While the MacBook Pro is grabbing the headlines, Apple’s most popular laptop is also getting an upgrade soon. Here’s everything we know about the next-generation MacBook Air.
The new MacBook Air has significantly improved specs.
Apple’s new MacBook Air is not expected to feature any significant improvements. Instead, Apple is refocusing on improving performance.
The new MacBook Air will be powered by the M5 chip, an upgrade from the current generation M4 processor. What does this mean from a performance perspective?
When Apple announced the M5 MacBook Pro last year, the company touted that the M5 “offers 4x more peak GPU computing performance in AI compared to the M4, featuring a next-generation GPU with neural accelerators on each core, a more powerful CPU, a faster Neural Engine, and higher unified memory bandwidth.”
Benchmark tests show that the M5 chip is approximately 9-10% faster than the M4 chip in single-core CPU performance, 19% faster in multi-core CPU performance, and 37% faster in GPU performance.
Other than the upgrade to the M5 chip, no other changes are expected in the new MacBook Air. The same design and 13-inch/15-inch form factor is maintained.
Apple will likely release the M5 MacBook Air in the first half of this year. By the way, the M4 MacBook Air was released in March last year, and the M3 MacBook Air was released in March 2023.
These annual Mac upgrades aren’t always super exciting. However, these are good examples of what Apple can do when it has complete control over its hardware.
Since the start of the Apple Silicon era in 2020, Apple has consistently released updates for (almost) all Mac models, something that wouldn’t have been possible if it relied on Intel.
Are you planning to buy a new Mac this year? Let us know in the comments. If you don’t want to wait for the M5 MacBook Air, you can save on the M4 model now.
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