I’ve owned a MacBook Air for the first time in over a decade since the end of January. I bought an M3 refurbished just before the M4 Airs came out. I needed a laptop for recording my band’s demo. I haven’t had a personal laptop in a while, relying on an iPad on the go and a Mac Mini on my desk (I have a job-issued MacBook Pro, but that lives fully separate from anything personal).
This is my short review.
The M-Series chips really shine, as this MacBook Air is plenty performant for anything I’ve thrown at it, including absolutely fan-less operation of Ableton Live 12, which I’m using routinely with 10-20 tracks, effects/EQs etcs on each of them.
The MacBook Air form factor is remarkable as ever. The 13" is incredibly light and incredibly portable. The keyboard is totally fine, track pad is perfect. I continue to love having Magsafe back. I dislike both Thunderbolt/USB-C ports being on the same side– two is probably enough, but would be better with one on each side of the laptop. Three would be nice, but I haven’t had any occasion where that was necessary.
The most unfortunate thing about the MacBook Air is I’ve spent the last decade using MacBook Pros. And the display on the MacBook Air is noticeably worse. So much so I almost returned the Air– I just have to keep reminding myself what this computer is for. The size, weight, and performance are all perfect for my personal machine, but that screen, especially if it was my only computer or display, is just not what I want.
Still, a refurbished or even slightly on sale MacBook Air feels like a pretty unbeatable value.