New Macbook Air Review: Small M5 Update Keeps Air In Its Sweet Spot
The new macbook air arrives as a modest refresh: it gains the M5 chip, Wi‑Fi 7 and faster storage that now starts at 512GB, but carries a $100 higher starting price than the previous generation. The machine remains praised for battery life, speakers and webcam quality, even as a new lower‑cost MacBook Neo sits beneath it and M5 MacBook Pro discounts put added pressure on the lineup.
What’s New In The New Macbook Air
The update focuses on performance and connectivity rather than radical design change. The laptop now ships with the M5 chip and Wi‑Fi 7, and base storage doubles to 512GB instead of 256GB. Storage drives in the new model also show substantially faster read and write speeds, with tests indicating roughly double the throughput of the prior generation.
Price moved up by $100 versus the M4 generation, though that higher entry price comes with the larger base storage. The refresh applies across both 13‑ and 15‑inch sizes, with the reviewer noting the same improvements irrespective of chassis size.
Performance, Battery And Camera
The M5 in the updated Air is a 10‑core CPU and 10‑core GPU configuration similar to the chip tested in a thin Pro model. Benchmarks place the new 15‑inch M5 Air just slightly below the 14‑inch M5 Pro in overall scores, a gap attributed to the Pro’s active cooling. Relative to the prior M4 Air, the M5 Air posts gains especially in GPU work and some multicore tasks such as 3D rendering.
Storage speed improvements are among the most noticeable changes: disk read and write performance tests measure a little more than twice the speed of the M4 Air, bringing the Air closer to parity with M5 Pro storage performance. The laptop’s six‑speaker setup on the 15‑inch model remains unusually loud for such a thin design.
Battery life continues to be a strong suit. In real‑world mixed usage—web browsing, messaging and streaming—the reviewer regularly reached 13 to 14 hours on a full charge with intermittent brightness between 50 and 100 percent. The 12‑megapixel Center Stage camera is highlighted as the best built‑in webcam available on a laptop in this class, and the keyboard and display quality remain solid for occasional color‑sensitive work.
Where The Air Sits Now: MacBook Neo Below And M5 Pro Deals Above
The Air’s position in the lineup is reshaped by two market moves. First, a new MacBook Neo now exists as a lower‑cost option positioned beneath the Air; it costs $500 less than the base 13‑inch Air. That Neo does not render the Air pointless, but it reframes the Air as the clear step‑up model—faster, sleeker and more capable than the Neo while still leaving room for the beefier Pro models above it.
Second, price pressure at the top of the range is visible in a substantial discount on an M5 MacBook Pro configuration: a 2025 M5 MacBook Pro with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD has been reduced from $1, 599 to $1, 400. That Pro model features a 14. 2‑inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 1, 600 nits peak brightness, a 12MP camera, three studio‑quality microphones, six speakers with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support, and Center Stage camera functionality. The M5 in that Pro includes a Neural Accelerator built into each core and integrates system tools that offer writing suggestions, document summaries and other assistance. The Pro model offers three Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe 3 charging, an SDXC card reader, HDMI and a headphone jack, and comes in Silver and Space Black finishes. Its battery is described as capable of lasting an entire day with typical everyday tasks.
Taken together, the refresh leaves the new macbook air as a conservative but meaningful update: faster storage and the M5 chip sharpen performance while battery, speakers and webcam remain standout strengths. The appearance of a cheaper Neo and discounting on M5 Pros changes the buying ladder, making the Air a deliberate middle choice rather than the sole thin‑and‑light option.
