Apple MacBook Air M5 announced: faster, more storage, and a higher price
Apple gives its most popular laptop a decent spec bump
💻 Apple has announced a refreshed MacBook Air with the M5 chip
🏎️ The chip will deliver faster performance than the M4, especially for AI tasks
💾 It comes with 512GB of base storage and can be configured with up to 4TB of storage
📐 The design remains unchanged and is available in 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch sizes
📅 It’s priced $100 more than the previous model and goes on sale March 11
Apple has announced a refreshed MacBook Air with the M5 chip. The new version of the company’s most popular laptop looks the same as before, just with some new parts inside. It’s also seeing a price hike, going from $999 to $1,099. It’s up for preorder tomorrow and goes on sale March 11.
The updated MacBook Air’s M5 chip will deliver faster performance than the previous model, especially when it comes to AI. Apple says you can configure the chip with up to a 10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, which delivers up to 4x faster AI performance than the M4. This’ll come in handy for those who are using AI tools on the regular in their workflow. For everyone else, you get a general speed increase, which is always nice.
Apple is also including its N1 chip in the new MacBook Air, which provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 with much better efficiency. Apple still quotes up to 18 hours of battery life on the Air, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it can last longer on a charge thanks to the new chip.
Storage has doubled compared to the previous MacBook Air, with 512GB of base storage instead of 256GB. You can also configure the Air with up to 4TB of storage, if you need an absolute ton of space to work.
Beyond those upgrades, it’s the same MacBook Air we all know and love. Apple is sticking with the same design and two screen sizes: 13.6 inches and 15.3 inches. Both have Liquid Retina panels with 500 nits of brightness and 60Hz refresh rates, 12MP Center Stage cameras, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe charging, a headphone jack, and four color choices: Sky Blue, Starlight, Midnight, and Silver.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut and co-host of The Shortcut Live. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.