The 15” M4 MacBook Air
I upgraded to the M4 MacBook Air last month during one of Amazon’s big sales. I chose the larger 15” model with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD drive. This replaced a five-year-old 13” M1 MacBook Air with the same size drive but a miserly 8 GB of RAM.
This MacBook Air is a fantastic laptop, and certainly the best computer I’ve ever owned. The performance bump from the M1 to the M4 has been nice, but it’s not the blow-your-hair-back experience that upgrading from older Intel Macs to the M1 was. Some of the boost is likely due to having more RAM. On both the M1 and M4, battery life is phenomenal. Gone are the days when you needed a power outlet nearby where you worked. Charging this MacBook Air is now an afterthought, more like a Kindle than a traditional power-sapping laptop. It’s amazingly light yet sturdy. It feels good to lift this thing by its front edge. There’s no give or flex.
But honestly, for me, the best part of the upgrade has been the larger size of the 15” Air. Most of the reviews I read online recommend the 13” Air for its portability and lower cost. Amazon disclosed earlier this year that the 13” model outsells the 15” model by a factor of five to one. Having used the 13” model for five years and the larger model now for a month, I disagree.
The 15” screen feels so much bigger than the 13” screen without being unwieldy to carry or haul around. Spreadsheets display four or five more columns of data. Running apps side by side provides more functional space. Every app I use feels more … expansive.
The keyboard base and trackpad are bigger, and the forward edge no longer cuts into my wrist like it did with the M1. The laptop sits more securely on my lap when typing from the couch. You might laugh at this, but when folded up, it’s a perfect lap desk for my B5 notebook. Between the two models, the larger one is more comfortable in practically every way I use a laptop.
The standard 13” MacBook Air is cheaper, lighter, and fits more easily on those ever-shrinking airplane tray tables. Maybe if I were still flying every week, I would opt for the smaller form factor. But for the way I use a laptop now, the bigger Air is perfect.
This upgrade also marks a shift in my computing strategy and preferences. For almost a decade, I’ve used a laptop pretty sparingly, preferring a desktop Mac and a 12.9-inch iPad Pro for most of my work.
In my home office, I have an M2 Mac Mini connected to an Apple Studio Display Monitor. Unless I was traveling, the M1 MacBook Air stayed tucked away in my bag. Before each trip, I would charge it up, update its software, sync iCloud apps, and follow a lengthy checklist to transfer data and settings for non-cloud apps manually. This was a time-consuming process, and I always forgot to transfer something once I left home.
These days, we are traveling a lot more. This year, we’ll spend about half the year on the road. That’s a lot of time away from the home office and that marvelous 27-inch Studio Display screen. After three months of feeling claustrophobic using the 13” M1 Air here in New York, I decided to spring for the larger M4. I am really glad I did.
When we return home, I’ll relegate the Mac Mini to be an email and automation server, making this new MacBook Air my primary computer, both at home and on the road. A single Thunderbolt cable from the Studio Display is all I need to charge and connect to all my peripherals — no more wasted time syncing up files and settings before leaving home.
Now, it’s the iPad Pro that’s stuck in my bag, unused. I still treasure the iPad Mini, which, in my opinion, is the most under-appreciated iPad in the lineup. But for actual work, the Mac beats out the iPad Pro 99% of the time.
It’s been years since I’ve had a one-Mac setup like this. I’m looking forward to the simplicity and freedom of plug-and-play computing at home, while continuing to enjoy this jumbo screen on the road.