If you need a laptop for school or work, our top recommendation is Apple’s 13-Inch MacBook Air with the M4 chip, which is at an all-time low price of $799 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The machine is thin and light, yet its M4 chip is powerful enough to handle more intense workloads, including 4K video editing, or keeping dozens of tabs open. It can even play games like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate and Dead Island 2 at respectable frame rates.
One of the biggest changes with this generation of MacBook Air is that Apple finally bumped the default amount of RAM from 8GB up to 16GB. Having double the amount of memory compared to earlier models will allow you to run more apps simultaneously without slowdown. The entry-level MacBook Air with M4 still starts with 256GB of storage, which can’t be upgraded, so you may want to pick up a configuration with a larger SSD instead if you work with a lot of large files.
The M4 chip powering the laptop is over 20 percent faster than the M3, according to tests we conducted while reviewing the machine. We don’t expect it to struggle at all during everyday tasks like streaming video, or working on spreadsheets and documents. The processor also yields great battery life, allowing you to get through a day of work or study without reaching for the charger. This is the laptop I use for my work at The Verge, and I’m able to write and go to meetings all day without worrying about the battery dying on me.
The MacBook Air’s 12-megapixel webcam is sufficient for video calls with friends or colleagues, and its speakers sound better than you might be expecting for a laptop this size. And if you need a laptop with a larger screen, the 15-inch MacBook Pro with M4 is on sale starting at $999 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.