Apple MacBook Air M5 review: still the best Mac laptop for most people?

Introduction

It’s been a while since I had a MacBook Air in my mitts. In many ways, nothing’s changed. Set the MacBook Air M5 against its three predecessors and you’d struggle to spot the difference, even if upgraded components lurk within.

What has changed is Apple’s lineup. I’ve long considered the MacBook Air the best Mac laptop for most people. But is that true now the MacBook Neo exists? Let’s find out in the Stuff MacBook Air M5 review.

Design & build: Air we go again

The M5 looks like a MacBook Air. I know: shocker. The same boxy slab, softened at the corners and edges. A lid that snaps shut and lifts without effort. Reassuringly solid but light enough that it won’t take your shoulder off when lugged around in a bag.

The colours are… fine. My Sky Blue model looks a bit ‘pants left in wash’ and lacks the ‘business at the front, party at the back’ vibe of my iMac. If you like Apple’s painfully tasteful (ie dull) iPhone finishes, you’ll be happy.

Ports remain minimal: MagSafe and two Thunderbolt 4 on the left, and 3.5mm headphone on the right. That’s just about enough.

Inputs are mostly great. The keyboard is backlit for people who work in the dark and don’t know how to touch type. I like the short key travel, although if you’re a heavy typist like me, you might find the going noisy.

As ever, the trackpad is the size of a tea tray, wonderfully responsive, and oddly hobbled by Apple. (Grab BetterTouchTool to unleash its full potential.)

Screen and sound: Air on the side of caution

It’s the same copy/paste story with the display, which is unchanged. At 500 nits brightness, I found it great indoors and that it also holds up outside. Colour accuracy is impressive. But there’s no OLED and no ProMotion. The mid-range iPhone moved on last year, but the (now) mid-range MacBook has not. (Yes, tech prices are skyrocketing, but still.)

The notch remains a blight and it’s even more apparent now macOS Tahoe has removed the menu bar background. It at least doesn’t intrude into your work area, but I remain baffled Apple hasn’t done anything interesting with this component. Apps like NotchNook, Alcove and Atoll make the notch feel alive – like Dynamic Island for Mac rather than a black lump lodged in the middle of the menu bar.

As for the camera, it’s the same 12MP Centre Stage number that follows you around the room if you let it. Quality is good, if not quite great – at least to my eyes. I find the picture from my M1 iMac’s camera looks sharper; also, I could swear the Air’s camera has a hint of lag. Still, it’s fine for staring blankly at Zoom calls. The speakers are solid too – it’s a pity they don’t have a bit more bass, but they do the job when your AirPods run out of juice.

Performance & battery: Air you ready for this?

Apple says the M5 chip delivers “tremendous performance”. Which I’m quoting because people should use the word tremendous more often. And also because it’s true.

I had the entry-level 10-core CPU/8-core GPU to put through its paces. Everyday tasks were instant. Creative work was well within reach – at least, the sort of things I do, which is a lot of writing, some music, a bunch of Photoshop and a smattering of video. Coming from an M1 (or comparing with a Neo), you’re looking at a noticeable jump – maybe double the performance, on average.

The M5 Air also appears to have SSDs fitted with tiny rocket boosters. Read and write speeds are positively silly, matching Apple’s claims that both are twice as fast as they were on the M4. I found this upgrade fantastic when shifting huge files, like Steam backups, during review. But it’s also useful when you lean on swap memory after blazing through the RAM ceiling due to running far too many high-end processes at once, while your Air screams “just buy a Pro, you monster”.

However, there is no fan. Now, I love an insanely quiet Mac. Even the debut Mac Studio’s murmur irritated me. The Air? Silent. Bliss. Also, however: toasty – at least under sustained loads. After running so many Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks that Lara Croft threatened to shoot me with an arrow, the area above the keyboard was very warm, as were some of the keys.

The lack of active cooling also means this Mac will throttle sooner than a Pro under prolonged strain. So if you’re rendering Pixar movies or pretending the Mac is a gaming rig, maybe look elsewhere. (Actually, for gaming, definitely look elsewhere than any Mac, unless you’re a bit strange.) 

Random observations

• In Europe (and, yes, that includes the UK), there’s no power adapter in the box, because Apple hates you. Or the EU. Possibly both.
• Apple claims 18 hours of battery if you mainline streaming video. For normal work, I found the MacBook Air M5 easily lasted an entire day. (I kept forgetting to plug it in.)
• The MacBook Air M4 doubled the base RAM to 16GB. The M5 doubles the base storage to 512GB. This is a Very Good Thing™. Less worrying about overloading the Air, and great during times you end up using swap.
• The Thunderbolt ports can drive two external 6K displays at 60Hz and the internal one. (Tim Cook would very much like those to be Apple displays, although the Air will only cope with one Studio Display XDR kicking out 5K at 120Hz. Tsk.)
• I personally still think macOS Tahoe remains a visually incoherent, buggy mess, with Liquid Glass the main offender. And, no, you can’t downgrade to macOS Sequoia.

Apple MacBook Air M5 verdict

Is this still the best Mac for most people? The Air certainly hits a sweet spot that the Neo doesn’t. It has fewer compromises – and headroom that’ll ensure it’ll last years longer. Since I primarily work on an iMac and only occasionally need a laptop on the road, I’d probably buy a Neo for myself. But would I get the Air if it was to be my only Mac? Absolutely.

I like that it has enough grunt that you don’t really have to think about specs and limits. The screen and design haven’t changed, but they were already very good indeed. And while the price bump stings, the MacBook Air being $999/£999 was a single-year blip, you now get double the storage, and AI is making gadgets more expensive anyway.

The middle ground is not a bad place to be, then. Cheaper than the Pro. Better than the Neo. And with its balance of power, design and value, the MacBook Air M5 squeaks Stuff’s top rating. But for playing things a bit too safe, I’m not giving it a fancy badge.

Apple MacBook Air M5 technical specifications