Apple Unleashes MacBook Air M5 With Double the Storage and Next-Gen Speed

Apple’s new MacBook Air with an M5 chip arrives just when many of us could use a laptop that simply gets the job done without breaking the bank or causing us any problems. The 13-inch variant costs $1099, while the 15-inch version costs $1299, which is $100 more than the previous generation of M4 Macbooks. With education pricing, you can reduce that to $999 and $1199, respectively.

Apple is matching the pricing with some substantial upgrades that address some fairly popular complaints. Every new Air now includes 512GB of built-in storage, which is twice as much as the previous base model, and the SSD’s read and write speeds have nearly doubled. If you work with a lot of large files, you can even increase it to 4TB. For memory, you get 16GB of unified memory, with options to boost that to 24GB or 32GB.

Performance-wise, it’s all about the new M5 processor, which has a 10 core CPU and up to a 10 core GPU – and on top of that, Apple’s fitted a Neural Accelerator into each and every one of those GPU cores, which makes a major difference for AI-intensive activities. Apple claims that this improvement will result in up to four times quicker AI performance over the M4 Air and up to 9.5 times faster than the original M1 Macbook. In other tests, AI video enhancement ran 1.9 times faster than on the M4, while Blender 3D rendering improved 1.5 times. Multitasking feels much better for whatever you enjoy doing, thanks to app launches that are 28 percent faster and overall smoother performance – thanks to a 28 percent increase in memory bandwidth to 153GB per second. Web browsing also seems much faster, with Apple claiming up to 50% faster browsing than some Intel-based laptops, and demanding applications could be twice as fast if you push it a little.

In terms of graphics, the new GPU includes a third-generation ray-tracing engine, which might make a significant difference if you do a lot of gaming or 3D work. In some of the gaming tests they did, the frame rate increased by 50% compared to the M4, which is a significant improvement. All of this while being extremely quiet, with no fan at all, and a battery life of up to 18 hours for video watching or general use, which is more than enough to get you through the day without having to recharge, and you can even fast charge it if you’re in a rush.

The design hasn’t changed much, which is a good thing because Apple has stuck with the thin aluminum body that’s been around for a long, and it’s still available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver. The screens are available in 13.6 inch and 15.3 inch sizes, and both are Liquid Retina panels with a high brightness of 500 nits and support for a billion colours. You also get a 12MP Centre Stage camera, which does an excellent job of keeping video calls sharp even when you move about, and it will automatically frame you at the right time.

Audio is provided by a four-speaker system that has been optimized for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. With two Thunderbolt 4 connections, you can charge, transfer data, and connect up to two external displays. MagSafe is also returning, allowing you to charge your laptop safely using a magnetic cable, so if someone trips over the cord, the laptop will only be protected. The new N1 wireless chip is also noteworthy, since it includes Wi-Fi 7 for considerably quicker, more dependable networks, as well as Bluetooth 6 for enhanced accessory pairing. Pre-orders open tomorrow, and units will be delivered starting March 11.