- A metal benchmark for the M4 MacBook Air has just leaked
- It’s in line with the M4 chip in iPad Pro that makes a lot of sense
- The laptop is expected to launch within the next few weeks
The M4 MacBook Air is expected to launch immediately, with the new chip touted to bring performance and efficiency improvements to one of Apple’s best MacBooks. And it looks like we don’t even have to wait until its release to find out its performance.
That’s because a benchmark has just been leaked on the geekbone site. The test results were published on February 19, showing a device running macOS 15.2 and carrying a ten-core M4 chip and 24 GB of memory.
In terms of performance, the M4 chip scored in this MacBook 54,806 in Metal Graphics Benchmark. Compare it to 13-inch iPad Pro with M4 Chip, scoring a very similar 54,064. Given that both devices are known for their thinness and fan -free cooling, the slim margins between them make sense.
Labeled as “Mac16.12”, the mysterious MacBook is believed to be Apple’s upcoming M4 MacBook Air because it does not match any existing Mac code names. However, it matches a Mac identifier that Apple itself accidentally leaked – one that was attributed to an M4 MacBook Air.
A credible benchmark
It is possible that this benchmark was counterfeit to give the appearance of belonging to an unannounced piece of Apple hardware. However, it seems unlikely as it is largely in line with what we have come to expect from the M4 chip.
We mentioned the iPad Pro score above as a comparison point, but we can also see how this leaked benchmark is doing against the M4 MacBook Pro. At Geekbench, a sample metal test scored 57,596, an improved result versus MacBook Air, which should not come as a surprise as the MacBook Pro has active cooling that can help increase its performance.
So all things point out that this leak is a credible, maybe real result for the upcoming M4 MacBook Air.
Apart from the new M4 chip, the next MacBook Air could get an improved LCD screen (unfortunately an OLED panel is still a few years away), a better webcam and stronger support for connecting multiple screens.
It is expected to launch in the spring (sometime between now and June), where Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claims it will be for sale “by March.”
