MacBook Air

Apple refreshed the MacBook Air in March 2026, adding a faster M5 chip and faster SSD. The M5 MacBook Air is at the start of its product cycle, which means and now is a good time to buy. We are not expecting another update until spring 2027 at the earliest.

The current 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models feature M5 chips, with price, display size, and speakers as the only significant differentiating factors between the two sizes. If weight and portability are a concern, the 13-inch MacBook Air may be the better option than the 15-inch MacBook Air, which is larger and heavier.

The MacBook Air is Apple's most popular computer. It is the best machine for most people because it is ideal for day-to-day tasks. The exception would be those who need the MacBook Pro for more system intensive apps for video editing, photo editing, and 3D rendering.

Pricing on the M4 MacBook Air starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch version, and $1,299 for the 15-inch model. For those who want a more affordable Mac for everyday tasks, Apple offers the $599 MacBook Neo. Those who need more power might want to opt for the more expensive MacBook Pro, which starts at $2,000 and comes with improved mini-LED display technology.

Apple updated the MacBook Air in March 2026, refreshing the 13.6-inch and the 15.3-inch models. Both of the new MacBook Air machines include the updated M5 chip, which is built on a third-generation 3-nanometer process. With 13- and 15-inch options, the MacBook Air lineup is suitable for those who want portability and those who prefer larger displays, with no need for those who want a bigger screen to shell out more money for the MacBook Pro lineup.

Apple did not change the design of the MacBook Air with the 2026 update, using the same design that was first introduced in 2022. The MacBook Air continues to feature the same uniform, flat body, similar to the MacBook Pro.

The 13-inch MacBook Air measures in at 11.97 inches wide and 8.46 inches tall. It is 11.3mm thick and it weighs 2.7 pounds. The 15-inch MacBook Air is 13.4 inches wide and 9.35 inches tall. It is 11.5mm thick, and at 3.3 pounds, it weighs a half pound more than the 13-inch model. It is, however, lighter than the 3.6 pound 14-inch MacBook Pro.

Thin black bezels surround a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display for the 13-inch model and a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display for the 15-inch model, both of which support 1 billion colors and feature 500 nits brightness.

There is a notch at the top of the MacBook Air display, which allows for more screen space around the new 12-megapixel FaceTime camera that also supports Center Stage and Desk View. There is a four-speaker sound system in the 13-inch MacBook Air that supports spatial audio and wide stereo, while the 15-inch model has a six-speaker system. Both models include a three-microphone array.

The MacBook Air comes in Silver, Starlight, Midnight, and Sky Blue, a light blue shade. The MacBook Air continues to feature a black keyboard with Touch ID and a large Force Touch trackpad.

Two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports are available on the MacBook Air along with a MagSafe port for charging purposes and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones.

The battery in the MacBook Air lasts for up to 18 hours when watching movies or TV, and up to 15 hours when browsing the web. It supports fast-charging with an optional 70W USB-C power adapter. Both models have the same battery life.

The MacBook Air models use Apple's M5 chip, which replaces the prior-generation M4 chip. The M4 has a 10-core CPU, along with an integrated GPU that has up to 10 cores.

Base unified memory starts at 16GB, and the MacBook Air can be upgraded with up to 32GB unified memory. Memory bandwidth has improve to 153GB/s, a 28 percent improvement compared to the M4 model. The MacBook Air starts with 512GB of storage, up from 256GB, but that also comes with a $100 price increase for each machine. SSDs are twice as fast this year, and can be upgraded to 4TB.

Pricing on the 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 chip starts at $1,099, while the 15-inch MacBook Air is priced starting at $1,299. There are SSD, memory, and processor upgrades available for both models at higher prices.

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The M5 MacBook Air can be ordered from Apple's online store and other retailers. Pricing starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch machine, while pricing on the 15-inch machine starts at $1,299.

Apple redesigned the MacBook Air in 2022, introducing a flat MacBook Pro-style body that's the same thickness from front to back, a departure from the tapered look that previous models used. With the 2026 refresh, Apple is using that same design, and we won't be due for a new look for a few more years.

The 2026 MacBook Air models are available in 15.3-inch and 13.6-inch sizes, both of which use the same design. The two models look the same except for the screen size. The 13-inch MacBook Air is 11.97 inches (30.41 cm) long, 8.46 inches (21.5 cm) deep, and 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick, and it weighs in at 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg).

The 15-inch MacBook Air is notably larger. It is 0.45 inches (1.15 cm) thick, so just a touch thicker than the 13-inch version. It is 13.4 inches (34.04 cm) long and 9.35 inches (23.76 cm) deep, and it is heavier at 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg).

Two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports are available at the left side of both machines, along with a MagSafe charging port on the left and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right. There are four rubber feet on the bottom of the machine, another MacBook Pro-style design touch.

There are black bezels around the display, similar to the prior-generation model, and the MacBook Air features a black Magic Keyboard with no Touch Bar, along with a large Force Touch trackpad.

Apple sells the MacBook Air models in Silver, Starlight (a light gold), Midnight (a dark blue color), and Sky Blue (a light blue color).

Keyboard and Trackpad

The MacBook Air uses the same Magic Keyboard from the prior-generation model. It features a scissor switch mechanism that is able to hold up to dust and particulates without failing, unlike the butterfly keyboards that Apple used in older Macs.

The scissor mechanism in the MacBook Air's keyboard offers 1mm of key travel and a stable key feel, plus it uses an Apple-designed rubber dome that stores more potential energy for a more responsive key press. The keyboard also features backlit keys controlled by an ambient light sensor to light up the keys in dark rooms. The MacBook Air has a full row of function keys with no Touch Bar.

Below the keyboard, there's a large Force Touch trackpad that is unchanged from prior models. The Force Touch trackpad has no traditional buttons and is powered by a set of Force Sensors, allowing users to press anywhere on the trackpad to get the same response. A Taptic Engine powered by magnets provides users with tactile feedback when using the trackpad, replacing the feel of a physical button press.

The Force Touch trackpad supports a light press, which is used as a regular click, along with a deeper press or "force click" as a separate gesture that does things like offer up definitions for a highlighted word.

Touch ID

The M5 MacBook Air has a Touch ID fingerprint sensor that's located next to the function keys at the top of the keyboard. Touch ID is powered by a Secure Enclave that keeps your fingerprint data and personal information safe.

Touch ID on the MacBook Air can be used instead of a password, unlocking the Mac when a finger is placed on the sensor. It also replaces a password for password-protected apps, and it can be used to make Apple Pay purchases in Safari.

Ports

The MacBook Air features two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports that support transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s, plus there's a MagSafe 3 charging port. Apple opted not to add more versatile Thunderbolt 5 ports, present in its latest higher-end Macs, to the MacBook Air.

Apple still includes a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones.

There are two MacBook Air models, one with a display that measures in at 13.6 inches and one with a display that measures in at 15.3 inches. Both models have slim bezels and use "Liquid Retina Display Technology," with no new changes to display technology in 2025. Like the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air has a notch to allow for more display space while still providing access to a 12-megapixel webcam.

The 13-inch MacBook Air has a 2560 by 1664 resolution with 224 pixels per inch, while the 15-inch MacBook Air has a 2880 by 1864 resolution, also with 224 pixels per inch. Both displays offer support for 1 billion colors and P3 Wide color for vivid, true-to-life colors. Brightness maxes out at 500 nits.

The display in the MacBook Air uses True Tone, which is designed to tweak the color of the display to match the lighting in the room. True Tone works through a multi-channel ambient light sensor that's included in the MacBook Air models, which is able to determine both the brightness of the room and the color temperature.

After detecting the white balance, the MacBook Air is able to adjust both the color and intensity of the display to match the room's lighting for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience that also cuts down on eyestrain.

The MacBook Air is equipped with Apple's M5 chip, built on a third-generation 3-nanometer process. The M5 has a 10-core CPU with six efficiency cores and four performance cores, providing up to 15 percent faster multithreaded performance than the M4 chip.

There's up to a 10-core GPU, and each GPU core has a Neural Accelerator, improving the speed of GPU-based workloads. The M5 offers 4X peak GPU compute performance compared to the M4 chip, plus it includes enhanced shader cores and a third-generation ray-tracing engine for better gaming and 3D rendering.

The M5 chip includes faster unified memory with 153GB/s bandwidth, a 28 percent improvement over the M4 chip.

Media Engine

Apple includes a media engine in its Apple silicon chips to speed up video processing while preserving battery life. The M5 offers dedicated acceleration for the ProRes video codec, along with video encode/decode engines and hardware accelerated support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW.

Neural Engine

Neural Engine

There's a 16-core Neural Engine in the M5 that handles Apple Intelligence and machine learning acceleration and boosts camera performance alongside the custom image signal processor, plus there's a display engine that can drive multiple external displays.

RAM

The base M5 MacBook Air comes with 16GB RAM, but it can be upgraded to 24GB or 32GB.

External Displays

With a single Thunderbolt port, the 2026 MacBook Air supports two displays up to a native resolution of 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz. Alternatively, it supports a single display at 8K resolution at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz, or 4K at 240Hz.

Storage

The MacBook Air starts with a 512GB SSD, which can be upgraded up to 4TB. Apple increased the speed of the SSD this year, so it provides 2x faster read/write performance compared to the prior generation.

The 13-inch MacBook Air is equipped with a 53.8-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, while the 15-inch MacBook Air has a 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. Though the 15-inch MacBook Air's battery is larger, both machines last for up to 18 hours when watching movies using the Apple TV app, or up to 15 hours when wirelessly browsing the web.

The base model 13-inch MacBook Air ships with a 30W USB-C power adapter, but for an additional $20, customers can upgrade to a 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter or a 70W USB-C power adapter that supports fast charging. The higher-tier 13-inch models and all 15-inch MacBook Air models ships with the 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter, but customers can opt for the 70W USB-C power adapter at no additional charge.

Connectivity

Apple added its N1 networking chip to the MacBook Air, and it brings support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Apple says the 2026 MacBook Air features improved Wi-Fi performance and reliability.

Speakers and Microphone

The 13-inch MacBook Air features a four-speaker sound system with improved stereo separation and vocal clarity from two tweeters and two ultra-thin woofers. There is more space in the 15-inch MacBook Air, so it is equipped with a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers for superior sound. The sound system is one of the few differences between the 13- and 15-inch models.

Both MacBook Air speaker systems support wide stereo sound and Spatial Audio. Spatial Audio is available when playing music or video with Dolby Atmos on the built-in speakers, and Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking can be used with the third-generation AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

The MacBook Air is also equipped with a three-microphone array with directional beamforming for enhanced voice clarity in audio and video calls, with support Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum microphone modes.

FaceTime Camera

The MacBook Air has the same 12-megapixel front-facing FaceTime camera that's in the MacBook Pro. The camera supports Center Stage for keeping you in frame no matter where you move in a room, and it works with Desk View, so you can show what's on your physical desk in front of you if you need to demonstrate something on a video call.

An image signal processor built into the M5 chip ensures that images are sharp, and it allows for natural-looking skin tones. The MacBook Air is also able to use an iPhone as a webcam.

There are three stock 13-inch M5 MacBook Air configurations available, along with three 15-inch M5 MacBook Air configurations.

• $1,099 - 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.
• $1,299 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
• $1,499 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD.

• $1,299 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.
• $1,499 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
• $1,699 - 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD.

There are also build-to-order upgrade options that allow the memory, SSD, and power adapter to be upgraded for a fee on some models.

Apple plans to bring OLED display technology to the MacBook Air, but work is in the early stages and an OLED MacBook Air isn't expected to launch until 2028 at the earliest.