GoKawiilIt’s hard to believe that it’s been almost four years since Apple gave the MacBook Air a serious glow-up. The 2022 model was a total redesign that bumped its performance with the M2 chip and also improved a number of key components. It was also the first MacBook Air to drop the signature tapered design, and Apple added a 15-inch model one year later to boot. Since then, Apple’s primarily focused on making sure it has a new chip every year — we’re already up to the M5, if you can believe it.
As such, the latest MacBook Air is an expected update that doesn’t change the game. Not that it needed changing: it’s been our favorite ultraportable laptop for years now. But the Air’s place in Apple’s lineup has changed with the simultaneous introduction of the $599 MacBook Neo. And unfortunately, Apple didn’t keep the $999 price that last year’s M4 MacBook Air hit; it’s back up to $1,099, the same price as the M2 and M3 models. Now that there’s the new, inexpensive MacBook Neo out there, who is the MacBook Air for? While I haven’t used the Neo yet, I’m pretty comfortable answering that question: it’s still for almost anyone.
Apple / Engadget 92 100 Expert Score Apple MacBook Air (M5, 13-inch) This year’s MacBook Air is faster but otherwise unchanged, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best laptops you can buy. Pros Fast performance
Solid, thin and light design
Excellent trackpad and keyboard Cons Screen is only 60Hz
Could use another port $1,099 at Apple
The essentials haven’t changed
While the latest MacBook Air is physically unchanged from its 2022 revision, I don’t have a problem with that. I find the Air to be the Platonic ideal of a laptop that most people will be hard-pressed to find issues with. The 13.6-inch (or 15.3-inch, if you opt for the bigger size) display isn’t the most cutting edge screen out there, but it’s still sharp, bright and colorful. It’s stuck at a 60Hz refresh rate at a time when many PC manufacturers are using faster screens, but for the Air’s audience I don’t think that’s a problem. I may be miffed that the iPad Air similarly only has a pedestrian 60Hz refresh rate — but I think it’s less crucial on a Mac, where you’re not literally touching the screen (at least for now).
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Other minor quibbles include the fact that Apple still hasn’t put a USB-C port on the right side of the computer in addition to those on the left, and the screen notch is still weird if you focus on it too much. But other than that, I can’t really come up with any issues here. At 2.7 pounds, the Air isn’t the lightest laptop out there, but I’ll take the extremely solid feel of the unibody aluminum case over a lighter and possibly flimsier plastic.
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