Well before Apple announced the MacBook Air M4 on March 5, 2025, we knew the day would come that we’d have a real Cain and Abel situation on our hands. A real Remus and Romulus familial brouhaha. A Mufasa and Scar dust-up on the Savanna.
People would want to know whether it was worth stepping up from the entry-level 13″ MacBook Air M4 to the 14″ MacBook Pro M4, given that they both share the same M4 chip. I’m here to hash that out for you.
We’re talking about the base-level MacBook Pro M4, with the M4 chip. Not the mid- and high-level versions of the MacBook Pro that come with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, respectively. Confused? Great. Apple seems to like us being confused. Or maybe it doesn’t? Though they sure like to try with their wacky naming conventions. Don’t get me started on “Air.”
the key similarities
Let’s get the similarities out of the way. Right up front, both laptops use the same, Apple-designed M4 chip. It features 10 cores, up to 32GB RAM (if you pay for the upgrades), up to 2TB of storage (again, gotta pay extra), and 120GB/s memory bandwidth. Both are quick machines.
Until the post-Covid lockdown years, laptops featured awfully shitty built-in webcams. It was a given that you’d have to upgrade to an aftermarket model. While the decent aftermarket webcams are still much worth the upgrade, the MacBooks’ included webcams are actually decent enough to use. These two siblings share the same 12-megapixel, 1080p HD camera, so you’ll still look just as washed-out and awkward on Zoom with either MacBook.
There’s no difference in the Wi-Fi 6E or Bluetooth 5.3 protocols used, either, so don’t expect a speed difference there. And if you’re waiting for Face ID on a MacBook, keep waiting. Both the Air and Pro come with Touch ID for yet another year. It works cleanly and quickly, and I honestly have no complaints, except when I get out of the shower with prune fingers and it won’t work for me until I stop looking like the saxophonist from the California Raisins.
the key differences
Price is a biggie. Let’s talk about that. The MacBook Air M4 actually costs $100 less than the outgoing Air M3, which brings the entry price down to $999. Meanwhile the base-level MacBook Pro M4 starts at $1,399.
Though both use the M4 chip, the MacBook Air doesn’t come with an internal fan to help cool the laptop’s internals. Electronics don’t like excessive heat, and their performance suffers when the internal temperature nears the safe maximum and the computer slows to prevent damaging itself.
There’s a slight performance boost on the MacBook Pro, thanks to its internal fan. It’s better able to manage its heat and keep itself in an optimal temperature range during heavy or demanding usage.
But it doesn’t work as well as the dual fans that come with the (stick with me here) MacBook Pro M4 Pro chip or M4 Max chip. And really, the benchmark scores of the MacBook Air M4 (54,806) and MacBook Pro M4 (57,596) are really quite close. The Pro won’t be much faster than the Air.
You get double the storage space by default on the MacBook Pro, which comes with a 512GB SSD (solid state drive), while the MacBook Air comes with a 256GB SSD. Upgrading to a 512GB SSD on the MacBook Air adds $200 to the price, which doesn’t add any other features to the Air and nudges the price closer to the Pro’s.
While 256GB should be enough space if you primarily live off the cloud and don’t save a lot of space-hogging files, such as movies, pictures, and downloaded video games, it’s about the bare minimum I’d recommend for a laptop these days. If you download or keep many files like those I mentioned, then you’re gonna want 512GB, at least.
Both the Air and Pro feature 16GB of RAM by default, likely to help power Apple Intelligence, which is sashaying more and more into Apple’s limelight. There are a few more minor differences, such as the Pro coming with six speakers compared to the Air’s four, and the difference in included chargers.
and a difference in looks
Silver and black are available on either one. If you want a more festive color, you’ve gotta go with the Air, which comes with a swanky new Sky Blue color, plus a gold color.
Given that both laptops come with Liquid Retina displays, the screens of the Air (13.6″) and Pro (14.2″) look great. The Pro gets twice as bright, with 1000 nits of brightness. That’ll come in handy more so if you tend to work outside in the daylight.
Battery life is significantly better on the Pro, though, which will run for up to 24 hours on a charge. That’s a lot longer than the 18 hours the Air will last, although that’s no slouch. Remember that that’s if you’re using these computers economically, not if you’re binging 4K movies with the screen brightness turned up while you fiddle with InDesign on the side.
Pros have always had more ports, and the Pro M4 comes with three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and an SDXC card slot. The Air only has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. At least both also have MagSafe so that you don’t have to use up a precious USB-C port for charging. That used to drive me crazy on my 2020 MacBook Air.
Lastly, weight and dimensions have always been a major differentiator between the two lineups. The two laptops’ lengths and widths are close enough to be a non-issue, but the Air is about three-quarters the thickness of the Pro.
The Air weighs in at 2.7 pounds, and the Pro tips the scale at 3.4 pounds. If you don’t think you’ll notice the weight difference, you will. It’s not like the Pro isn’t portable. It’s just that you’ll feel 0.7 pounds of a difference.
the verdict
I’m so touched that you scrolled all the way to the bottom to see what little, ol’ me would do in this hypothetical window-shopping trip.
The Air M4 gets my nod. At this end of the MacBook market, it just makes more dollar sense. The Pro M4 has performance advantages, but it damn well better have them for $400 more. Even with them, though, it’s no powerhouse for heavy-lifting tasks, such as video editing or working on resource-heavy CMSes.
If that’s what you need (and if you want to stick with a MacBook), you should be considering nothing lower than the MacBook Pro M4 Pro chip. And if you don’t need a laptop for those tasks, you’ll do fine with the MacBook Air M4. It’s plenty fast for normal tasks.
The Pro M4 occupies a very narrow middle ground between the casual user who just needs to browse the internet, check email, stream movies, and using office suite software, and the professional user who needs to edit photos or videos, for example.
The Air M4 wins this battle for most folks. Save your $400 and buy one if you aren’t a professional who needs to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your laptop for crazy-intensive tasks, but who still wants a fast, compact laptop with the trademarked Apple slickness.
