I’ve grown used to the MacBook Air M4 being on “sale” for $899 for a while now. Even though the laptop is only just now turning half a year old, retailers have been blessing the Air M4 with $100-off deals on and off all year, mostly on.

Until recently, $849 was the best price I’d seen on the laptop, and that was a hell of a deal for a great laptop. Lately, though, it’s been on sale again for $799, which is tied for the lowest price it’s seen in its infant life so far.

the people’s MacBook

As I’ve maintained since Apple launched the MacBook Air M4 in March 2025, it’s more than enough laptop for the vast majority of people. It’s lightweight, it’s under $1,000—although just barely, at its starting price of $999—and it’s still a speed demon in a svelte package.

When I compared the MacBook Air M4 against its pricier sibling, the MacBook Pro M4 with the base-level M4 chip (not the M4 Pro or M4 Max chip), I declared the Air M4 the winner.

The Pro M4, which shares its M4 chip with the Air M4, did hardly any better with its performance benchmark scores. The MacBook Air M4 scored 54,806, and the MacBook Pro M4 scored 57,596. That’s quite close.

The Pro won’t be much faster than the Air unless you step up to the MacBook Pro M4’s more worthy mid-range M4 Pro or high-end M4 Max chips.

As I wrote in my comparison against its pricier MacBook Pro M4 sibling, you should pick yourself up a MacBook Air M4 “if you aren’t a professional who needs to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your laptop for crazy-intensive tasks, but who still wants a fast, compact laptop with the trademarked Apple slickness.”