Apple made another handful of announcements, from the M5 Pro and Max chips to the MacBook Pro laptops that use them. Launched alongside is the new generation MacBook Air, using the base version of the M5 chip. Naturally, most of what makes the previous generation great is back, with more improvements not limited to the new-generation chip.
As before, Apple is offering the MacBook Air in two form factors – 13- and 15-inch. Both come with the bitten fruit brand’s Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness. While we’re here, the 12MP Centre Stage webcam makes a return.
Inside is the defining M5 chip, with 10 CPU cores and 16 NPU cores, though you have a choice of a chip with either eight or 10 GPU cores. Apple says that this lets it deliver up to 4x faster performance on AI tasks than the preceding M4 model. Or up to 9.5x over the M1 model, which seems a redundant comparison. The chip also features faster unified memory, rated at 153GB/s of bandwidth, which is 28 faster than the M4.
512GB Is The New Minimum Storage Capacity
Speaking of which, the default memory configuration is 16GB, though you also have 24GB and 32GB as options. Then there’s storage, with 512GB being the new minimum. Additional options are 1TB, 2TB and 4TB, with Apple saying that last option is new to the MacBook Air line. Whichever your choice, Apple promises 2x faster read / write performance over the previous generation.
While Apple did not provide specific battery capacity figures, it claims that the MacBook Air can work for up to 18 hours straight. Connectivity options include WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on the wireless side of things, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports plus a 3.5mm audio jack for the physical. This also allows support for two external displays.
For their prices, the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air starts from RM4,699, while the 15-inch model starts from RM5,499. If you get one for education, both form factors benefit from a RM400 discount. They are available in four colourways, which are sky blue, midnight, starlight and the standard silver. That being said, Apple says you can order these “soon”, with no specific date mentioned. Similarly, the online store shows them as being unavailable at the time of writing, and to “check back later for availability”.
