Apple has lightly refreshed its MacBook Air with the M5 chip, and it’ll be available for preorder starting tomorrow (March 4) ahead of its formal launch on March 11. This story will be updated with preorder listings from the Apple Store and its retail partners as soon as they’re live.
The M5 MacBook Air will be available in 13- and 15-inch sizes, with starting prices of $1,099 and $1,299, respectively. Those numbers dip to $999 and $1,199 with Apple’s education discount.
The base M5 MacBook Airs come with 512GB of storage, or double that of their M4 predecessors. (The 256GB configuration option is no longer available.) They’ll max out with 4TB of storage, up from a limit of 2TB.
Notably, the base M5 MacBook Airs are $100 cheaper than the M4 models with 512GB of storage, making them a better value than before. In the previous generation, you’d pay $1,199 or $1,399 for that much SSD space.
Here’s a complete rundown of the new M5 MacBook Airs’ spec sheets. Chip and storage aside, their only other upgrade is a connectivity bump to WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Otherwise, they’re basically the same laptops as the M4 MacBook Airs (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — we loved them).
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Sizes: 13- and 15-inch models
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Starting prices: $1,099 and $1,299, respectively
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Processor: M5 with 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU
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Display: Liquid Retina display with 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness
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Memory: 16GB to 32GB RAM
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Storage: 512GB to 4TB SSD
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Connectivity: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6
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Battery life: Up to 18 hours
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Webcam: 12MP Center Stage camera
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Ports: Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, headphone jack
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Colors: Sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver
Preorders for Apple’s just-announced iPhone 17e, M4 iPad Air, Studio Displays, and upgraded MacBook Pros will also open tomorrow. Additionally, the company is expected to announce a new budget MacBook that costs around $599 to $799.
