Apple Mac Book Air 13 (M5) review: small changes add up to the best Mac Book yet | Tech Radar

Overview

The Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) is still the best ultraportable I've ever used — and I wrote this review on it

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Details

Apple's 13-inch Mac Book Air (M5) is the best mix of winning design, near-pro-level performance, and battery life you can find in an ultraportable. It's an exquisite, lightweight yet durable laptop that fits perfectly into your work, play, home life, and the Apple ecosystem.

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Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5): Two-minute review

It's safe to say the Mac Book Air 13-inch M5 is every bit as good as its M4 predecessor, but a little faster. The differences are so scant, in fact, that I could simply direct you to my now year-old Mac Book Air M4 review, and just note here that the M5 chip makes Apple's latest, and sure to be quite popular, ultraportable both faster and more efficient.

I, however, am not that lazy, and have spent considerable time with this attractive, well-built, ready-for-almost-anything (and a solid day of it) ultraportable laptop, and have some thoughts.

The Mac Book Air is one of the industry's most popular laptops for a reason. Apple has found a winning aluminum slab design that mixes a lightweight (2.7 lbs) chassis with a stunning 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display, and 18 hours of battery life (promised for streaming video only).

While Apple didn't touch the design or any external materials and components, it was inevitable that its fastest class of Apple Silicon would make its way here, along with the new N1 chip, which readies the Mac Book Air for the growing proliferation of Wi Fi 7 hubs and brings it up to speed on the latest Bluetooth 6 capabilities.

If there is a downside to this update, it's the new starting price. Over the years, the Mac Book Air has bounced around the

1,000 mark, dropping just below and then rising up a hundred dollars or so. Now it's back to

1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799, but I'm actually happy about this change, too, because the system finally starts with a half terabyte of storage (for the record, my test system arrived with 1TB 👀). That's double the 256GB we've been getting without a huge leap in price. And, as a bonus, the storage speed is faster than on the M4-class Mac Book Air.

So, sure, paying a little more for the best ultraportable you can buy is not good news, but the upside far outweighs the bank account burden.

The Mac Book Air 13-inch M5 does have several other notable, though not new, features, like the 12MP Center Stage camera, a backlit keyboard that feels wonderful to use, the highly responsive Force Touch trackpad, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and mac OS 26 (a.k.a. Tahoe). I know Liquid Glass splits some opinions, but I think it's elegant and I like it. Yes, there's also Apple Intelligence, but I'm still not fully sold on its utility.

All in all, while I don't think you need to trade in your M4 for this Mac Book Air, this is a worthy upgrade for your clamshell Mac Book Air M1, and it will once again sit atop our best ultraportables list.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: Price and availability

Apple unveiled the Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) on March 3, 2025, and the laptop starts shipping on March 11.

For those shopping for the latest Mac Book Air, they'll instantly notice the price hike on this 13-inch model and wonder what gives. Yes, it has an incrementally faster piece of Apple Silicon (M5), but I'd attribute the

100 / £100 / AU

100 hike to the new base storage level. The 13-inch Mac Book Air M5 starts with 512GB of storage, double the original starting SSD. It's a non-insignificant change and, as I've written, 256GB was simply not enough space in what can be for many people a workhorse portable.

In addition to the option of buying a larger, 15-inch Mac Book Air (heavier, more expensive but with a substantially larger screen), the 13-inch Mac Book Air M5 comes in a variety of configurations, including my 10-core GPU test model, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 4TB of storage (the previous limit was 2TB).

It’s available in Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. Sadly, no new colors, which is only an issue if you let the new day-glo Mac Book Neo Citrus turn your head.

The Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) comes in three pre-configured options.

Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) base configuration (reviewed):

Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) mid configuration (reviewed):

13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display (500 nits sustained brightness, wide color P3 gamut, True Tone technology)

2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack, Mag Safe 3

Excellent construction, materials, keyboard, and trackpad

You'd be forgiven if you had trouble telling the difference between this new 13-inch Mac Book Air M5 and the M4 model. They are, for all intents and purposes, identical. Still, this is a winning design. The body is made of recycled aluminum that feels premium and smooth to the touch, but also strong enough to get dumped in your backpack or slapped onto a desktop without suffering any damage. My 1TB review unit arrived in Starlight, which is not my favorite color (I'd have chosen Sky Blue), but the chassis hue is not why you buy a Mac Book Air, anyway.

Mac Book Airs will never be the cheapest laptop (there's now Neo for that), but they all have the same premium design and build. The backlit keyboard is expansive, and with good, satisfying travel. I love typing on it; in fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Included in the keyboard is the Touch ID sleep button, a useful biometric device for unlocking the laptop, signing into services and apps, and making purchases. It took me just a moment to register my index finger (though I can register more).

The Force Touch trackpad offers an expansive, almost 6-inch, canvas for interaction without ever getting in the way. As a haptic device, it doesn't actually move, but it does a remarkable job of fooling you into thinking it does.

Ports and speakers are also unchanged from the previous model. We have on the left side a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, which are great for extending the screen to a new Studio Display or doing some high-speed data transfer (the Pro model gets you Thunderbolt 5 ports).

Next to those ports is the Mag Safe charger, a magnetic port that makes it almost impossible to accidentally drag the laptop off a desk by kicking the charging cable. Opposite those ports is the 3.5mm audio jack. The four-speaker system sits in the hinge and provides loud and clear audio that supports spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. The 15-inch model ups the speaker count to six.

Perhaps the best demonstration of the Mac Book Air's elegance and design is how you can open it with just a fingertip. The laptop is so perfectly machined and balanced that all I have to do is place a fingertip under the lip and above the 1.5-inch-wide-carve-out in the base and lift. Even without me holding it, the base stays put.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: Display and Center Stage

Over the years, I've gotten used to the notch at the top of the Mac Book Air's lovely 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display. For most apps, the space, which is used to house the Center Stage Camera, a light sensor, and an LED Indicator, only breaks into the Menu system. Streaming content, games, and the majority of apps run in the rectangular space below it. If you really feel like you're losing a lot of space, you might consider the 15-inch Mac Book Air instead.

Overall, though, this is an excellent LED-backlit, high-resolution (2560x 1664) display, full of rich colors (a promised 1 billion, though I can't say that I counted), rich contrast, and 500 nits of brightness. I've used Mac Book Air outdoors, and while it might struggle in direct sunlight, using it in shade is no problem at all.

13.6 inches is ample space for one or more apps and everything from mac OS apps to movies and games, which look great on it. Images and text are crisp and clear, blacks are inky, and colors pop. I spend most of my work days looking at this screen and am never disappointed.

Speaking of that notch, at least it gives you a decent webcam, the 12MP, 1080p Center Stage camera. It's called "Center Stage" because it can, if you allow, follow around during your video conference. So if you like to stand up and walk around during your next Face Time call, this camera is for you. The camera can also recognize gestures and can launch reactions and emojis during the call.

Unlike many modern Windows 11 ultraportables and even more affordable laptops, the Mac Book Air screen does not include touch. If you want that Apple ecosystem and touch, but still plan on doing desktop-style computing, I suggest you look at an i Pad Air or i Pad Pro running i Pad OS 26 and with a Magic keyboard.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: mac OS and Apple Intelligence

mac OS Tahoe is a rich, deep, and well-organized platform

mac OS Tahoe 26 is not only a rich, well-organized, and deeply thought-out operating system, it's a doorway to Apple's wide and varied ecosystem — the more Apple products you own, the more powerful it becomes.

With Liquid Glass, there's a consistent look and feel across everything from the Mac Book Air 13 I'm testing to the i Phone 17 Pro Max and i Pad Pro. However, the glassiness feels somewhat less aggressive on the Mac Book Air, likely because it still has to look like a traditional Mac desktop.

The desktop is customizable, easy to manage (stacks are incredibly useful), and I like the widgets, especially that you can keep them black and white to reduce distractions.

Still, I love how I can mirror my i Phone and get notifications from it on my Mac Book Air desktop, and with Universal Control, my trackpad and keyboard easily hop from one Apple screen to another. I found that not only could I control a neighboring i Pad with the mouse and keyboard on my 13-inch Mac Book Air, but I could do the same with two Mac Books sitting side-by-side.

Genmojis are fun, letting you create all kinds of customized emojis.(Image credit: Future)

Writing tools may be one of the best parts of Apple Intelligence(Image credit: Future)

Just fixing up my test with AI(Image credit: Future)

Don't I sound more professional?(Image credit: Future)

Image Playground's capabilities pale in comparison to generative image tools I can find elsewhere.(Image credit: Future)

Cleanup, which lives in photos is definitely one of the more useful Apple Intelligence tools(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I cleaned up some pie and whipped cream here.(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Apple Intelligence does add some useful features like Writing tools to help you sound, say, more intelligent or friendlier in writing, including in Messages. For those who aren't as confident with their writing, this might be of some use. I can imagine other features like Live Translation might come in handy, especially if you work with global teams.

Clean Up in Photos is also a valuable enhancement, especially if you need to remove distractions from photos you want to share, post on social media, or print. Apple Intelligent can't, say, add a lifelike puppy to your photos (or really anything for that matter), but it will do its best to make sure that when you remove something, the revealed background still makes sense. One caveat here: this replacement only works if the object you remove isn't too big. It did a pretty good job when I removed a pie and some whipped cream from my photo of a holiday spread.

I do not get what the big deal is with Genmojis. Basic emojis are still good enough for me. I was similarly disenchanted with Image Playground.

Despite providing Image Playground with a good headshot of me, its output does not look much like me (it put hair on my head!). Also, Apple's insistence on sticking with cartoonish content creation seems ridiculous when you consider the image generation capabilities found on even the best smartphones.

Siri is obviously part of the system but still lacks the long-promised AI brain transplant. You can get wider answers via the Chat GPT integration, but Siri is still not the master of all things (inside the system and relating to you) that Apple's been promising. I, like many others, await the promised Gemini integration that will likely transform Siri on this Mac Book Air and all other Siri-supporting Apple devices.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: Performance

M5 brings all the same power it put on display on the Mac Book Pro

The Mac Book Air M5 is truly a workhorse in ultraportable clothing

The Mac Book Air M5 on the left and the Mac Book Air M4 on the right. Both are running Geekbench (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Here’s how the Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Geekbench 6 Single-Core: 4190; Multi-Core: 17073 Geekbench Metal score (8-core GPU): 49557 Cinebench 2026 Single-core: 729; Multi-core: 2921 Cinebench 2026 GPU: 16872 Battery life (web surfing): 15.5 hours

Apple's Mac Book Air line now lives between the new A18 Pro Mac Book Neo and the high-performance, heavy-workload M5 Pro (or M5 Max) Mac Book Pro. It's meant to be the laptop for every student and office worker who prioritizes portability and battery life over raw power.

(Note: my test system shipped with the 10-core CPU and 10 core GU, so your GPU scores may vary if you have an 8-Core GPU.)

Running light room on the Mac Book Air M5 (left) and the Mac Book Air M4 (right). (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

However, even in my early performance tests, I found the new 13-inch Mac Book Air M5 more than capable of some pretty heavy-duty tasks.

I started by opening Lightroom and loading in some raw images. Then I launched Final Cut Pro and imported an 8K 30 fps video, and then made three copies and started editing a video where all four videos could play at once. Next, I loaded Pixelmater Pro and edited a photo. I also installed Chrome and opened 25 tabs (tuned to Tech Radar, of course). After that, I installed and started playing Lies of P. Finally, I installed Steam and downloaded Inzoi, a rich, open-world SIM that sort of overwhelmed me with its choices and scope.

The Mac Book Air just kept going. At one point, I got a system message indicating that Inzoi was eating a lot of system processes and battery and that I should consider switching to low power, but when I exited the game, the battery was still near 90%. Overall, I found it difficult to stress the M5 and its 16GB of RAM.

Lies of P on the Mac Book Air M5 (left) and Mac Book M4 (right). (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Perhaps more exciting for your day-to-day efforts, the Mac Book Air line now starts with 512GB of storage, and faster storage at that.

I ran the Black Magic Disk Speed Test on the new M5 Mac Book Air and on the Mac Book Air 13-inch with an M4 chip. My M5 test system has a 1 TB drive, and the M4 only came with a 256GB SSD; however, I do not believe storage capacity has any bearing on these tests.

As you can see, the differences are stark. The new Mac Book Air M5 SSD is faster on both read and write tasks. The payoff should be in system launch, app performance, and other operations.

Overall, the M5 chip, ample RAM, and a larger and faster SSD mean this is a powerful and efficient system that will satisfy most users, and may be enough for quite a few pro users, too.

Connectivity got an upgrade, as well, with Apple's N1 chip bringing Wi Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support, two moves that help set itup for the foreseeable future of wireless communication.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: Battery life

15 and a half hours of battery life (web activities)

Charges to 50% in 30 minutes with the included 40W charger; 100% in just over 2 hours

The 3-nanometer M5 inside my new 13-inch Mac Book Air isn't just faster, it's more efficient, squeezing another hour and a half of battery life out of the system over what our Future Labs tests found with the M4 Mac Book Air.

What's more, in mixed use, I got closer to the promised 18 hours of video streaming that Apple claims. No matter how you slice it, this is an ultraportable that can sip power and let you leave your "ABC" (Always Be Charging) worries behind.

When it was time to charge, I used the included 40W charger and Mag Safe cable to charge it to almost 50% in 30 minutes. It took about 2 hours to reach 100%.

Should you buy the Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5)?

The Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) is a little more expensive than the M4 before it but with twice the storage, it's still a good deal

Close to a perfect laptop design, with quality materials, excellent build and Apple's exquisite attention to detail.

Excellent screen with high quality color, and sharpness, Brightness is good, and we've learned to live with the notch. Center Stage camera makes for high-quality video conferencing and calls.

mac OS Tahoe is the complete package, a rich and comprehensive platform that ties in nicely to the Apple ecosystem. I wish Apple Intelligence was more useful but find great utility in every other part.

The M5 brings the level of performance we've previously seen on the Mac Book Pro. We had trouble finding anything the laptop couldn't do. The faster and more substantial storage paired with 16GB of RAM make this a high-performance ultra portable that we'll love using every day.

Mixed battery life improved and got closer to the possible 18 hours Apple promises if you only stream video.

You want the best ultraportable The Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does raise the bar for ultraportable performance.

You demand real portability At 2.7 lbs / 1.24kg, the Mac Book Air still lives up to its name.

You still want a touchscreen Some think this might be the year of a touchscreen Mac Book, but I doubt it. The Mac Book Air is a perfect, classic laptop, and for touchscreen lovers, there's always the i Pad Pro and Magic Keyboard.

You want more useful AI Apple Intelligence is not the kind of integrated AI we expect from our mobile systems. But changes are on the horizon. Who knows what Siri with Gemini integration will be like.

Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) review: Also consider

15.3-inch, 2880 x 1864 Liquid Retina display, 500 nits brightness, wide color P3 gamut

2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack, Mag Safe 3

If our Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M4) review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

Apple Mac Book Air 15-inch (M5) The Mac Book Air 15-inch (M5) is virtually the same as the 13-inch model in every aspect except size (and screen size), but the base model does start with two extra GPU cores.

Dell XPS 13 Plus The latest Dell XPS 13 brings Intel's Lunar Lake chips to the iconic laptop line, delivering truly all-day battery life and strong performance across the board in a sleek and stylish Mac Book-esque design. However, issues with the XPS redesign remain, with its edgeless trackpad and adaptive function bar creating some problems with usability that prevent it from reaching true greatness.

I used the Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) for five days

I worked, played, listened, edited, and wrote this review on it

The 13-inch Apple Mac Book Air M5 has been my constant companion since I unboxed it last week.

I worked, played, edited (photos and videos), and gamed on it.

I ran a wide variety of benchmarks, installed Steam, and ran heavy-duty games. I watched some streaming video and did my best to tax the M5 chip. I also spent time comparing it to the M4 chip on my Sky Blue Mac Book Air.

I browsed the web, played with Apple Intelligence (it didn't help me write this), and enjoyed every minute of my time with this splendid machine.

I've been reviewing technology for over 30 years, and I've tested everything from DOS-based word processors to Apple's Vision Pro. I've reviewed laptops of all stripes, including traditional clamshells and convertibles. I regularly work on mac OS but also use the Windows platform almost every day – I like to keep my hands in all the ecosystems.

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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Key Takeaways

The Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5) is still the best ultraportable I've ever used — and I wrote this review on it
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Apple's 13-inch Mac Book Air (M5) is the best mix of winning design, near-pro-level performance, and battery life you can find in an ultraportable
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best
Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch (M5): Two-minute review