Why the Air keeps winning
Every year someone declares the ultrabook category solved. Apple keeps raising the floor. The M4 Air isn't dramatically different from the M3 — but incremental gains in efficiency and GPU performance matter when the machine never gets loud or hot.
Battery: still the benchmark
We logged 16 hours 22 minutes in mixed use at 50% brightness — browsing, Slack, Spotify, two video calls, and an hour of Lightroom edits. Windows ultrabooks in the same price range typically land between 8 and 11 hours in our tests.
Who should skip it
PC gamers, Windows-only software users, and anyone running CUDA workloads need a different machine. If your entire workflow lives in Final Cut, Logic, or Apple Notes — this is probably your laptop.
Configuration advice
Spend on RAM before storage if budget is tight — 16GB unified memory prevents swap slowdowns. Add a USB-C hub for HDMI and SD card if you present often.