Apple unveils MacBook Air with M4 chip & Mac Studio power

Apple has announced updates to its MacBook Air, now featuring the new M4 chip, enhanced performance, and additional features such as a 12MP Center Stage camera and longer battery life.

The M4 chip is a central highlight of the new MacBook Air, boasting a 10-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 32GB of unified memory. According to Apple, this makes the new laptop up to 2x faster than its M1 predecessor and capable of handling demanding tasks with ease. In terms of raw performance, when compared to the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, the M4 model offers a substantial enhancement, being up to 23x faster. Additionally, the battery can now last up to 18 hours on a single charge, providing six more hours than the Intel-based models.

The MacBook Air supports up to two 6K external displays in addition to its own built-in display, thereby enhancing its utility for multitaskers and professionals who require multiple screens for their projects. It is available in new and existing colours, including a new sky blue, which Apple describes as metallic and providing a dynamic gradient effect when light reflects off its surface.

Greg Joswiak, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, commented, "MacBook Air is by far the world's most popular laptop, and today we're giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, and a beautiful new sky blue colour. Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of AUD $1,699 / NZD $1,999, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time."

Apple also introduced the new Mac Studio, equipped with the M3 Ultra chip, which is heralded as the most powerful Apple chip to date. Enhanced by Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, the machine offers up to 512GB of unified memory and up to 16TB SSD storage. The Mac Studio with M3 Ultra is capable of impressive performance across heavy-duty tasks and is particularly geared towards AI applications, thanks to its capacity to operate large language models.

John Ternus, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, said, "The new Mac Studio is the most powerful Mac we've ever made. A complete game-changer for pros around the world — powering both home and pro studios — Mac Studio sits in a class of its own, offering a staggering amount of performance in a compact, quiet design that fits beautifully on your desk. With this new Mac Studio, we're delivering even more extreme performance with M4 Max and M3 Ultra, support for half a terabyte of unified memory, up to 16TB of superfast storage, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. Mac Studio truly is the ultimate pro desktop."

Both MacBook Air and Mac Studio come with macOS Sequoia, which includes enhancements like iPhone Mirroring and an updated version of Safari. Users can also benefit from improved gaming experiences, dynamic writing tools, and integrated AI support with ChatGPT available through Apple Intelligence.

Johny Srouji, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, described the launch of the M3 Ultra, stating, "M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications. Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there's no other chip like M3 Ultra."

The new MacBook Air and Mac Studio reflect Apple's ongoing efforts to integrate powerful new technologies aimed at a wide range of consumers, from everyday users to those needing high-level computing power for professional tasks. Both products are available to pre-order, with customers expected to begin receiving them on 12 March.