It’s been a busy week this week, and that’s especially true for Apple. The Cupertino company didn’t just drop an updated iPad Air and new entry-level iPad, which in itself followed on from new iPhone 16e that only went on sale last week, but it’s also announced a new MacBook Air and Mac Studio, alongside an M3 Ultra chip.
I’m going to start with the MacBook Air (M4), because that model of Mac holds a special place in my heart, but I’ll mention the new Mac Studio at the end in case you’re wondering what the “most powerful Mac ever” is bringing to the party.
What is new for the MacBook Air (M4)?
The new MacBook Air (M4) has the same design as its predecessor, but there is a new colour in the line up. Sky Blue joins Silver, Starlight and Midnight, and replaces the Space Grey option that was available on the previous MacBook Air (M3).
Two size options remain, with a 15.3-inch model and 13.6-inch model and both offer two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, though the M4 model of the MacBook Air is capable of powering two external displays and the MacBook Air’s own display, rather than just one external display and the MacBook Air display.
IMAGE CREDIT: APPLE
There are a couple of other differences elsewhere too, with a new 12-megapixel Centre Stage camera within the notch at the top of the display, which matches that of the MacBook Pro (M4), and there’s also 16GB of memory as standard rather than 8GB of memory, which was an option with the MacBook Air (M3).
The big news is the upgrade to the Apple’s M4 chip however, which gives it a power boost compared to the MacBook Air (M3), though you many who have the M3 model wouldn’t need to upgrade. If you’re coming from an MacBook Air (M1) or MacBook Air (M2) however, you should see a difference in performance.
What about the new Mac Studio?
Moving briefly onto the Mac Studio then, which is a desktop computer similar to the Mac mini but with more power. It gives you the Mac experience, whilst offering you the flexibility of adding your own accessories, from external displays to keyboards, trackpads and mice.
The main news for the Mac Studio is a performance boost, with a choice of the M4 Max chip, or the M3 Ultra. It’s a little confusing but the M3 Ultra – which is new too – is more powerful than the M4 Max. Getting geeky for just a second, because there really is no choice when you’re talking about this Mac, the new Mac Studio has support for 512GB of unified memory on the M3 Ultra processor, which Apple highlights as being the most ever in a personal computer.
IMAGE CREDIT: APPLE
To put that into perspective a little, the previous Mac Studio that came with the M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip supported up to 192GB of unified memory. The new model also supports up to a 32-core CPU, up to 80-core GPU and it can be configured to offer up to 16TB of storage, which is double that of the previous Mac Studio.
Other differences include support for an extra 8K display compared to its processor, with a total of four over three, and there are four Thunderbolt 5 ports here for the M4 Max model, or six Thunderbolt 5 ports with the M3 Ultra model, replacing the Thunderbolt 4 ports of the previous generation.
MacBook Air (M4) and Mac Studio price and availability
The MacBook Air (M4) is available to pre-order now, starting at £999 in the UK and $999 in the US for the 13-inch model and £1,199 in the UK and $1,199 in the US for the 15-inch model.
That’s £100/$100 cheaper than the MacBook Air (M3) started at, putting the MacBook Air back into slightly more affordable pricing territory under the £1000 mark. It comes in storage options of 256GB, 512GB, 1 TB and 2TB, and it will hit stores on 12 March.
The Mac Studio starts at £2,099 in the UK and $1,199 in the US, and it too is available to pre-order now and will go on sale from 12 March. The top-specced model costs £14,299 in the UK and $14,099 in the US.
