Desktops and laptops
Back to Best Laptop And Tablet Reviews

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air with Apple M4 chip (A3240) review

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air with Apple M4 chip (A3240)

CHOICE Expert Rating

78%
Recommended
What is the CHOICE Expert Rating?
Good points

Good Points

  • Very good keyboard
  • Excellent touchpad (very large)
  • Very good webcam with Centre Stage feature, which can be useful as it automatically pans and zooms when you move
  • Silent operation
  • Very good screen luminance
  • Very good screen
  • Extra USB-C port on charger for charging mobile devices
Bad points

Bad Points

  • Lacks an SD card slot
  • Lacks HDMI
  • Supplied charging cable is MagSafe (but can use USB-C)
  • Short power cord
  • Can not easily replace or upgrade components (trained technician only)

Type

Ultraportable
Ultrabook
Tablet mode
Operating system
macOS

Recommended products

Recommended
Recommended
Recommended for tablet use

Test results

CHOICE Expert Rating
78%
Performance score
74%
Tablet use score
N/A
Ease of use score
82%
Battery life score
74%
Display score
86%
Audio score
70%
Wi-Fi score
70%
Storage write-speed (MBps)
3441
Storage read-speed (MBps)
3029
Wi-Fi speed (MBps)
60
Average battery life – heavy usage (hours)
6:59
Charging time to 80% full (h:min)
1:54
Expert tester comments
The 2025 version of Apple's MacBook Air 13-inch gets a bump in processor speed over the previous MacBook Air generation (Apple M4 chip versus Apple M3 chip), and this showed in many of our tests. The screen remains very good (and very bright), the laptop doesn't make any noise thanks to a fanless design, and there are Thunderbolt 4 ports for adding external peripherals and storage. It remains one of the top lightweight laptops on the market for those of you who need to carry your Mac on a daily basis. Battery life was also slightly improved over the previous model in our tests.

Sustainability

Shop Ethical rating
D
Warranty (years)
1
Replaceable battery
Replace/upgrade RAM
Slots for additional RAM
Replace/upgrade storage
Slot for additional storage
Replace/upgrade Wi-Fi
Country of origin
China

Related products

Availability
Tested model

Cost

Price
$1,999.00

Specifications

Screen size (inches)
13.6
Native screen resolution (pixels)
2560 x 1664
Processor (CPU) type
Apple M4
CPU frequency (GHz)
4.41
RAM (GB)
16
Video graphics type
Apple M4
Storage capacity (GB)
512
Available user space (GB)
445
Storage type
SSD
Wi-Fi version
6E
Weight of laptop (kg)
1.2
Weight of power supply (kg)
0.19
Size (mm, H x D x W)
13 x 215 x 304

Features

Screen finish
Glossy
Touchscreen
USB-C
USB 2.0 ports
0
USB 3.0 ports
0
USB 4 as USB-C port
0
USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1 or 2, not Thunderbolt 3 or 4) ports
0
Thunderbolt 3 or 4 (as USB-C) ports
2
SD card slot (full-size)
SD card slot (micro)
HDMI port
Gigabit ethernet port
Rear camera
Backlit keyboard levels of brightness
10

More products in this test

HP Chromebook Plus 15a-nb0009TU
66

HP Chromebook Plus 15a-nb0009TU

$749
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 (14Q8X9)
76
Recommended

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 (14Q8X9)

$1,699
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i (14in, 10th gen)
77
Recommended

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i (14in, 10th gen)

$4,493

Looking for user reviews?

We don't offer user reviews anymore. Help us improve this expert review by sharing your feedback in a quick survey.