This is one of the best years for the MacBook lineup. With the arrival of the MacBook Neo, there is now a clear distinction between who the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are really for. We have been using the new MacBook Air with the M5 chip for a few weeks, and what continues to amaze us is that Apple keeps cranking out high-level performance and extraordinary battery life — all within a body that remains completely fanless.
This might all sound a bit strange because, on the surface, not a great deal has changed since the M2 MacBook Air. But with every new MacBook Air update since then, the overall experience has ever so subtly improved each time, so that here in 2026, this machine is so good that there is almost nothing one can complain about.
When you start comparing it to other laptops — the new MacBook Neo, or the more expensive MacBook Pro — in most cases, the Air is simply the better option for most people. Let us start with the single most important factor when buying a new laptop: price.
More specifically, the M5 MacBook Air comes with some quite significant, if somewhat hidden, value that is easy to overlook at first glance.
Value that speaks for itself
By far one of the biggest gripes about early MacBook Air models was that they shipped with only 8 GB of RAM. People said it was not enough, comparing it unfavourably to Windows laptops boasting 16 GB. The fact is that Apple’s memory management is far superior to what you find on a Windows machine. Nevertheless, Apple bumped the Air up to 16 GB of RAM back in late 2024, and that complaint quietly disappeared. Then people turned their attention to the 256 GB SSD, calling it too small. In 2026, that is simply no longer an issue because the M5 MacBook Air’s storage now starts at 512 GB. And remember that just a few years ago, these kinds of RAM and storage upgrades would have cost you considerably more.
Working on MacBook Air M5: (Clockwise from top left) Using on-device AI via LM Studio, editing photos with Photomator, playing Civilisation VII, and using Final Cut Pro. Picture: The Telegraph / Mathures Paul
Given the rising price of memory components globally, Apple has kept its pricing remarkably well controlled — something that cannot be said for many manufacturers of Windows laptops. Compared to the M1 MacBook Air, when you factor in equivalent RAM and storage upgrades alongside inflation, the M5 MacBook Air is extremely competitive in its pricing.
When it comes to the MacBook Air’s primary purpose — being an all-round laptop — it just does it so incredibly well. Think about what could realistically be improved. Battery life? We are already getting around 14 hours on this thing (more if you only watch videos). Portability? It is one of the slimmest, lightest, and sturdiest laptops available right now. It is like a notepad made from a single slab of metal that you can shove into a bag and take absolutely anywhere. Build quality? It feels exceptional. The trackpad is best in class, and the overall construction puts those squeaky, plasticky laptops from other brands firmly to shame. Port selection? You can charge via MagSafe and still have nearly unlimited flexibility through those two Thunderbolt ports.
Performance that will genuinely surprise you
One thing that has become increasingly hard to ignore is the raw power of the Apple silicon inside the MacBook Air. Apple silicon has always been powerful, of course. In many reviews, the focus tends to be on the everyday tasks people spend 90 per cent of their day doing — emails, web browsing, streaming videos. All Apple silicon MacBooks handle that flawlessly. But we have always been able to push the MacBook Air further than that.
You can compile code, play video games, and even edit 4K footage on this machine. That kind of performance on a MacBook Air was genuinely unheard of before Apple silicon arrived. The M5 takes things to another level entirely.
To get a better sense of just how capable the new Air is, consider video editing. We took footage shot at a very high bit rate — 4K, fairly heavily colour-graded, with some noise removal applied. We usually produce this sort of content on an M4 MacBook Pro, and while the Air is certainly not a wholesale replacement for that, it actually performs surprisingly well. If we genuinely needed to edit on the Air, we could. The same goes for other intensive workflows, whether that involves AI tasks or compiling code — the M5 will almost certainly exceed your expectations.
The machine comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two external displays. Picture: The Telegraph / Mathures Paul
The M5 on the Air features a 10-core CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core for snappier responsiveness across the board. Combined with an up-to-10-core GPU and a powerful Neural Accelerator in each core, the MacBook Air with M5 delivers up to 4x faster performance on AI tasks than the MacBook Air with M4, and up to 9.5x faster than the M1. It is an incredibly capable platform for AI, whether you are using Apple Intelligence across apps and system experiences at home, or running large language models on device in an enterprise setting.
With enhanced shader cores and a third-generation ray-tracing engine, the M5 also supercharges tasks like gaming and 3D rendering. It features faster unified memory with 153 GB/s of bandwidth — a 28 per cent improvement over M4 — enabling smoother multitasking and faster app launches throughout.
For those coming from the M1 series, this will feel like a giant leap. In Photoshop, the M5 Air performs exceptionally well, even beating out the Legion 7A — a gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU — and outpacing Intel’s Panther Lake X chip. For those working within Apple’s Creator Studio suite — Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro — the M5 Air does a fantastic job, though for particularly complex files where you cannot afford dropped frames, the MacBook Pro remains the more sensible choice.
Where does the Air sit in the new MacBook lineup?
We do need to talk about the MacBook Neo, because it represents the biggest disruption to the MacBook lineup since the original M1 MacBook Air. Before the Neo, the Air was the most affordable way into the MacBook ecosystem — your only real option, aside from the second-hand market. But now there is a new, genuinely capable, and affordable MacBook that costs almost half the price of the M5 Air. So the question inevitably arises: why would you pay more for the Air, especially in this economy?
For those on a strict budget, the Air was never really in the frame to begin with. But for many others, a laptop is an investment expected to last at least five-seven years. When you sit down and really compare the Neo and the M5 Air, the Air comes out ahead in terms of processing power, day-to-day enjoyment, and long-term capability. The M5 Air supports connection to a 5K resolution monitor or a gaming display. It offers double the SSD storage and RAM.
It has a backlit keyboard and a trackpad that simply feels nicer to use. And the M5 chip is, frankly, far more powerful than the iPhone chip inside the Neo. All these things add up.
The Neo is an impressive machine that can technically fulfil most everyday laptop needs. The distinction within the MacBook lineup is actually quite clear now. If you are a student or an office worker who primarily needs to type documents and put together presentations, the Neo does the job.
For those who need to run AI models or cut together short videos, the Air is the perfect match. And if you want to edit a full-length film or a complex podcast with multiple layers, it has to be the MacBook Pro.
The MacBook Air’s display, it must be said, is the one area where an upgrade would be welcome. Do not misunderstand — it is a fantastic Liquid Retina panel, offering a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. The sharpness of text is excellent and the brightness is genuinely impressive. But some users are after an OLED screen, and for that, an upgrade to another machine is necessary. In fairness, the average MacBook Air user spends 90 per cent of their time on productivity tasks — writing emails, scrolling through documents, browsing the web — where the frame rate rarely exceeds 60Hz anyway, making a high refresh rate considerably less noticeable in practice.
Battery life remains excellent. The 13-inch model easily lasts 10 hours of screen-on time with brightness turned up while you work on daily office tasks. You can unplug the Air and work for long stretches without any sacrifice in performance — something that holds true across all Apple laptops.
On the connectivity front, the new Airs come with Apple’s proprietary N1 chip, bringing Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. In testing, we saw a clear performance improvement over last year’s M4 Air and many Windows laptops.
MagSafe charging continues to be a genuine pleasure, freeing up both Thunderbolt 4 ports for other uses — peripherals, storage, or external displays. External monitor support covers two monitors at up to 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz, or a single display at up to 8K at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz, or 4K at 240Hz.
As for the 13-inch versus 15-inch question — the 13-inch is the more practical pick. It fits comfortably on the smallest café table and slides neatly under an aeroplane tray. The keyboard has no flex, the chassis has no give, and the whole thing simply feels as solid as you would expect from a machined block of aluminium.
The MacBook Air with M5 sits right in the sweet spot for young creative professionals — photographers, 3D artists, writers, and video creators alike. If you do not want to spend the extra money on the Pro for its nicer screen, faster SSD, and card reader, the Air offers more than sufficient hardware to edit photos and produce video, even high-production-value content. If you have been thinking about starting a YouTube channel, this machine will handle it without breaking a sweat.MacBook Air is, without question, the most universally useful laptop you can buy.