{"id":51140,"date":"2026-03-03T17:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51140"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:46:29","slug":"macbook-air-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/03\/macbook-air-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"MacBook Air 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5\/\">Apple<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=47232502\">Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/2026\/03\/03\/macbook-air-gets-m5-macbook-pro-gains-m5-pro-and-m5-max\/\">TidBITS<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2026\/03\/03\/apple-announces-macbook-air-with-m5\/\">MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5\/\">\n<p>Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world&rsquo;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&rsquo;s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>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&rsquo;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.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/03\/macbook-pro-2026\/\">MacBook Pro 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/20\/notes-on-apples-nano-texture\/\">Notes on Apple&rsquo;s Nano Texture<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/15\/macbook-pro-m5-2025\/\">MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/05\/macbook-air-2025\/\">MacBook Air 2025<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"macbook-air-2026-update-2026-03-04\">Update (<a href=\"#macbook-air-2026-update-2026-03-04\">2026-03-04<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2026\/03\/03\/new-macbook-air-with-m5\">John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2026\/03\/03\/new-macbook-air-with-m5\">\n<p>Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base <em>price<\/em> went from the magic $999 to $1,100[&#8230;] Presumably, those in the market for a $999 MacBook will buy the new [&#8230;] lower-priced MacBook &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2026\/03\/03\/macbook-neo-name-leak\">Neo<\/a>&rdquo;[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/macbook-neo\/\">MacBook Neo<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"macbook-air-2026-update-2026-03-20\">Update (<a href=\"#macbook-air-2026-update-2026-03-20\">2026-03-20<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2026\/03\/m5-macbook-air-review-not-just-more-of-the-same-the-same-but-more\/\">Dan Moren<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2026\/03\/m5-macbook-air-review-not-just-more-of-the-same-the-same-but-more\/\">\n<p>Gone, in this generation (including the new MacBook Pros), are several keys&rsquo; text labels: tab, caps lock, return, shift, and delete. In each case, they&rsquo;ve been replaced by glyphs, of the same kind long used for keyboard shortcuts in drop-down menus.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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&rsquo;re back to a single port &ldquo;Dynamic Power Adapter&rdquo; that is rated for 40W with a maximum of 60W. It&rsquo;s a little smaller than the old dual port design&mdash;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&mdash;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&rsquo;ll miss the convenience of the second USB-C port, though that adapter model is still available for purchase separately from Apple.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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&rsquo;s unquestionably better than the Neo in pretty much every way&mdash;with the exception of its color options. There&rsquo;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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple (Hacker News, TidBITS, MacRumors): Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world&rsquo;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-03-03T22:16:26Z","apple_news_api_id":"6ec4d6c0-44a1-4018-923a-4eeaf8b34c65","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-03-20T13:46:32Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AbsTWwEShQBiSOk7q-LNMZQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2307,2851,30,1173,2742,174],"class_list":["post-51140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-hardware-announcement","tag-apple-m5","tag-mac","tag-macbook-air","tag-macos-tahoe-26","tag-storage"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51140"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51325,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51140\/revisions\/51325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}