The switch to Apple silicon brought enhanced speed to Apple’s Air series, but the 2025 model is now twice as fast inside Photoshop compared to the original M1 chip. Announced on March 5, the Apple MacBook Air M4 upgrades the processor and camera while dropping the list price for the brand’s more affordable compact laptop series.
Announced alongside the desktop Mac Studio M4 Max and M3 Ultra, the MacBook Air M4 is a moderate update compared to the 2024 variant with the M3 chip. But, the company says the new MacBook Air M4 is up to twice as fast as the first Air with Apple silicon, the M1 variant, including doubling speeds in Photoshop and iMovie. Users that upgrade from an older MacBook Air with an Intel processor can see as much as 23x faster performance overall and up to 3.6x faster performance inside Photoshop.
