Today Apple launched a new MacBook Air powered by the M5 chip. Here’s everything new in the M5 MacBook Air vs last year’s M4 model.
#1: M5 chip
The M5 chip is the big highlight of the new MacBook Air. From Apple’s press release:
M5 delivers incredible performance for everything users want to tackle, from everyday productivity to creative workflows. MacBook Air with M5 features a 10-core CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core for even more responsiveness. Combined with an up-to-10-core GPU with a powerful Neural Accelerator in each core, MacBook Air with 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. This makes it an incredibly capable platform for AI — whether using Apple Intelligence across apps and system experiences at home, or running LLMs on device in an enterprise.
If you’re already using an M4 MacBook Air, the M5 chip almost certainly won’t be worth the upgrade. But it does bring solid year-over-year improvements nonetheless. And the new MacBook Air is targeting owners of older models, such as the M1, rather than users who just bought a model last year.
#2: More and faster storage
The M5 MacBook Air comes in at a higher starting price than the M4 model—$1,099 vs the prior $999 price.
However, for that extra $100 you now get double the starting storage.
512GB of storage is now standard on the M5 MacBook Air, up from the 256GB starting storage last year.
You can also configure an up to 4TB model—double the previous maximum.
Additionally, all of this extra storage is faster than before. Apple says the new SSD “delivers 2x faster read/write performance compared to the previous generation.”
#3: N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6
Apple’s N1 wireless chip, which debuted in the iPhone 17 line, keeps spreading to more devices.
N1 is included in the new M5 MacBook Air, replacing Apple’s third-party wireless solutions in the M4 model.
Two of the chief benefits are improvements to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards.
N1 enables:
- Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) in the M5 MacBook Air vs Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) in the M4 model
- Bluetooth 6 vs Bluetooth 5.3
Another benefit of N1 is improved performance and reliability of cross-platform features like AirDrop and Personal Hotspot.
#4: Better charger in the box
It’s a small change, but Apple has upgraded the charger that comes in the box with the M5 MacBook Air.
Last year’s M4 model included a 30W USB-C Power Adapter, but the new M5 version has a more powerful 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. You can also buy the adapter separately here.
For more info on the new adapter, see our previous coverage here.
M5 MacBook Air vs M4: wrap-up
Everything else about the M5 MacBook Air is largely identical to last year’s M4 model.
Both have the same industrial design, same color and size options, 18-hour battery life, 12MP Center Stage camera, and general feature set.
If you’re looking to upgrade from an older model, the M5 MacBook Air looks a fantastic option. But it’s not intended for current M4 users.
Are you planning to upgrade to an M5 MacBook Air? What model are you using now? Let us know in the comments.
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