With its twin 2025 reboots of its MacBook Air laptops, Apple finds itself surrounded by some fierce competition, with AMD- and Intel-based Windows notebooks prepared to outpace and outlast the Airs. Perhaps, in part, this is why Apple did something it seldom does: It pushed a price cut. For 2025's models, Cupertino reduced the MacBook Air's starting configurations by $100 each. Coupled with a new baseline of 16GB of memory, the 13-inch MacBook Air becomes, surprisingly, one of the best deals in computing so far this year. That's especially true when you factor in Apple's included software and its now-cheaper upgraded configurations.

The new 13-inch Air is our Editors’ Choice winner as the MacBook that's right for most people. Doing more for less money, and lasting longer on a charge than Apple’s claims, the M4-based model keeps the MacBook Air highly relevant. But why not a higher Editors' Rating than last year's M3 Air earned? Its Windows-ultraportable competition has been hitting the gym double-time.

If you’re familiar with buying a MacBook Air (or you browse Apple's product pages wistfully, by habit), the 2025 model’s configuration scheme won’t surprise you. However, the prices might, since the 13-inch version of the laptop now starts at just $999, and the 15-incher at $1,199. Both are down $100 from 2024's equivalent Air models.