Apple's New MacBook Air Comes Loaded With Powerful M5 Chip

Apple has unveiled an upgraded version of its popular MacBook Air laptop that comes with the company’s powerful M5 chips.

M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a neural accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks.

Apple is also doubling the starting storage in a MacBook Air to 512GB (configurable up to 4TB). Apple’s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity.

The computer will retain its thin, light, and durable aluminum designs that comes with liquid retina display, a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life, an immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two external displays.

“Combined with the power of macOS Tahoe and Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air delivers unmatched value for college students and creative professionals, and it’s the most popular laptop for business users,” a press release reads.

Apple is making the M5 MacBook Air available in 13- and 15-inch models in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver. It is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

“The new MacBook Air with M5 brings incredible performance and even more capability to the world’s most popular laptop,” says John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.

“With M5, MacBook Air powers through a wide range of tasks, from everyday productivity to creative workloads, and is even faster for AI. Now featuring double the starting storage, as well as Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, in a sleek and durable design with long battery life, MacBook Air is the perfect laptop for anyone who values the unrivaled combination of performance and portability.”

According the company’s testing, MacBook Air with M5 features a 10-core CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core for even more responsiveness. It combines with an up-to-10-core GPU and a powerful neural accelerator in each core. Apple says the M5 delivers up to 4x faster performance for AI tasks than MacBook Air with M4, and up to 9.5x faster than MacBook Air with M1.

The M5 also features faster unified memory with 153GB/s of bandwidth — a 28 percent improvement over M4 — enabling even smoother multitasking and faster app launches. Apple says it offers up to 6.9 times faster AI video enhancement performance in Topaz Video compared to a MacBook Air with M1, and 1.9 times faster than the M4.

Apple adds that Affinity performs image processing 2.7 times faster on M5 compared to the M1 chip, and 1.5 times faster than the M4. The company adds that web browsing is 50 percent faster than a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra X7 processor.

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $1,099, while the 15-inch version starts at $1,299.

Image credits: Apple