Apple announced The M5 updates its MacBook Air again MacBook Pro lines earlier today. With pre-orders starting tomorrow, March 4, and new models shipping next week, you may be wondering if it’s time for a new MacBook.
I 15-inch M4 MacBook Air mine A popular laptoponce 13-inch M4 MacBook Air is the top choice of students. So, the M5 Air has some big laptop shoes to fill. Let’s take a look at what has changed to help you answer the question: Should you upgrade?
While Apple promises performance gains from the M5 processor, the change I’m most excited to see is the storage bump. The M4 version offered a 256GB SSD, which is too small for most laptop users. With the M5 Air, the storage space has been increased to 512GB SSD which won’t fill up so quickly.
In removing the 256GB SSD, Apple also eliminated the MacBook Air’s starting price of $999. The M5 Air starts at $1,099 for the M5 processor with 10 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. But don’t let the high starting price fool you; The M5 Air is the best.
As I would advise anyone buying a laptop with a puny 256GB SSD, the cheapest M4 Air I can recommend costs $1,199. Apple charged $200 for doubling the storage to a 512GB SSD, which also comes with a slight upgrade to the M4 CPU chip with a 10-core GPU.
With the M5 Air, a 512GB SSD comes standard, saving you a $200 charge. For my money, the base $1,099 M5 Air is a better deal than the $999 M4 Air with 256GB SSD or the $1,199 M4 Air with 512GB SSD.
The M5 version looks similar to the M4 MacBook Air and comes in the same four colors: silver, starlight, sky blue or midnight.
Now, there are two types of GPU cores to consider in the above comparison. In both the base M4 and M5 MacBook Air models, you get a processor with 10 CPUs and 8 GPUs. And while adding a $200 512GB SSD upgrade to the M4 model, it also adds an upgraded M4 chip and 10-core GPU.
So, the M5 Air offers a cheaper way to get a 512GB SSD than the M4 version. And if you add a processor upgrade to the M5 Air to get a 10-core GPU, it adds $100 and you come to the same $1,199 price as the similarly configured M4 Air.
Even if you look at the $1,199 M4 Air and the $1,199 M5 Air, the M5 version is the best. (In this period of Lack of RAM leading to high laptop pricesit’s good to see the prices stay almost the same for the MacBook Air.) In addition to the better performance that Apple promises in the new M5 chip itself, the latest MacBook Air also has faster memory and a faster SSD. The GPU cores on the M5 chips include neural accelerators to boost AI and ray tracing performance. The biggest performance gains Apple says you’ll see come from changes in GPU architecture to the on-device AI workflow.
MacBook Air: M4 vs. M5
| 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) | 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) | 13-inch MacBook Air (M4) | 13-inch MacBook Air (M4) | |
| Price | $1,099 | $1,199 | $999 | $1,199 |
| CPU | M5 | M5 | M4 | M4 |
| Number of CPU cores | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Number of GPU cores | 8 | 10 | 8 | 10 |
| It initializes the RAM | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB |
| Starts storage | 512GB | 512GB | 256GB | 512GB |
| Screen size | 13.6 in | 13.6 in | 13.6 in | 13.6 in |
| Screen resolution | 2,560×1,664 pixels | 2,560×1,664 pixels | 2,560×1,664 pixels | 2,560×1,664 pixels |
| Weight | 2.7 lbs | 2.7 lbs | 2.7 lbs | 2.7 lbs |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 0.44 x 11.97 x 8.46 in | 0.44 x 11.97 x 8.46 in | 0.44 x 11.97 x 8.46 in | 0.44 x 11.97 x 8.46 in |
| Communication | Thunderbolt 4 x2, Headphone, MagSafe 3 | Thunderbolt 4 x2, Headphone, MagSafe 3 | Thunderbolt 4 x2, Headphone, MagSafe 3 | Thunderbolt 4 x2, Headphone, MagSafe 3 |
| Battery | 53.8-watt-hour | 53.8-watt-hour | 52.6-watt-hour | 52.6-watt-hour |
MacBook Air: To upgrade or not to upgrade?
If you need an AI-powered MacBook Air, then the M5 upgrade is a good investment, even if you just bought an M4 Air last year. For the rest of us who need a MacBook Air for casual home use, basic office tasks or commuting, the M5 Air probably won’t offer significant performance gains from the M4 to warrant an upgrade.
Read more: Apple M5 vs. M4
For M2 and M3 Air users, I’d better stop if your laptop is holding OK and the battery is still holding a charge. For the fourth year in a row, we haven’t received a design change and should be close to redesigning the MacBook Air. We haven’t seen a new look for the MacBook Air since the introduction of the flat chassis M2 Air in 2022 that replaced the wedge-shaped M1 Air. I would hate to buy the last update before we see the new design. Also, Apple is rumored to have major changes later this year, from the truth budget MacBook to him a MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen. Perhaps one of these newer models would suit you better.
I’ll be able to give you a better answer to the upgrade question after I get something to test and can test the operating system, graphics and AI performance of the new M5 MacBook Air. Look for full reviews of the 13-inch and 15-inch M5 Air models on CNET soon.
