MacBook Air cheaper with fast M4 chip and new color

Bert van Dijk Volunteer Apple.hcc.nl

Apple has announced a number of new devices this week, such as the renewed iPad Air, iPad and Magic Keyboard. To do this, click on the previous link to read everything about all versions, specifications, Apple Intelligence, prices and advice which model you can best purchase. Apple also presents a new version of their most popular laptop with the MacBook Air M4.

New
Due to the natural cooling without a fan you can work undisturbed for it until 6 pm. In addition to your own screen, you can now connect two external screens with a high 6K resolution. A considerable improvement, because the M1 version was only able to handle 1 external screen and with the previous M3 model you could not use the own screen of the laptop at all with two external screens. The new M4 model is about 20 to 30% faster than the previous M3 version and even up to 23 times as fast as the fastest MacBook Air with Intel processor. The cheapest version has become 100 euros cheaper with 1199 euros. You also get 16GB of memory (RAM) and many new possibilities with Apple Intelligence. The 16core neural processor is suitable for 38 trillion operations per second, so that tasks such as automatic improvement of photos or removing background noises are approx. 3 times as fast as the MacBook Air with M1 processor. The thin light MacBook Air is therefore a nice computer for most computer users.

(Text continues under the image)

With the M4 MacBook Air you can work on 3 screens

Handy facilities
With Touch ID you log in automatically, you can make purchases online and download apps. The Magic keyboard has background lighting and a handy row of function keys. The webcam has greatly improved from 2 megapixel to a 12-megapixel version with a Center Stage Camera with a wider viewing angle. This clearly keeps you in the picture, even if there are several people during video meetings and also if you change position. With office display you can also show an upper view of your desk.

(Text continues under the image)

With the renewed webcam you can also visualize your desk with a high 1080p resolution

Thanks to three microphones, your voice can be heard well during audio and video calls. And with Spatial Audio you can enjoy three -dimensional sound via four speakers with Dolby Atmos. The wireless connections are fast thanks to Wi-Fi 6th and Bluetooth 5.3. You can connect an external SSD and security key to two fast Thunderbolt 4 ports. Furthermore, you also have a mini-jack headphone connection. If you keep a recent iPad or iPhone near the MacBook Air, you automatically log in with MacOS 15.4.

(Text continues under the image)

The M4 MacBook Air has 2 fast Thunderbolt 4 Connecting and a headphone connection

Different versions
Instead of Spacegrijs, Apple now also offers a new sky -blue color, a light blue metallic tint. The other available colors are midnight, star night and silver. Nice is that Apple paves a magsafe charging cable in a matching color. The renewed MacBook Air will be available from 12 March with a 13.6 or 15.3inch 60 Hz Liguid Retina display with a brightness of 500 Nits, 1 billion colors and a 2x higher resolution as the most comparable laptops. Both sizes have a thin aluminum unibody housing of approx. 1 cm that lasts a long time. The aluminum and the rare earth metals of the magnets are 100 % recycled. For the battery, 100% recycled cobalt was used and 95% recycled lithium. For the larger 15 inch model you pay 1499 euros at Apple. For both models you can choose a processor for 125 euros extra with 10 GPU instead of the standard 8 GPU. This is useful for many graphic applications and heavy games. You can also expand the main memory of 16 GB to 24 and 32 GB for 250 and 500 euros extra. With the previous M3 version you could expand the working memory up to 24 GB. The 256GB standard storage space can be expanded to 512 GB, 1TB and 2TB for 250, 500 and 1000 euros. The expansion to 512 GB is often very useful at Apple, because it also increases the writing speed much. For even more storage space you are much cheaper with an external SSD. Instead of the standard 30W mains charger you can choose a charger of 35W with two USB-C ports or a heavier charger of 70W for only 20 euros.

Tip: students, their parents and teachers from a university or college and other education employees including those who give home education are eligible for a MacBook Air eligible for an educational discount via https://www.apple.com/nl-edu/shop/. With educational discount you pay for the 13inch version only 1069 euros and 1319 euros for the 15 -inch version.

New possibilities with Apple Intelligence
With the M4 MacBook Air you can easily remove disturbing elements in the photos app with Apple Intelligence with the spacious on-feature and you will find recordings with a search in your own words. Useful new possibilities in the notes app are the new audio recording and transcription. This allows you to record a lecture or conversation and automatically make a typed text of it that runs synchronously with the audio recording so that you can quickly look up the correct fragment.
With Genmoji you generate small emoji images from a description. A little later you can also improve your Dutch texts with writing aid and you can better have personal conversations with Siri. Then Siri can also help you with all kinds of tasks on your MacBook. Furthermore, you can also use the advanced options of Chatgpt for free and without account (= more privacy). Thanks to this private cloud compute, your data will not be stored and they are not accessible to Apple. Your privacy is also protected because many applications with Apple Intelligence are performed locally on the MacBook Air.