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The latest M5 MacBook Air was released in March, and it’s already deeply discounted on Amazon—both the base 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Air are $200 less right now. Given that Apple increased the price (and the base storage) this year, the $200 discount is notable. The 13-inch MacBook Air is now $899; the 15-inch is available for $1099, the lowest price we’ve seen yet.
The M5 model is a 2026 update to Apple’s popular MacBook lineup, and what used to be Apple’s cheapest MacBook (before the MacBook Neo showed up). While the MacBook Neo is fine for web browsing and some light work, the M5 MacBook Air offers a lot more performance, and some nice creature comforts. The Neo runs on an A18 Pro chip from the iPhone—compared to that, the M5 chip in the MacBook Air is a beast.
Apple’s latest M5 chip with a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. Plus, it has a built-in 16-core Neural Engine designed specifically to speed up local AI tasks. Compared to the Neo, the Air also has double the RAM (16GB vs. 8GB) and storage (512GB vs 256GB). The Neo only has USB-C ports, while the Air has Thunderbolt 4 ports. The Air has a backlit keyboard, which the Neo does not. The Air also gets the latest 12MP CenterStage camera, while the Neo has the old 1080p FaceTime camera. The Air has a longer battery life than the Neo (18 hours vs. 16 hours), and crucially, it supports Fast Charging (up to 50% in 30 minutes) and MagSafe.
The base MacBook Air comes with either a 13.6-inch or a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display, depending on your model (with True Tone and P3 Wide Color Gamut support, which the Neo doesn’t offer). If you plan to work with dozens of Chrome tabs, multiple apps, some light photo/video editing, and you plan to use it for video calls, the Air is worth the extra couple of hundred dollars. And with this sale, the difference between the two machines is $300 instead of $500.
What do you think so far?
In its review, PCMag gave the M5 MacBook Air an “excellent” rating and an Editor’s Choice award, noting that “the M5 processor … delivers even faster and more efficient performance than before, comfortably outpacing many PC laptops in its price range.”
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