MacBook Air 13 M5 review: fast and silent, and $200 pricier

The price moved, and that's the first thing you should know. Notebookcheck lists the March 11 launch price as $1,099 (checked Nov 1, 2026). As of November 1, 2026, Apple's store shows $1,299 as the lowest configuration, with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, or $108.25 a month.

That's $200 more. I still think it's the laptop most people should buy. All measurements here come from Notebookcheck's review, and the 8.7 is my own read of them.

$1,299 is the list price. I couldn't confirm a street price at any retailer, so don't take this page as proof that a discount exists.

Fast in a sprint

A Cinebench 2024 run on Notebookcheck's unit scored 200 single-core and 957 multi-core. The M4 Air got 173 and 815. That's roughly 16% and 17% more, by my arithmetic. Its Geekbench 6.7 run came in at 4,185 and 17,072, and Notebookcheck lists the single-core result as the fastest it has for this class.

What does that buy? Opening things, exporting a short clip, compiling a small project. I'd expect those jobs to finish before heat becomes a problem.

Notebookcheck's SSD test hit 6,473 MB/s read and 6,559 MB/s write, which I'd call plenty. Notebookcheck also saw no throttling in games and only about 44 C at the surface under load. Nobody buys an Air for gaming, though I'm glad it doesn't cook your lap.

Slower in a marathon

There's no fan, so physics collects its fee. Under sustained multi-core load, Notebookcheck saw power fall to about 9 W. A 30-minute Cinebench loop ended at 820, roughly 18% under the MacBook Pro 14 M5.

That's the single fact I'd weigh before buying. If your day includes long video exports or big builds running for half an hour at a time, you're paying for a chip you can't keep at full speed. Get a Pro. I couldn't confirm its current price, so I won't give you the gap.

Battery depends on your brightness habit

Apple claims up to 18 hours of video and 15 of web use. Notebookcheck's Wi-Fi web test gives two answers:

• 16 h 11 min at 150 nits
• 6 h 39 min at maximum brightness

Apple's claims don't prepare you for that second figure. Nine and a half hours vanish between those two settings. So keep the brightness down if you're away from a charger.

Rivals in the same 150-nit test split the Air between them. The Dell XPS 13 9350 reached 20.6 hours and the Surface Laptop 7 13.8 got 14.2. I couldn't confirm a current price for either, so I can't tell you what that extra 4 hours on the Dell costs.

The screen is good and still 60 Hz

Notebookcheck measured a 546 cd/m2 peak, 98.1% DCI-P3 coverage and 1,437:1 contrast, with no PWM flicker detected. Those are fine numbers for a 13.6-inch IPS panel at 2560x1664.

It's still 60 Hz. At $1,299, that irritates me. If you're coming from a phone with a 120 Hz screen, you'll probably see the difference when scrolling. OLED isn't an option here either.

Four things I'd change

1. RAM and SSD are soldered. Whatever you buy on day one is what you have until you sell it. Spend on the 24GB option now if you think you'll need it, since you can't add it later.
2. The webcam has low resolution, per Notebookcheck. On a machine this price, I find that lazy.
3. The warranty is only 12 months.
4. Just 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Fast ones, but I'd expect you to own a hub eventually.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if your work is browser tabs, documents, photo edits and the occasional short export. Weight is 1.23 kg and thickness is 11.3 mm, and there's Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on top.

If you already own an M4 Air, I wouldn't bother. A 16% single-core gain doesn't pay for itself.

The 15-inch M5 Air gets a bigger screen and a 66.5 Wh battery, against 53.8 Wh here, though I couldn't confirm its price. And anyone who wants to add memory later is shopping for a different brand of laptop altogether.