I’m out of reasons to recommend Apple’s M1 MacBook Air, even at $600

This is conscionable a small nationalist work announcement up of Black Friday. Walmart volition erstwhile again tout the M1 MacBook Air arsenic an unbeatable woody for laptop shoppers. It definite is tempting astatine $599, particularly if you haven’t seen the woody before. It mightiness adjacent beryllium the close prime for immoderate people. 

But for astir Verge readers buying either for themselves oregon for idiosyncratic who needs to get worldly done, it’s not a large value. Not erstwhile the 2025 M4 model, with its spec enhancements, plan tweaks, and processing velocity improvements, is conscionable $150 more. You tin presently get 1 of those starting astatine $749.99 from Amazon and Best Buy.

13-inch Apple MacBook Air 13 (2025, M4)

The M4 MacBook Air has a speedy processor, and treble the RAM of erstwhile models. It has a bladed and airy design, each time artillery life, and inactive starts with 256GB of storage. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

• $999 $749 astatine Amazon (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD)
• $999 $749 astatine Best Buy (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD)
• $999 $899 astatine B&H Photo (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD)

Apple’s M-series processors person gotten much almighty each year, and the M4 represents the 4th generation. That’s not to accidental the M1 MacBook Air is simply a atrocious machine. You tin bash a batch worse with $600. Compared to immoderate of Apple’s Intel-based laptops, the 2020 exemplary raised the barroom for show and artillery life. But its compromises go much evident with each passing year. You should besides conscionable bargain the laptop that volition get much bundle updates.

The $599 M1 MacBook Air includes conscionable 8GB of RAM, which is little than astir flagship smartphones person these days. It’s amazingly speedy erstwhile handling a airy load, but my spouse owns one, and it’s a beauteous sluggish acquisition erstwhile you load it with a batch of browser tabs. The newer MacBook Air comes with 16GB of RAM by default, and the M4 processor lets it alert done tasks faster. It has a akin array of ports (two USB-C ports, 1 headphone jack), though its USB-C ports are faster with Thunderbolt 4 support. It besides has a dedicated MagSafe charging port, truthful you don’t person to sacrifice 1 of the precious USB-C ports for charging.

And those are conscionable the biggest spec differences; Apple ditched the wedge-shaped plan of the M1 and earlier MacBook Air models starting with the M2 model. They look much sophisticated, astir similar a MacBook Pro. The surface is bigger acknowledgment to smaller bezels, and there’s a notch that contains the 12-megapixel Center State webcam — different large betterment implicit the M1 model.

Look, I could spell connected and on. Our reviews bash a large occupation of spelling retired each small difference, including in-depth metrics from investigating processing-intensive applications. But, successful short, the M4 runs laps astir the M1, and for conscionable $150 more, the M4 MacBook Air is the wide victor if you’re looking for a semi-affordable MacBook this holiday.