MacBook Air M4 is at its lowest price ever, and I'm ready to put the M1 out to pasture

MacBook Air M4 Black Friday deal — (Image credit: Future)

If you're planning on buying a MacBook for less during the big Black Friday sales, you may be eyeing up the M1 MacBook Air down to just $599 over at Walmart right now. Honestly, it's a solid choice, and you could do far worse for the price, considering what Apple's laptop brings to the table.

The thing is, the MacBook Air M4 at its lowest price ever on Amazon is simply the better buy at just $150 more.

This isn't to knock the MacBook Air M1. Despite launching in 2020, this laptop can still muster up some great speeds for working through documents, emails and more. At $599, this may even strike the right price for many.

But the M1 will soon be on its way out. Considering Apple's life cycle, the M1 MacBook Air will likely see its end of support in 2027 (Intel-based Macs are ending support next year). This doesn't leave you a lot of time with this laptop before it needs an upgrade, and in this market, longevity means value.

For just an extra $150, though, you'll get the best laptop we've tested this year. Not only did Apple knock $100 off the official price of the MacBook Air M4 at launch, taking it back down to the M1's cost, but Black Friday is now seeing it drop to its lowest price at $749.

With what this laptop offers, that's amazing value. Unlike the M1 model, the M4 will speed through multiple tasks at once, juggle dozens of browser tabs, handle photo and video editing, and even play some demanding games like Lies of P well. Just look at the difference in benchmarks in our lab tests:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Row 0 - Cell 0	Geekbench single-core	Geekbench multi-core
M4 MacBook Air 13-inch	3751	14947
M1 MacBook Air 13-inch	1731	7580

That's nearly double the performance, and with 16GB of RAM compared to the 8GB of RAM on the M1 laptop, it's far more capable at handling the latest demanding apps simultaneously.

Throw in the sleeker, modern-looking design, with smaller display bezels for a bigger 13.6-inch screen (13.3 inches on the M1) and a MagSafe charging port so you don't have to sacrifice one of the two USB-C ports for charging, and there's a reason why the MacBook Air M4 excels.

There's a reason why we called the MacBook Air M4 the "top laptop value" in our review, and if you're able to squeeze out an extra $150 right now, you'll get a lot more out of the M4 over the M1 today.

If you're on the lookout for even more big sales, our Black Friday laptop deals roundup will help you save on your next machine. For even more of the latest deals, check out our Black Friday live blog.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

Darragh is Tom’s Guide’s Computing Editor and is fascinated by all things bizarre in tech. His work can be seen in Laptop Mag, Mashable, Android Police, Shortlist Dubai, Proton, theBit.nz, ReviewsFire and more. When he's not checking out the latest devices and all things computing, he can be found going for dreaded long runs, watching terrible shark movies and trying to find time to game

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

More Black Friday Deals: Quick Links