Back once again, the rare sub-$800 price on Apple’s latest ultra-portable has returned: The 13-inch MacBook Air M4 is $749. That’s $250 off the regular sticker price of $999 for the 16GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration, a combination many heavy users consider to be the Air’s real sweet spot. Whether you are a shopper who is still weighing value against longevity, this deal blows practically all the offers we’ve seen in the current cycle out of the water.
What Makes This Price Special for the MacBook Air M4
Deal watchers will appreciate that it’s rare to see Apple’s latest silicon at this price point. Price trackers saw a temporary drop to about $738 at the height of the holiday rush, but that window of opportunity quickly closed. At $749, you’re within a rounding error of that low without having to wait for the next shopping spree — or take on the risk of inventory drying up.
The discount extends to all colors, which include Midnight, Silver, Sky Blue, and Starlight. Especially because Apple’s new anodization makes the darker finish smudge-resistant — more so than before, at least — even the most fingerprint-averse folks can finally choose based on which shade they like rather than what’s in stock.
What You Get for $749 with the 13-inch MacBook Air
This model combines Apple’s M4 chip with 16GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. The extra memory counts: applications, big browser sessions, and virtualized workloads all feel the difference with 16GB on Apple silicon. If storage is your only concern, keep in mind that external USB 4 SSDs offer quick and relatively affordable expansion later on.
The highlight? A 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display at 2560 x 1664 with wide DCI-P3 color and around 500 nits of sustained brightness. For photo work and web design, that color accuracy isn’t mere marketing; labs like DisplayMate and independent reviewers commonly corroborate Apple’s P3 coverage and tight delta-E accuracy on Air panels.
Portability is essential to the Air: about 2.7 pounds and an ultrathin 0.44-inch profile, with a durable aluminum build, backlit keyboard, and a huge glass trackpad that still sets the standard in this class.
You also get MagSafe 3 charging, two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, Wi‑Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, a 1080p FaceTime camera, and a four-speaker system that supports Spatial Audio.
Battery life remains one of the comparative advantages. Apple rates the Air for up to 18 hours of video playback. Independent testing from outlets like Laptop Mag and Tom’s Guide typically falls in the 15–18 hour range for recent generations of Air, and the M4’s efficiency cores only lend credence to that all-day staying power.
Performance and real-world use for everyday work and creative tasks
M4 brings Apple’s latest architecture to the Air for faster CPU and GPU blocks as well as a next-gen Neural Engine rated at 38 TOPS. For typical work — video calls, office apps, hundreds of browser tabs open, and tossing off bits of light coding — it feels instant. Even better, it goes into challenging territory: 4K timeline scrubs in consumer editors, Lightroom Classic RAW batches, or Xcode builds are all possible to a certain extent, especially when you have 16GB of memory.
Keep in mind you’re getting a fanless machine here, though. Continuous heavy exports will still be the domain of Pro-class laptops fitted with active cooling. But for mobile creators and students, the silence, the battery life, and weight savings often beat the last 10 percent of peak throughput.
On-device AI is no longer a gimmick here. With the M4 Neural Engine, and macOS features that increasingly rely on local models for things like image cleanup, transcription, and smart summaries; the result is that tasks are faster and private by default — an argument those covering edge AI adoption in consumer hardware have made time and again.
How it compares to Windows ultrabooks and older Airs
$749 is a bargain for what you’re getting: even premium Windows ultrabooks with 16GB of memory are more expensive, often with inferior battery life and less color-accurate screens, if not less impressive build quality. IDC’s shipment data confirms that Apple’s share in the high-end thin-and-light market continues to grow on a wave of such blowout price-to-performance deals from the Air and others.
If you’re coming from an Intel-based MacBook, or an older M1 Air, the increase in performance is drastic — launch times get faster, battery life extends, and responsiveness wins out across the board. Compared to an M2 or M3 Air, the gains are more incremental, but they can be seen in mixed workloads and AI-accelerated tasks — and you get 16GB at a price many similar deals reserve for 8GB.
Should you buy now or wait for another MacBook Air deal
At $800 and below, this is a green-light buy. The only reasons to hold off would be if you need more than 256GB of internal storage or Pro-level sustained performance. For everyone else — students, habitual travelers, and creators who mostly work with photos and short-form video — this configuration is the sweet spot for speed, silence, and battery life.
At a price this near to the recent nadir and in stock for all colors, it’s a good play to go ahead and place your order while inventory exists. The Air’s long-term value is only enhanced by its rugged construction and strong resale value, as measured by device trade-in firms.