Apple's new MacBook Air M4 line just dropped to its lowest price yet
Apple just released its new MacBook Air M4 series earlier this spring. The laptop has only been on store shelves for a little over a month, and now steep discounts have arrived at Amazon. Unlike the first sale I spotted in March, today's price cuts apply to both the 13-inch and the 15-inch versions of the new best MacBook in town.
Apple 13-Inch MacBook Air M4
The second chance to save on Apple's newest MacBook Air is here. Several colors — including the new Sky Blue —are included in the sale, with a price drop of $89. This is an extra $39 below the original discount I tracked back in March and a new all-time low price.
Apple 15-Inch MacBook Air M4
Step up to the larger version of our favorite laptop with a $100 discount. This version sports the same M4 processor, 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage as its smaller counterpart, just with a 15-inch display. Apple has finally brought its latest chip to its beloved MacBook Air. The new M4 version improves everything our editors and readers have come to enjoy about the compact and powerful laptop. In the words of my friend and fellow Underscored editor Henry T. Casey, Apple's newest machine is 'the best boring laptop [he's] ever used.' That's not a diss either! When a company routinely releases a best-in-class product generation after generation, it's no surprise the newest iteration would live up to its expectations, not to mention earn our praise.
Casey spent the past week running the model through its paces. You can check out his full MacBook Air M4 review for all of the insight on why Underscored has a new contender for the throne of the best laptop, but my favorite takeaways are the more affordable price ($100 below last year's model) as well as the new Sky Blue color. Everything from previous models, like the thin build, gorgeous display and solid keyboard, has returned.
Not everyone needs the latest and greatest laptop to get work done. As someone who's typing this on an older MacBook Pro, I certainly get that point, but if you're in the market for a new machine that you're hoping will last as far into the future as possible, today's launch discount on the MacBook Air M4 is quite enticing.
It's the best that Apple has to offer since Apple products (and its MacBooks in particular) are known for their incredible lifespans compared to other laptops on the market. The decision to take advantage of today's deal comes down to what you value most. If you'd like to spend a little extra on a future-proofed computer that'll last as long as possible, the MacBook Air M4 is the way to go.
The ongoing tariffs situation also makes today's tech deal a notable chance to upgrade your machine without paying full price — or worse: paying above the current retail rate if price hikes take effect.
CNN Underscored has a team of writers and editors with many years of product testing experience as well as experience researching and recommending other buys, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when relevant to ensure we are testing each product accurately, recommending only the best products and considering the pros and cons of each item.
Senior deals editor Rikka Altland has personally been reviewing all kinds of tech and home goods for nearly a decade. She applies that tenure to coverage like today's MacBook Air sale. Altland has been using Apple laptops since high school and swears by the brand for her own computing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
31 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
iOS 19's redesign had me worried — but now I think it will turn out fine
Change can be scary — especially when it's change to something you rely on every day. So I'm guessing that news of the impending iOS overhaul that Apple will announce next week at WWDC 2025 is being anticipated in some quarters like a trip to the dentist. I mean, I'm certainly nervous about what's going to happen to the interface in iOS 19 (or iOS 26, depending on who's doing the rumor-mongering). And the natural inclination to distrust change only becomes heightened when you hear phrases like "the biggest iOS update in a decade" bandied about. There have certainly been tweaks here and there, but the iPhone interface we have now looks a lot like the one we've been using since iOS 7. There's comfort in that, and the idea that it's all about to change later this year can be unsettling. It doesn't help that it's really hard to assess interface updates until you actually get to see them in person. We can talk all about the rumored changes Apple is going to implement in iOS 19 and other software updates getting previewed at WWDC, but until we're actually using the update ourselves, who knows how smooth the transition will be. We won't be entirely clear what Apple plans to do until the iOS 19/iOS 26 preview gets underway as part of the WWDC 2025 keynote on June 9. But I've been spending some time reviewing some of the leaks and rumors out there about the proposed changes. And I'm feeling a lot less worried about the prospects of an interface update as a result. Here's why. Our best looks at potential iOS 19 changes have come from Front Page Tech videos posted by Jon Prosser, though not everyone's convinced some of those screen captures reflect Apple's final plans for its iPhone software. Still, an iOS 19 preview video posted about a month ago seems to be based on the most up-to-date info about Apple's plans, at least as Prossser tells it. Watching the video, a few things stand out, starting with the rounded — though not perfectly circular — icons on the home screen. A lot of visual elements are rounder in the posted designs, particularly widgets and sliders in the Control Center. The animations when you interact with the interface get a refresh — Prosser describes them as more fluid and bouncy — and there's a glass-like shimmer to some elements like the lock screen shortcuts. To me, the most noteworthy iOS 19 interface changes are the translucent menus that pop up on the home screen when you hold and press on an icon. Do that in iOS 18, and you'll see the same pop-up menu, but it's markedly more opaque. And you'll find a lot of elements at the bottom of your iPhone screen like search bars and a revamped dock that will be part of the iPhone's built-in apps. This will all look very familiar if you've ever strapped on an Apple Vision Pro, as the interface changes seem to be inspired by the look of visionOS — the platform for Apple's spatial computing headset. I haven't had a go with the Vision Pro, but my colleague Mark Spoonauer has. And his Apple Vision Pro review notes a lot of the visual elements like translucent panels and streamlined menus that look like they're coming to the iPhone with the new iOS update. If you're in the same Vision Pro-free boat as me, I'd suggest reading this MacRumors post on the visionOS elements likely to make their way to the iPhone. It helps explain how translucent menus, floating navigation bars and more work on the headset and how they might translate to a different device like an iPhone. Having reviewed all that and taken a closer look at some of the iOS 19 redesign mockups, I'm a lot less nervous about what Apple's going to show off at WWDC 2025. In fact, at the risk of being very wrong in public, I'm not prepared to think that the iOS 19 redesign isn't that big of a deal after all. And I mean that in a good way. When I say the iOS 19 interface update won't be a big deal, I'm not talking about the look of the software. From the images we've seen so far, iOS 19 is going to look radically different from the software currently running on the iPhone. And while that certainly is going to take getting used to, it doesn't seem like those interface changes are fundamentally altering how people use their iPhones. Oh, there will be some changes in that regard. It sounds like search menus are being located to the bottom of the screen, at least in apps like Messages and Music. But that's not a bad thing if you like using your phone one-handed or are used to the Safari layout with the search bar already at the bottom of the screen. From what I can tell, it looks like there's a more visually distinct animation when you switch tabs in one of Apple's built-in apps with that tab highlighted more prominently than it is in iOS 18. That sounds like a great change to me, as I appreciate anything that makes it easy to remember where I am in an app at just a glance. There's one visionOS style element in particular that I'm hoping makes the grade in iOS 19 — less cluttered menus. Since you navigate the Vision Pro with your eyes, you need spaced-out menus so that it's clear what exactly you're looking at when you want to select something. I think the iPhone could benefit from that, too, as it might reduce the number of mistaken taps where you select the wrong item from a drop-down menu. Again, changes like that aren't radically reshaping how you use your phone currently — they're fine-tuning the process you already have in place. To me, that will make the iOS 18 to iOS 19 transition a lot easier to manage. I reserve the right to hoot and holler during the WWDC 2025 keynote if I'm wrong and it turns out Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel in terms of the iPhone's interface. But the changes floating around out there right now sound more evolutionary than anything. And that's change we can all get behind.
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
Scoop: Apple to appeal EU requirement to share info with tech rivals
Apple filed an appeal to the European Commission's specifications around how the company complies with its interoperability requirements, which compel it to share user information with outside developers as part of the Digital Markets Act, per a source familiar with the situation. Why it matters: Apple continues to push back forcefully against requirements imposed by the DMA, which the company has said forces it to give up its intellectual property and compromise user privacy. The deadline to appeal this particular requirement was May 30. How it works: The interoperability requirements are meant to give other device manufacturers and app developers access to Apple features that are normally exclusive to Apple products, including WiFi pairing and notifications on non-Apple smartwatches and headsets. Apple and Meta were the first companies to be hit with DMA fines in April, as Axios first reported. Apple put out a report last December arguing that the DMA's interoperability reports could be abused and expose private user information. What they're saying: "We design our technology to work seamlessly together, so it can deliver the unique experience our users love and expect from our products. The EU's interoperability requirements threaten that foundation, while creating a process that is unreasonable, costly, and stifles innovation," an Apple spokesperson told Axios. "These requirements will also hand data-hungry companies sensitive information, which poses massive privacy and security risks to our EU users." Per the Apple spokesperson, as allowed under the DMA's interoperability requirement, companies including Meta, Google, Garmin and Spotify have requested from Apple user notification content and stored WiFi networks, "giving them the ability to access personal information that even Apple doesn't see." The spokesperson added, "In the end, these deeply flawed rules that only target Apple—and no other company—will severely limit our ability to deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an inferior user experience for our European customers." The other side: Companies that rely on the App Store to distribute their products have welcomed the DMA's requirements of Apple, saying they are long overdue for developers and other businesses to offer customers better features on their apps and devices.
Digital Trends
2 hours ago
- Digital Trends
20 iPhones elevate Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later scene
We already know that the iPhone is a versatile piece of kit with a powerful camera capable of capturing highly impressive video. That quality, coupled with the phone's small size compared to conventional movie cameras, has been inspiring a growing number of filmmakers to use Apple's handset for at least some of the shots in their grand productions. Recommended Videos Take Danny Boyle, the British director behind the 28 horror trilogy about a deadly virus outbreak and its aftermath. For the most recent installment, 28 Years Later, Boyle used a range of cameras, including three special rigs kitted out with iPhones. One had eight iPhones and could be easily carried by one person, another had 10 iPhones attached, and the largest had 20. 'There's an incredible shot in the second half [of the film] where we use the [20-camera rig], and you'll know it when you see it,' Boyle told IGN in a recent interview. 'It's quite graphic but it's a wonderful shot that uses that technique, and in a startling way that kind of kicks you into a new world rather than thinking you've seen it before.' The acclaimed director likens the 20-camera rig to 'basically a poor man's bullet time,' a reference to the classic bullet-dodging scene in The Matrix where time appears to slow down. 'It gives you 180 degrees of vision of an action, and in the editing you can select any choice from it, either a conventional one-camera perspective or make your way instantly around reality, time-slicing the subject, jumping forward or backward for emphasis,' Boyle said, adding that as 28 Years Later is a horror movie, 'we use it for the violent scenes to emphasize their impact.' The director said he also likes the rig because 'for a moment, the audience is inside the scene, the action, rather than classically observing a picture.' 28 Years Later hits screens on June 20, allowing fans to dive back into the chaos, while also discovering Boyle's skill at deploying the iPhone as a moviemaking tool.
