The original MacBook Air is the most important modern laptop. Competing Windows laptops were bulky, plasticky, and cared only for function, with no concern for form; but then Steve Jobs strode the stage, with a small manilla envelope on his lectern and, from it, pulled the slimmest little aluminum laptop the world had ever seen.

In the years since, no MacBook Air has captured the spark of that original laptop, in part because Windows computers followed in its lead. I’m writing this article on a slim aluminium-unibody Asus laptop, and it wouldn’t exist were it not for that original MacBook Air.

And even so, new MacBooks remain the most easily recommendable laptops on the market. With a lack of an internal fan, they don’t have the thermal capacity for large coding, 3D modeling, or gaming tasks. However, the average user will barely scratch its capacity in daily use, and it’s so efficient with its power usage that it can run for full days and longer on a single charge. The biggest problem with the MacBook Air is recommending buying the latest version. When Apple upgraded the MacBook Air in 2024, customers could save $100 and buy the last generation M2 model, and you wouldn’t notice the difference.

Tim Cook hopes to change that with the launch of a new line of MacBook Airs, powered by the latest M4 chips. It has no visual changes from the current design, which was introduced in 2022, but it’s also a pretty compelling upgrade, with a faster processor and a lower price.

The new M4 chips will have a roughly 20% uplift in single- and multi-core performance compared to the last-generation M3 MacBook Airs; but these will start $100 cheaper. As before, these come in a 13-inch version, which now starts at $999, and a 15-inch version, starting at $1,199.

There are other small changes too, as it now supports connecting to two monitors simultaneously while keeping the lid open, has an improved webcam — now sharing the same unit as the MacBook Pro — and comes in a beautiful new sky blue color, which is the one to buy.

This isn’t a perfect laptop. The forehead notch is both horrific and pointless, given that it still doesn’t have iPhone-like FaceID, and thee computer has no upgradeability, as every core part is soldered to the board. Because of that, Apple still charges scandalous amounts for the RAM and storage upgrades, forcing any financially sane person to rely on cloud storage.

But that’s been true for past generations of MacBook Airs, and will be for some time. What changes here is that, if you’re interested in buying a MacBook Air, I’d recommend getting the new one.