Apple M4 MacBook Air review: I have no notes
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
- Right-side USB-C
- Slightly brighter display
- Slightly wider hinge angle
- Option for nano-texture display, just like the MBP
- WiFi 7
The M4 MacBook Airs are very tempting and I think the size & weight of the 15" is not as offputting as it once was. However I agree with the criticism in this article. A lesser quality display and lacking a little power (M4 Pro option would be nice).
A 14" MacBook Pro is the current draw. Slightly heavier but option for M4 Pro as well as more memory (up to 48GB) as well as nanotexture for out and about.
I love the idea of the Framework 13" machines with Ubuntu. Almost same weight as a 13" Air and with strong upgradeability. Disadvantages (to me) are the battery life on Linux is significantly less than an Apple device (although hard to find exact numbers), and even with the new Ryzen AI Max processors and the DDR5 memory, speed is much lower compared to the M-series soldered on a chip (although I'm open to counter points that this difference in speed is not worth it).
The Apple software ecosystem is a soft grab but to be honest there are options to Apple Photos which is the one I use the most.
As one battery life datapoint, I have a Framework with the previous gen AMD board and the 61wh battery, and in Linux Mint with no special configuration I get about 7 or 8 hours in normal use (with wifi+BT+average backlight, just doing normal browsing/file editing, not maxing out CPU rebuilding a massive project for hours). That's totally fine for my needs, it's effectively a full workday or an intercontinental airport + flight without power. I'm very happy with it and the upgradeability has been great (I upgraded mainboard, and now having the old mainboard running as a home server).
For mobile, this kind of performance is insane. I usually am happy if it is not a netbook CPU, since my 4th gen i5 dualcore+HT is still up to anything I want to do with it.
Could you expand upon it?
IMO with benchmarks it's never a good idea to rely on a single score. You should compare many different scores. Preferably with benchmarks that test workloads you will actually make use of.
From personal experience, I'd also say that there is a noticeable bump in performance between M Max and M Pro chips (= running same workload as colleagues on identical specs apart from the chip), that isn't really apparent in the benchmarks here.
Might be an issue with the test methodology for x64 processors, eg. cooling and RAM speeds, SSD speeds etc. You should run geekbench on your own machine. C++ and C project compilation benchmarks I ran more or less match what I saw with Geekbench (in terms of %diff).
Basically, what I got is as follows (fully spec'd M4 MBA vs Ryzen 5900X, WSL2):
* for multi-core, my M4 Air is only 25% slower than my Ryzen 5900x desktop
* for single-core, my M4 Air is 0-20% faster than my 5900x
Compared to the M1 Air, it is almost exactly 2x as fast (Apple's claims are true in this regard), has slightly brighter display, and much better speakers. The "2x as fast" is sometimes actually "4x+ as fast" (for some workloads) because you have to take thermal throttling into account.
The air or an mb pro seems so nice until I remember the sting of dealing with the dev environment and docker on a Mac compared to Linux. No amount of battery life or marginal jump in performance (which gets lost through needed virtualization) will make up for that for me.
Considering the (relative) failure of the ARM push for Windows PCs I doubt ARM is going anywhere in the consumer market (that probably means it will stay niche in the server market as well but we'll see).
Are you referring to memory bandwidth specifically? Yes, that difference is not worth it. Even if you fully load the CPU and GPU on Apple Silicon you will not come close to using all that bandwidth [0]. You're better off comparing real-world benchmarks instead.
[0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/17024/apple-m1-max-performanc...
The subtle blue is nice, it's like a colder sliver look than what it was. I'd still like one in the blue that the series 6 watches came in.
I wouldn't have upgraded, except that I'm in need of a hand-me-down for a kid's laptop.
Oddly, using Migration assistant -- display and internal/external keyboard settings didn't transfer over, but Apple Intelligence remained off. Chrome reset it's search engine.
Trackpad slightly too big that causes false positive which was non-existent on older gen MacBook and Keyboard is new scissors that as less Key Travel than old scissors.
No 120Hz Screen. Some people want OLED, personally I prefer LCD. But I could see how it could be thinner for lid. Quality Face Camera is not solvable yet though.
May be Vapor Cooling Chamber. Still fan less but gives more longer peak workload.
May be Silicon Carbon Battery in the future.
Other than all these it is about as good as it get. Most of the solution above are ready today if Apple is willing bump the price up.
I am thinking if Apple will drop the current M4 MacBook Air to $899 and release the M5 at $999.
What are you transferring such that 320 channels solve a problem that 160 ones do not?
At least 6E gives access to 6 Ghz bands, which tend to be more less congested (and have more available channels).
It is useful at times when you are transferring between NAS or on a 2.5Gbps Internet. I think it hit the sweet spot of having enough headroom that when I need it, it is there.
But if you want to try, you can use Whiskey.
And if you do the math on what one would cost - by the time the subscription cost catches up, it’s time to upgrade the rig.
I could not find anything in reviews about the keyboard being improved other than that the M4 Air keyboard has a strike-through on the speaker icon on the F10 key now.
My instinct would be while the Key travel could remain the same ( IIRC 1mm Key travel ), but actuation force increase as it was previously something ridiculous like 35g.
Even if they bring it half way back to New Magic Keyboard used on the Desktop which I believe is 1.3mm Key Travel would have been much better.
The lid is heavy. Nothing much could be done on the bottom side.
Also, the screen is totally clean. No dust or smudges.
I have an M1 Max MBP with 64GiB and I can run decently sized local models but 128GiB or more would run more serious ones.
MacOS coming from Windows, not so much. A menu bar 'orphaned' from the application window? A 'File Explorer' (Finder) lacking basic functionality. Dragging a file download onto the Applications folder to install software (what?). Plugging in a 2K monitor to find it is unable to display at native resolution without installing third party apps. MacOS feels like it is some relic from the past.
EDIT: judging from the comments here, I accept it may be part unfamiliarity. Maybe I should give it another go. What resources would you recommend for someone new to MacOS?
While Windows approach of attaching the menu bar to application window was popular for a while, I am now crying just looking at Chrome window and seeing no menu at all. I don't even mention Ribbon blasphemy.
Which is a disadvantage when working with multiple applications as it forces an application switch before you can access the menu, rather than in windows where if you have your app windows staggered, you can immediately click into the other application's menu.
AFAICT, it's not possible to directly access the menu, so it's still two steps:
- switch to the second app to bring it to the fore/make it active
- activate the menu
I find this faster on a Mac since the menu target is larger.
Plus, your mouse travel is far less to get from the app (since it's part of the app) to the menu.
It's all right and it's not significantly a problem that needs to change but it's far from the best or ideal.
And I'm not sure why anyone would complain that installing (most, not all) applications is just dragging an icon into applications folder.
The menu bar allows for an infinite size target when flinging the cursor at it using the mouse.
What functionality do you find missing? Usually a right/context-click or command click will get what one is not finding.
By way of contrast, the Sidebar will accept an arbitrary number of files/icons, and they stay put, and if one drags into a file dialog window, it updates where it is pointing rather than performing a file copy operation (what happens if one cancels?).
Anything else one wants can be handled via AppleScript.
Similarly, there is drag-drop into Terminal windows, and check out how the commands pbpaste and pbcopy interact w/ Unix pipes and so forth.
FWIW, I miss the (NeXT-derived) Miller-column Filebrowser on Windows, and the "Unix Expert" checkbox on Mac OS, and the right-click pop-up main menu which made some commands gestural on either.
Installing via drag-drop on a disk image into an Applications folder shortcut avoids the need for a special tool to manage app installation and makes uninstalling as simple as dragging into the trash.
The 2K monitor thing is a hardware/firmware/driver issue I'd imagine --- was it sold as supported by the Mac OS you are using it with?
I love the integration with iOS and so I should probably try again and expect a somewhat steep learning curve due to muscle memory coming from Windows.
TBH I expected the monitor to 'just work' so I was a bit surprised it didn't- but apparently monitors in a certain PPI range are less suitable and make text and interface elements look blurry.
Maybe Apple doing a folding MacBook à la the Lenovo Yogabook 9i will finally get me back (bought a 128K Mac when I was younger, and still miss my NeXT Cube).
It's because conceptually everything is supposed to be a standalone executable.
The windows alternative is random installers that put files all over your machine and then questionable uninstallers that still leave half the files discarded everywhere.
One particularly dumb thing is that apps sometimes have various assets that will be modified or used as template/whatever in their App Bundle and this get copied to their Application Support folder, so there is no application install process per se, but it does get done at first launch, and now you are wasting hard drive space just to store files that got duplicated somewhere else. macOS/iOS App Bundles are extremely large for many cumulative reasons like that. I will note that Apple has no interest whatsoever in improving the situation considering how much they charge for storage...
Meanwhile the "eject drive" button in Finder has no animation or other immediate feedback at all when hovering or clicking.
> Dragging a file download onto the Applications folder to install software
I think that's quite intuitive. My problem with it is that seemingly app developers have to implement this correctly, but some don't and so the program just can't be installed that way. For example with openSCAD you just get an empty window without Applications folder.
What about Finder do you not like? It’s pretty customizable. Also, I use Spotlight (Command + Space) more than Finder, I think – it’s probably the number one killer day-to-day feature. Calculator, file search, metadata search, web search all rolled into one.
The other major thing I appreciate about MacOS is that it still exposes lower-level system and device settings if you need it to. Not to the extent of Linux, obviously, but I think they’ve struck a good balance between abstracting the magic and revealing what’s behind the curtain.
In contrast, I have a Windows 10 gaming desktop; that’s literally its only purpose in life, to launch Steam. Granted, at this point I’m very unfamiliar with Windows, having ceased major use of it after Windows 7, but I feel like it hides too much. For example, a few weeks ago I had a lengthy ISP outage, and so I wanted to use my iPhone’s hotspot to get connectivity. Everything I read online said it was as simple as plugging the phone in and accepting the connection, but that wasn’t my experience. Before you blame Apple, this isn’t the crux of the story. I eventually got it to work by disabling the network adapter on my PC. What became difficult was re-enabling it the next day, when my ISP had restored service. I’ve since learned that Device Manager still exists, but I swear I couldn’t find it on that day. The disabled adapter didn’t appear in any of the various Network-related options I looked through, and the only way I got it to work was by finding an option to reset networking settings. On a Mac, the disabled adapter would still be visible in the list, and could easily be re-enabled.
I should probably retry MacOS with this in mind. Thinking of it I suppose I expected MacOS to be as intuitive as iOS, which is a bit unfair.
Your experience with Windows hiding settings reflects mine- I think it's partly because of the mix of modern and classic menus and the latter being harder to find. Using things like Microsoft PowerToys and custom registry settings makes the Windows experience better but you could argue that this should be standard as well.
It is intuitive, but by the sounds of things you have several years, or decades of Windows muscle memory and experience. If you fight against the way the OS works by expecting to match your experience with a different one, you're in for a bad time.
Apple introduced window snapping in macOS 15. It works, but there are better apps that perform the task. I don't use any myself; I've been a Mac user for over 35 years and have never felt the need to have my document windows tiled.
The menu is a discoverability gift! Pro tip - type a command in the search box under the 'Help" menu in any native app, and it will show you where to find it and show the shortcut if one is assigned.
macOS user gestures extensively for navigation around the OS, so look in the 'Trackpad' settings, where it shows the gestures and allows a degree of customisation.
Edit: Regarding external monitors, Apple haven't sold a non-Retina display for quite a while now. Apple being Apple expect you to buy one of their monitors, or at least one that they've blessed, so 4K really is a minimum.
Using both Windows and macOS I feel that Windows has only recently started to catch up with Finder.
EDIT: I thought about this a bit, it’s the tree view. Like 85% of the time I’m in Finder I am using the tree view, which Explorer doesn’t have
Lack of cut and paste without keyboard shortcut contortions
Folder move behavior sucks
Finder is unable to make a view consistent. It will never override where a view has been previously set, even if you choose to use a particular view 'as defaults'.
I have been subjected to both for a very long time and I have also concluded that often the Windows approach is just superior, more scalable and more intuitive.
The monitor issue is a particular pet peeve of mine because I am absolutely certain Apple did this to drive sales of their monitors. There have been more monitors released recently that match the ideal PPI target that macOS require but otherwise it's a large pain in the ass to work with 3rd party monitors. And macOS itself has many weird issues with monitors that my PCs just don't have (wake up in particular, and their HDMI implementation is always fucked up for some reason).
macOS looks good and has some quite decent software from passionate people but those are less and less prevalent and subscription push has made many of it quite unappealing.