. The data is clear: buy it for the screen (86th percentile) and storage (93rd percentile), not for gaming (18th percentile GPU). Just know that for this price, you could get a lot more brute force elsewhere, just not in this sleek of a package.