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When a friend recently asked whether the new MacBook Neo is a good choice for a college student, I suggested the MacBook Air instead. You might wonder if I am against the MacBook Neo. After all, it’s Apple’s entry-level Mac notebook, and some consider it the best Mac the company has made in the past 25 years.
I disagree. I still believe the MacBook Air—regardless of the generation—is the better option. My view has only strengthened after reviewing the new M5 MacBook Air. It offers more processing power than you need for basic tasks like web browsing and light editing. At the same time, it can handle more demanding work, though it doesn’t match the performance of a MacBook Pro.
Here’s my review of the new M5 MacBook Air.
What: Apple MacBook Air M5 | Price: Rs 1,19,900 onwards (applicable for the 13-inch model)
Disclaimer: Apple sent me the 15-inch MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The review unit retails for Rs 1,44,900 in India.
Thin and light, and solidly built
There is no difference between the M4 MacBook Air and the M5 MacBook Air in terms of design, and that’s okay. The MacBook Air’s design language is so iconic that I don’t think Apple needs to make any major changes. The design features a slim aluminium build in four colours, and I received the Sky Blue version for review. I like Sky Blue. It’s probably my favourite among the options. It’s similar in hue to the blue finish Microsoft offers on its Surface devices, but those versions are noticeably bluer.
Apple’s approach to designing the MacBook Air is minimalistic: clean, simple, and easy on the eyes. You instantly know it’s a MacBook Air.
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The laptop has a slim aluminium body and fanless design, making it completely silent. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
As someone who travels a lot for work, the notebook’s weight was one of the biggest draws of the MacBook Air. The 15-inch MacBook Air may have a larger footprint than the 13-inch model at first, but it doesn’t really add up over a day of walking and travelling. My MacBook Air travels with me daily: to and from work, on flights, and to different cafés.
Sure, the iPad Pro is more portable, partly because of its weight, whereas the MacBook Air’s larger footprint gives it better balance. Honestly, it’s hard to describe, but it somehow feels lighter in day-to-day use.
Bright display and excellent speakers
When I briefly tried the MacBook Neo at an Apple Store in Los Angeles a few days ago, I was impressed with the display. For a budget Mac notebook, it offered better brightness and very good colours.
Being a Mac means it runs macOS. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
The MacBook Air has a similar LCD display, but I found the picture quality on the 15.3-inch screen was better. Even the bezels on the 15-inch MacBook Air are thinner than those on the MacBook Neo. The only annoying part is the notch in the centre, which houses the 1080p, 12-megapixel Center Stage camera embedded into the display.
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I agree completely. The 13.6-inch screen is an ideal laptop size. It’s perfect for most single-app tasks, though split-view and some work apps are better on the larger 15-inch screen. For daily writing, which I do a lot, watching YouTube, streaming music on Apple Music, and most single-app tasks, it won’t make much difference: the 13.6-inch screen is a perfect fit.
That said, aside from the extra screen real estate, there are no major advantages to opting for the 15-inch model. You are not getting a brighter Mini-LED panel or a 120Hz ProMotion display anyway. However, you do get a higher-resolution display (2,880×1,864) on the 15-inch MacBook Air. Another advantage of the M5 MacBook Air’s display is its two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which allow connections for up to two external displays at 6K and 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz.
Also Read | I went to an Apple Store in Los Angeles, and tried the MacBook Neo: Here’s my experience
My 15-inch MacBook Air also supports the wide P3 colour gamut, compared to the less robust sRGB spectrum. Apple’s MacBook Air displays also use True Tone technology, which adjusts the screen’s colour temperature and brightness based on ambient lighting. The MacBook Neo doesn’t have this feature, in case the display tech matters to you.
I am a big fan of the MacBook Air’s speakers. There are six of them; the 15-inch version has a six-speaker system, compared to the 13-inch’s four. The speakers sound amazing: they are loud and clear, offer better sound separation, and provide a dynamic range. Lately, I don’t turn on my TV after work; instead, I lie on my bed with my MacBook Air and watch Netflix.
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The writers’ paradise
I am a self-admitted keyboard junkie, but I don’t need to tell you how impressed I was with the MacBook Air’s keyboard. It’s no different from the one you get on other MacBooks, but if you haven’t used a Mac keyboard before, you will absolutely love it. The keyboard is a sheer joy to use, and I love the typing experience it offers.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is bigger and better, but it also comes at a steep price. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
I mainly used this MacBook Air for writing stories, so I spent a fair bit of time typing in each session. I found it comfortable and could type for long periods without my fingers or wrists feeling tired or sore. The keys have a nice level of feedback, and because the 15-inch MacBook Air has a larger footprint, typing is even easier. Having the larger trackpad also makes using gestures on the Mac much simpler.
Beefed up M5 chip, and still fanless
There is one major area where the new MacBook Air differs from previous generations. The chip inside is new (M5 vs M4 compared to last year’s MacBook Air). On the surface, the latest M5 chip is just a number, but under the hood, it translates to massive gains. It shows how the Apple M-series chips have evolved over the years.
My test unit came with a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, with the latter being the better performer. The big leap is in GPU performance, where the M5 has a 30 per cent advantage over the M4. I would call it a pro-level chip in a mainstream computer. A more powerful GPU translates to better game performance, faster video rendering, and improved on-device AI processing.
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The M5 chip massively improves AI assisted tasks, large language model workflows, and multitasking. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
The combination of the M5 chip and 16 GB of RAM makes the MacBook Air the laptop to beat, and my test results confirm this. Not once did I feel the notebook slowing down, no matter how many tabs, windows, or applications were running. In fact, the laptop stayed fast even with 30 tabs open in Chrome.
Let me also add that the MacBook Air can handle heavier applications for graphic design, professional photo editing, and video production, whether that’s opening apps or working in Lightroom, Photoshop, or Final Cut Pro. That’s where the M5 chip starts to show its strengths, and you quickly begin to forget that you are not working on a Pro machine.
Also Read | I ran a local AI model on the new MacBook Pro with M5… here is my experience
As with past versions, the Air still doesn’t include an active cooling fan. This means you can run at full speed for a few minutes under sustained heavy CPU or GPU load, but performance may slow down slightly once the chip gets too hot to maintain full speed.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing for me has been the Air’s battery life. It’s fantastic. While Apple promises up to 18 hours of battery life on either the 13- or 15-inch M5 MacBook Air, I consistently got approximately 14 to 16 hours. I used my MacBook for a variety of tasks, including running AI applications, photo editing, video calls, writing, web browsing, and research. At times, I wonder why others struggle to deliver the same battery life as Apple does.
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Last thoughts: Expensive but brilliant as ever
If you are a parent buying a computer for a child about to enter university or college, and you want a powerful Mac that will last them through the next 3–4 years without any issues, then sure, get an M5 MacBook Air. The M5 MacBook Air won’t come cheap, but I encourage you to take advantage of the student discount, which can help lower the cost of ownership.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I am not in favour of the MacBook Neo for a college student, someone in the content creation business, or anyone who does a lot of writing, as I do. The MacBook Neo is a nice Mac, but it is severely limited. In contrast, the M5 MacBook Air’s M5 chip is fairly powerful, comes with 16GB of RAM by default, supports up to two external 5K displays, offers much faster storage and USB ports, and includes a backlit keyboard with a haptic-feedback trackpad, as well as better speakers and webcam.
For me, the MacBook Air has always been the gold standard in ultra-portable notebooks and likely always will be. That said, it’s not perfect. A price increase with little change worries me, and I really wish the MacBook Air would get a better display with a higher refresh rate, honestly. It’s high time.
