A Mac with colour that will forever be remembered. History records 1977’s Apple II as the first mass-produced home computer with a colour display, and 1998’s iMac G3 series will forever be tied to its iconic spread of colours that broke away from the dull grey desktops of that generation. The original iMac is also the reason why Bondi blue is a recognisable colour to many, and it is through this legacy of hardware and aesthetics that the latest MacBook Air 15-inch saunters in confidently and exquisitely, with a striking Sky Blue hue that will come to define Apple’s line of portable computers for 2025.
Powered by the latest M4 silicon chip, 2025’s MacBook Air (MBA), Apple’s premium ultraportable line, is available in two sizes – the standard 13-inch and the more recent 15-inch model first introduced in 2023 and powered by the M2 chip. That model came in a dark Midnight blue, a contrast to the much lighter hued blue on this year’s model, but this shade clearly stands out more. While the M4 chip is the latest, it’s not brand new as it was first introduced on the iPad Pro last May, before it was used to power last October’s MacBook Pro (MBP) machines.
But six months is practically a lifetime in the processor industry, and the use of the M4 on the MBA is an incredible boost to productivity and portability, which brings us back to Apple’s unique rule, or categorisation, of three. On a device level, there is the Mac, iPad and iPhone. With the iPhone 16, there is the entry level 16e, formerly SE model, the base 16 and 16 Plus models, and the Pro series. On the iPad, you have the entry level device , the iPad Air and the iPad Pro, and with the Mac, you have the MacBook range, the iMac models, and the small-form-factor Mac workstations.
The MBP is Apple’s portable powerhouse but it is now running on the same chip as the MBA and with the base M4 chip, consumers have three machines to pick from – last year’s MBP 14, and the new MBA 13 or this MBA 15.
Priced from S$1,799, the base MBA 15 costs S$400 less than the base MBP 14, and provides better value than the S$1,499 for the base MBA 13. The entry level M4 MBA 13 offers the M4 SoC (System on Chip) with a 10-core CPU (four performance cores and six efficiency cores), and an identical 16-core Neural Engine for all models, but only with an 8-core GPU compared to the 10-core on the MBA 15. You can upgrade the MBA 13 to the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU M4 but at S$150 more, which makes the MBA 15, with its larger display, a much better choice.
Meanwhile, the MBP 14 and MBA 15 comes with the same performance hardware, which includes 16GB of unified memory, and the trade-in for a smaller 14-inch display MBP is that you get a larger 256GB of storage, compared to the 128GB for the MBA 15.
But what do the numbers tell you? On Geekbench 6, the M4 MBP 14 clocked 3,792 on the single core score, and 15,027 on multi-core, matching the 3,726 single core and 14,805 multicore score on this M4 MBA 15 – that’s similar performance on a larger screen, and with savings factored in. But what about real world performance? Using Handbrake, we processed a 10-minute 4K, 60fps video using Adobe Premiere Pro on this machine, and completed it in less than nine minutes. Comparatively, the Mac mini running the M4 Pro did it in three minutes and five seconds, while the iMac outfitted with M4 performed the same process in six minutes.
This makes the new MacBook Pro an attractive, all performing device to have. Encased in a durable recycled aluminium enclosure, the aesthetics of the MBA has not changed much in the last few years. Measuring 34.04 by 23.76cm, and at just 1.15cm thin, the 15.3-inch model weighs just 1.51kg and feels impossibly lightweight compared to even my chunky 13-inch work laptop. If you need ports, then this ultraportable isn’t for you, as it only has one 3.5mm headphone jack on the right, and two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the left edge, next to the Magsafe 3 charging port. One slight difference, or rather, improvement, is with the keyboard that looks the same, aside from a new strike-through on the speaker icon on the F10 key. Previously, the icon was simply a speaker and you had to know that it was the button to hit, to mute the audio on your Mac – now, it’s just more obvious.
Of course, Apple’s biggest selling point for its current wave of devices big and small is Apple Intelligence, a suite of on-device software that aims to improve your life. From Writing Tools that help you rephrase, edit and summarise text, to Image Playground that helps you generate images based on text description, Apple Intelligence differs from the artificial intelligence (AI) software offered by its competitors, in that it works offline, so you don’t need to be online connectivity to redraft or improve proposals while you’re on a flight, or worry about your data being misused to train AI software. On the flip side, it’s not capable of drafting things from scratch since it doesn’t have a baseline set of data to work off from. As companies continue to tout their own capabilities with AI, Apple’s slightly closed off system has its pros and cons, and its usefulness depends greatly on what you’re using AI tools for.
Instead of the Liquid Retina XDR display that comes with Apple more premium MacBooks, the MBA 15 uses a LED-backlit display with IPS technology, with a native resolution of 2,880 x 1,864, offering 224 pixels per inch. Coupled with the 500 nits brightness, the device is great to work on, for editing photos or just content viewing. The built-in speaker are adequate for group viewing of a video, but you’ll be better off with a pair of AirPods for private audio session. The built-in 66.5‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery offers up to 18 hours of video streaming, which is also impressive for a laptop of this size.
And size is where users will have to decide on the trade-offs with the M4 MacBooks. The MBA 13 is short of two GPU cores compared to the MBA15, and the MBP 14 has better hardware for a price, but with a smaller screen. The decision becomes easier if you want something portable yet easy for the eyes, which the MBA 15 caters to.
After years of using, and bringing around the over 2kg MBP 16, MBA 15 feels less of a burden but there’s also the new Sky Blue colour. As elegant as MBAs or MBPs can be, they are mostly silver, grey or black in colour, no matter what names the company comes up with. The earlier Dark Midnight was a nice touch of blue. Still, it was almost too dark a hue but with this, there’s a nice elegance to a colour that isn’t normally linked to a laptop of any kind. There were instances when doing the review, that I caught myself just adjusting the angle of the screen in an almost closed position, just to catch the reflective lights bounding off themetallic chassis – it’s an unexplainable urge that defies any explanation, but as stated before – its a Mac and a colour combination that doesn’t seem to be a fitting match, but you cannot unsee it after that.
GEEK REVIEW SCORE
Summary
Apple’s MacBook Air 15 is simply the most powerful and elegant ultraportable available. With a larger screen, faster processor and now, in a sharper colour, it’s the most beautiful and best MacBook for everyday users on the go.
Overall
9.2/10
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Aesthetics - 9.5/10
9.5/10
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Build Quality - 9/10
9/10
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Performance - 9/10
9/10
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Value - 9/10
9/10
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Geek Satisfaction - 9.5/10
9.5/10
Hsals needs more space in his house, and more money in his bank account to pay for all the toys, collectibles and other geek related items that companies are churning out. Free-time? Girlfriend? Who’s got time for those?
Kevin Low
