The M5 MacBook Air goes on sale tomorrow, and the first reviews have been published. The reviewers’ opinions are as follows:
Apple’s mid-range MacBook is powerful enough with M5 chip
The MacBook Air currently sits between the much more affordable but less powerful MacBook Neo and the higher-end MacBook Pro. But looking at the reviews, it’s clear that the M5 MacBook Air is still a powerhouse in its own right.
Lance Ulanoff writes: tech radar:
I found the new 13-inch MacBook Air M5 to be more than capable of handling some pretty demanding tasks.
First, open Lightroom and load some raw images. Next, I fired up Final Cut Pro, imported the 8K 30 fps video, made three copies, and started editing the video so I could play all four videos at once. Next, I loaded up Pixelmater Pro and edited the photo. I also installed Chrome and had 25 tabs open (tuned to TechRadar, of course). I then installed Lies of P and started playing. Finally, I installed Steam and downloaded Inzoi, a rich open-world SIM. I was overwhelmed by the choice and scope.
The MacBook Air continued to run. At one point, I got a system message indicating that Inzoi was consuming too much system processes and battery and I should consider switching to lower power, but the battery still had close to 90% left when I left the game. Overall, we found it hard to emphasize the M5 and 16GB of RAM.
For specific comparison with M4, tom’s guide I have shared some test results. Tony Polanco writes:
Geekbench 6, which measures overall CPU performance, gave us a solid 17,276 multi-core results. That’s a significant jump over last year’s model (14,921)… In the Handbrake test, which tasks the laptop with transcoding 4K video to 1080p, the MacBook Air M5 finished in 4 minutes and 34 seconds. More than 20 seconds faster than the previous model
These are modest improvements. However, as Dan Moren says: six colorsThe M5 is especially beneficial for those with older MacBook Airs.
“If you go back to M3, M2, M1, you’re going to see jumps in single-core performance in the range of 38 percent, 57 percent, 75 percent,” he said.
SSD speeds exceed Apple’s claims
Another M5 MacBook Air change that contributes to improved performance is a faster SSD.
Apple claims its latest generation SSD is up to 2x faster than the M4 model. And reviewers back it up.
Dan Moren writes: six colors:
One area where noticeable irregularities can be seen is in storage areas. The Air starts with 512GB of SSD storage, double that of its predecessor, and offers up to 4TB. This is the same maximum as all MacBook Pros except the MacBook Pro with the M5 Max configuration. This increased capacity also comes with increased speed. Apple says the new SSD is twice as fast as the previous generation, and it was the same in my testing. Compared to my personal M4 MacBook Air, the M5 has an impressive 125% increase in read speeds. 219 percent Blackmagic’s disc tests show faster write speeds. These numbers were so impressive that I ran AmorphousDiskMark as a comparison and got even better results. At least a 250% improvement.
M5 MacBook Air: Who should upgrade?
The new M5 model is not intended to attract M4 MacBook Air users. There are only a few changes compared to last year’s model.
However, reviewers generally suggest that users of M2 and above will see worthwhile improvements.
Zarif Ali writes: pocket lint:
If you’re using an earlier M2 Air model, you should consider upgrading if your workflow requires it. M5 offers enough meaningful improvements in chip headroom, memory bandwidth, and storage baseline that it’s worth the generation jump if your current machine is strained. For those using an M1 Air or Intel-based MacBook, the M5 represents a transformation in everyday responsiveness, AI capabilities, and longevity that cannot be fully captured by an incremental update framework.
Are you planning to upgrade to an M5 MacBook Air? What is your current model? Let us know in the comments.
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