Is the M5 MacBook Air worth upgrading from an M4 or M3?

For M4 owners, the gains are real but incremental — worth it mainly if you specifically need the extra base storage or AI-task performance. M3 or older owners will notice a more substantial improvement.

Can the M5 MacBook Air handle light gaming?

Yes, reasonably well for a fanless laptop — some testing shows frame rates approaching entry-level dedicated GPU performance in certain titles, though it's not built as a gaming machine.

Does it come with a power adapter in every region?

Most regions include a power adapter; some regions, including the UK, do not include one in the box by default — check regional listings before buying.

How does the M5 MacBook Air compare to a Windows ultrabook like the Dell XPS?

MacBook Air generally wins on battery life and build consistency; Dell XPS wins if you need Windows-specific software or more configuration flexibility. See our full head-to-head comparison for the detailed trade-offs.

MacBook Air (M5) Review

The MacBook Air (M5) is a fanless ultrabook that delivers genuine performance gains over its predecessor, doubled base storage, and battery life that consistently lands close to Apple's ambitious 18-hour claim, making it our top overall laptop pick for most buyers in 2026.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Genuine performance gains over M4, particularly in AI-accelerated tasks
Doubled base storage to 512GB at the same generation-over-generation price point
Real-world battery testing lands close to the 18-hour claim
Completely silent — fanless design even under sustained load
Excellent build quality, trackpad, and display
Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support

Cons

Entry price rose to $1,099 alongside the storage increase
No ProMotion (variable refresh rate) display, unlike MacBook Pro
No Nano-texture display option, also reserved for MacBook Pro
Sealed, limited-repairability design

First Impressions

Apple made a deliberate choice with the M5 MacBook Air: keep the design essentially unchanged from recent generations and put the real engineering effort into what's under the hood. That's a reasonable strategy for a product whose aluminum unibody design was already class-leading — there's very little reason to fix what wasn't broken. Available in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes across four color options, it remains one of the most immediately recognizable premium ultrabooks on the market.

Performance

The M5 chip is where this generation earns its upgrade. Independent benchmarking shows meaningful real-world gains over the M4 — Apple's own claim of roughly 4x faster AI processing is a manufacturer figure worth some skepticism in isolation, but broader benchmark testing (Geekbench, Cinebench) confirms genuine, non-trivial performance improvements across both CPU and GPU workloads, not just narrow AI-specific tasks. Gaming performance has also improved meaningfully, with some tests showing frame rates comparable to entry-level dedicated graphics in specific titles — genuinely notable for a fanless laptop with no separate GPU.

Battery Life

Apple's 18-hour claim is, as always, a best-case figure under specific test conditions. Independent real-world testing — web browsing, streaming, and general productivity at moderate screen brightness — has consistently clocked over 15 hours of actual use, which is close enough to the claimed figure to trust Apple's battery marketing more than most manufacturers in this category. For most users, this means genuinely all-day use without hunting for a charger, even on a heavier-than-average workday.

Storage and Memory

The most tangible spec change this generation is the doubled base storage — 512GB standard, up from 256GB on the M4 generation, at the same 13-inch starting price point ($1,099 for M5 vs. the M4's earlier $999, a modest increase given the doubled storage). 16GB of unified memory is now standard as well. Both changes meaningfully improve the out-of-box experience for typical buyers who previously had to pay extra just to get a reasonable amount of storage.

Display and Build

The 13.6-inch (or 15.3-inch on the larger model) Liquid Retina display remains sharp and color-accurate, though it's worth noting Apple reserves both ProMotion (a smoother, variable refresh rate display) and the anti-glare Nano-texture display option for the MacBook Pro line specifically — real limitations if either matters to your use case, though most everyday users won't notice their absence. Build quality continues to be the standard the rest of the ultrabook market gets measured against, with a haptic trackpad widely considered among the best in the industry.

Who Should Buy This

Buy the MacBook Air (M5) if you want the best overall combination of battery life, build quality, and everyday performance available in an ultrabook, and you don't have a specific need for Windows software or dedicated gaming hardware. If you need Windows compatibility or more configuration flexibility, see our MacBook Air vs Windows Laptop comparison — or our full Dell XPS review for the strongest Windows alternative.