MacBook Air 2026
Apple (Hacker News, TidBITS, MacRumors):
Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world’s most popular laptop. M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks. MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at 512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB, so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go.
This looks really good. There are still two Thunderbolt ports, plus MagSafe, and a 32 GB RAM ceiling. The RAM pricing is confusing. The base model with the 8-core GPU is $1,099 with 16 GB of RAM, and you can’t upgrade its memory. For $1,199, you can get the model with 10 GPU cores, and then it makes available a $400 option to upgrade to 32 GB of RAM, but clicking on that shows a total of $1,499 rather than $1,599.
Previously:
Update (2026-03-04): John Gruber:
Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base price went from the magic $999 to $1,100[…] Presumably, those in the market for a $999 MacBook will buy the new […] lower-priced MacBook “Neo”[…]
Previously:
Update (2026-03-20): Dan Moren:
Gone, in this generation (including the new MacBook Pros), are several keys’ text labels: tab, caps lock, return, shift, and delete. In each case, they’ve been replaced by glyphs, of the same kind long used for keyboard shortcuts in drop-down menus.
[…]
The second thing that I noticed was that Apple is now shipping a new power adapter with the M5 Air. Previously, the company included either a 30W adapter for the base model or a 35W adapter with 2 USB-C ports. With this model, we’re back to a single port “Dynamic Power Adapter” that is rated for 40W with a maximum of 60W. It’s a little smaller than the old dual port design—and, interestingly, lacks the standard holes on the prongs that you find on most plugs, which can add some degree of stability to the connection—but can handle fast charging with the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and Air, as well as the 11-inch and 13-inch M5 iPad Pro models. Honestly, I’ll miss the convenience of the second USB-C port, though that adapter model is still available for purchase separately from Apple.
[…]
The Air remains a truly great Mac. Those who butt up against the limitations of the Neo will be more than comfortable here: after all, it’s unquestionably better than the Neo in pretty much every way—with the exception of its color options. There’s a clear value proposition with the Air: pay more to get more. And that higher cost is reasonable for what you get, especially when you compare the starting prices of the MacBook Pro.
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I feel like once one starts considering getting upgrades to the Air they may as well get the base model MacBook Pro instead.
The upgrade pricing is indeed high and quickly gets you in to MacBook Pro base model territory but without all the other benefits of those models.
@Bart I may be strange, but from my perspective the base MacBook Pro is a downgrade from the 15" MacBook Air that I use, irrespective of price.
I prefer the larger screen in a lighter, thinner case that the Air provides. Have used the current iteration of the MacBook Pros and didn't like the sharpness at the bottom of the case (where the air vents are) and their overall chunkiness.
Quality of the Pro's screen is better but am guessing most people, including myself, don't notice much difference on a day to day basis. With the performance of today's M-chips, the Air is also more than fast enough for pretty much everyone... and my preference is to have a completely silent machine rather than a few % points increase in sustained benchmark performance that a fan provides.
Note that I used a 14" MacBook Pro for a number of years and think the MacBook Air 15" is just better for my, and probably a lot of other users needs.
I feel the "Pro" moniker does a lot of heavy lifting to feed into user's egos that they are serious users who must need a serious 'Pro' machine for all their 'Pro' tasks (e.g. reading email and using electron apps). When, if you look at the benchmarks, the Air can probably do everything faster than a Mac Pro (from just a couple of years back).
@Matthew personal preference for sure.
Typing this from my 14" M1 MBP and it's always completely silent with the fans not running unless I do something that stresses the CPU/GPU which is not an option with the Air in the first place.
I also absolutely notice the "ProMotion" display. All my displays are 120Hz or better including desktop and I just don't want to use anything else for myself anymore. Clearly I am in the minority here.
I'm mostly thinking about the fact that it seems kind of pointless to max out the RAM and storage on the Air unless one really wants the form factor. It doesn't have the CPU/GPU/Thermal to do much with all that RAM and storage except keep a lot of tabs open and store a lot of local data on a portable device.
