There’s something both thrilling and maddening about unpacking a new Apple MacBook Air — that impossibly thin design, that whisper-quiet operation, that feeling that Apple has managed to compress the essence of a desktop into a slice of aluminum. In 2026, that feeling hits even harder in Australia, where the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage lands at around $1,899 from JB Hi-Fi or Apple — still undercutting most chunky Windows gaming laptops while delivering unmatched portability.
After reviewing dozens upon dozens of powerful Windows ultrabooks and the best gaming laptops, this is my absolute favourite laptop I’ve ever used. I’d choose the Air every single time. At the same time, though, the broader gaming landscape has never been richer — PC offers Steam, Epic, Xbox Game Pass with sprawling AAA libraries, while gaming laptops pack RTX GPUs and high-refresh screens. Yet despite Apple’s “console-class gaming” claims for Apple Silicon, macOS gaming still feels like a smaller, more isolated universe.
As a tech reviewer, content creator, and lifelong gamer, that gap hits hard. The M4 MacBook Air nails everything for everyday users, but AAA gaming tells a much more complicated story.
MacBook Air is best for most use cases
After testing dozens upon dozens of Windows ultraportables and the best gaming laptops on the market, the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air stands alone as my absolute favourite — the best all-round laptop I’ve ever used, and the one I’d choose every single time over any alternative. No other machine matches its perfect balance of power, portability, battery life, and polish.
The M4 chip — built on Apple’s second-generation 3nm architecture — delivers genuinely transformative performance. Editing 4K video timelines iin Davinci Resolve is a buttery smooth experience that I could never get in Snapdragon powered laptop like the Lenovo Yoga 9. Multi-tab Chrome with 30+ tabs, Slack, Canva, and Resolve running simultaneously feels buttery smooth, not just “good enough.” Even AI workloads like image upscaling in Pixelmator or Stable Diffusion previews fly without breaking a sweat. Most importantly, it stays whisper-silent and cool-to-touch — no fans, no thermal throttling, no sweaty wrists during long editing sessions.
Battery life is in a different league entirely. Real-world testing shows 18 hours of mixed productivity (writing, browsing, light editing, streaming) on a single charge — that’s a full international flight plus hotel check-in with power to spare. I go days without charging this machine, a feat that Windows ultrabooks like Dell XPS or HP Spectre cap out at 10-12 hours. Gaming laptops barely scrape 4 hours unplugged. The Air just keeps going.
The 15-inch Liquid Retina display isn’t OLED but at 500 nits brightness handles Brisbane’s harsh sunlight, perfect colour accuracy for photo/video work, and the larger screen real estate makes side-by-side editing or scriptwriting a joy without feeling cramped. Magic Keyboard and Force Touch trackpad remain unmatched — buttery typing, precise gesturing, haptic feedback that feels like physical clicks.
macOS ecosystem magic seals it: AirDrop files instantly to my iPhone 17 Pro Max for content capture, Continuity Camera turns iPhone into 4K webcam, Universal Clipboard copies code from Mac to iPad mid-review. For my workflow — scriptwriting, video editing, social posting, research — these aren’t features, they’re superpowers that save hours weekly.
Australian pricing makes it unbeatable value. $1,899 at JB Hi-Fi undercuts premium Windows ultrabooks by $500+ while demolishing their battery life and build quality. “Budget” gaming laptops hit $2,800+ AUD with plastic chassis, rapid depreciation, and fans that sound like jet engines. Three years from now, this Air will still fetch $1,000+ secondhand; those Windows rigs? $300 if you’re lucky.
After reviewing hundreds of laptops across three years, no Windows machine — not Dell XPS 16, not Razer Blade 14, not Zenbook S14 — matches this exact combination of elite performance, all-day battery, premium build, and ecosystem integration in a 1.5kg chassis. For 95% of users (creators, writers, students, professionals), the 15-inch M4 Air isn’t just the best — it’s your last laptop purchase.
MacBook Air for gaming
On paper, the M4 MacBook Air looks surprisingly capable as a gaming machine. GPU performance has jumped over the M3 generation, hanging with entry-level NVIDIA/AMD discrete GPUs in power-limited workloads. Apple’s unified memory keeps CPU and GPU fed from the same high-bandwidth pool, eliminating bottlenecks for tight optimisation. Everything screams “ready to play.”
Metal 3’s upscaling and frame generation become critical here — on a fanless Air without gaming laptop thermal headroom, they transform Cyberpunk 2077 from slideshow to 40-50fps at medium settings. Success stories like No Man’s Sky, Resident Evil Village, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Metro Exodus Enhanced (50-60fps with ray tracing) prove when ports align with MetalFX, the Air punches far above its size.
But reality crashes in fast. The AAA library stays thin versus Windows — Steam’s Mac support exists but most developers skip Metal ports for <5% market share. My 40+ Epic games library? Only 5 run: Metro Exodus shines gorgeous and stable, but Borderlands 3 stutters and crashes relentlessly even on low — “Mac compatible” ≠ “Mac optimised.”
App Store AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin’s Creed Shadows force full repurchase and at over $100 a pop, that really hurts considering CyberPunk is often on sale for about $30. Apple Arcade delivers polished AA titles (Fantasian, Oceanhorn 2, Sneaky Sasquatch) that scale beautifully with controller support, but hardcore gamers chasing open-world epics or moddable shooters find it a quality snack, not a feast.
Xbox Game Pass subscribers like me face another dead end — years building PC libraries, but no native client or local installs on Mac, just xCloud browser streaming. It works decently over solid NBN/5G (low latency, Air stays cool), but input lag spikes, no offline play for travel, and zero modding or max settings. Clever stopgap, not native replacement.
Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK) + Metal 3 show Windows games can run via DirectX 12 translation — promising for devs/hobbyists, but it’s proof-of-concept scaffolding, not production-ready. Studios won’t ship flagships on translation shims when PC/console pay better. macOS needs low-friction day-one ports, not developer sandboxes.
The irony burns brightest after reviewing dozens of Windows gaming laptops (ASUS ROG Zephyrus, Lenovo Legion, MSI Stealth): RTX beasts crush plugged-in benchmarks but drain to 1-2 hours battery with jet fans and throttling. The silent M4 Air delivers over 5 hours depending on the game — in principle, the ultimate portable gamer if the ecosystem just unlocked the hardware.
Conclusion
Again, I stand by my opening statement: The 15-inch M4 MacBook Air is the best laptop for most people in 2026. For something to get work done, create and consume content, it’s just so hard to beat. The level of craftsmanship, ecosystem benefits, battery life and performance make it a easy recommendation for pertty much everyone.
Gaming, however, is still the Archilles heel here. The hardware is ready, MetalFX/GPTK show promise, ports prove AAA works — but the overally library of games is laughable compared to PC or consoles. Apple still has a long way to go to incentivising developers to make more ports of their games; particularly on major platforms like Steam and Epic.
To be fair, Apple isn’t marketing the M4 Macbook Air as a gaming machine but this is a gaming website after all, these things matter. However, because the Air has the hardware capable of proper gaming, its incredibly frustrating that the software just isn’t there. That said, instead of spending $5000 on one of the best gaming laptops, I’d split that money and spend $3000 on a dedicated gaming PC setup and the $2000 for a Macbook Air.
Apple Australia kindly loaned the M4 Macbook Air to PowerUp for the purpose of this feature.
