Forget the M4 Air-I want Apple to bring back the plain ol' MacBook

Thanks to Apple silicon, a 12-inch MacBook would be a game changer.

- BY ROMAN LOYOLA

There was a time in my life as a MacBook user when I preferred the largest model. In my younger days, I lugged around a 17-inch PowerBook G4 (fave.co/4jHtYVD) with pride, boasting about how I wasn't willing to compromise screen size and battery life.

My penchant for large MacBooks continued for a couple of decades, all the way through to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Max. But then I reviewed the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air (fave.co/46MJcDT), and I dumped the 16-inch MacBook Pro as my daily driver. I even loved the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro (fave.co/3Rt3mMe) when I tried it last year, too.

For a user like me, bigger isn't better. And now I think I want to go even smaller, smaller than a 13-inch MacBook Air. What I really want is for Apple to revive the 12-inch MacBook. Thanks to Apple silicon and modern-day components, a 12-inch MacBook could be a real game changer for MacBook users.

THE M4 IS BUFF ENOUGH

Apple silicon is the main reason I don't need a large MacBook anymore. Performance sacrifices for smaller footprints still exist, but the gap is nowhere near what it used to be. While Apple still outfits its larger laptops with its fastest chips, the base M-series chip is fast enough for users like me who use creative (but not pro) apps on a semi-regular basis. That wasn't the case with Intel or PowerPC chips—while smaller laptops with those processors worked fine, the extra oomph the larger laptops made a significant difference.