Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 review - The fanless M4 SoC is years ahead of the competition

[Redaktion]

Apple has given its MacBook Air 15 the lightning-fast M4 SoC, which is still cooled passively. It also features a new 12 MP webcam and a new colorway. However, its 60 Hz display remains unchanged and there is no matte option—but the Air is now $100 cheaper.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-15-M4-review-The-fanless-M4-SoC-is-years-ahead-of-the-competition.976933.0.html

[Dawnstar]

Apple: remove the notch, use a 120Hz IPS panel without frame rate control / temporal dithering, allow the screen to open 180 degrees. Thanks in advance.

[LL]

All good advices.

[PandaBear19]

What's up with Apple screens? Battery life drop at max brightness websurfing compared to regular websurfing test is massive, ASUS lunar lake laptops with OLED screens lose almost twice as less battery life in similar comparison. So strange when just recently OLED screens were big battery drainers for laptops when compared to LCD. 

[Aras]

Given that the power consumption decreases a lot, from 18 Watts to 5 Watts due to the fanless design, the test should have included the CPU and GPU performance over time.

Also, it matters a lot whether the benchmarks are run when the processor and the chassis is cool or warm.

[AZ]

When will the 13-inch (Entry 8-core GPU and 10-core) reviews be published?

[Sceglitelotu]

Very nice article!
I found very useful the data on the energy consumption under different loads and i think it would be great if also the temperature readings were done under the same circumstances( not just idle and load but also during wifi usage).

[XinisterMR]

In terms of repairability, as Ifixit shows, it has modular ports (most competitors don't), a battery that uses pullable adhesive, removable trackpad and day 1 repair manuals. It has parts pairing but a repair score of 0 just doesn't seem fair, there was no explanation for this score either.

[Mahmoud]

I think there is a mistake in the display's Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey. Based on the fall and rise times, I think the total is 23.2 ms, not 33.2 ms. Either this or the fall and rise times are wrong in the device screenshot.

[Dont_Look_Up]

Like @Aras mentioned already below, the most important performance measurement for a passively cooled is missing:

Performance deterioration over continuous R15 test loop is missing!

Another favourable treatment to Apple? (After bad screen response times, short warranty, ridiculous expensive upgrades, no repair by third party allowed...) All these do not matter for the reviewers in the final score?

For me the worst of all is the lock in software ecosystem and no option to install other OSes like Linux. But that is just me.

[Biscuity]

I'm intrigued by the black level and contrast on the display. There seems to have been some marked improvements over the last two MacBook Air generations (16% and 13% improvements respectively since last years M3 Air).

Do these improvements apply to the 13" MacBook Air as well?

Thanks

[Lon]

Why doesn't Notebookcheck take into account more types of flickering than just PWM?

Apple laptops are known to cause eye strain due to temporal dithering and FRC, which are used to achieve that P3 color gamut by rapidly switching between colors.

[Nival]

Seems to be a very incomplete (and flawed ?) review ... :/

- Screen is really mid-rang to low-cost in 2025 ...
- Nothing about the *real performance*, during *time* ... M4 Macbook are known to have thermal throttling that degrades performance after ~1 hour of high demand (gaming, video editing, etc.) --> were the benchmarks done 'cold' or 'hot'? because the results can be very different, and nothing is indicated here... (hot benchmark naturally are a better reflection of real use)
- The price to have just a barely acceptable memory is outrageous.

I see Ryzen AI laptops with premium OLED screen (3K / 120Hz VRR), 24Go RAM, 1To SSD, with a lower price ... with convertible touch-screen and stylus included ... How can you seriously argue that this macbook "is years ahead of the competition" ? ... :/