The M5 MacBook Air is launching tomorrow, and the first reviews are now available. Here’s what the reviews are saying.

Apple’s Mid-Range MacBook is Quite Powerful with the M5 Chip

The MacBook Air now sits between the more affordable and less powerful MacBook Neo and the higher-end MacBook Pro. However, reviews clearly indicate that the M5 MacBook Air is still a powerhouse on its own.

Lance Ulanoff writes in TechRadar:

I found the new 13-inch MacBook Air M5 to be capable enough to handle quite heavy tasks.

First, I opened Lightroom and loaded some raw images. Then I launched Final Cut Pro and imported an 8K 30 fps video, created three copies, and started editing a video with four videos playing simultaneously. Then I loaded Pixelmator Pro and edited a photo. I also installed Chrome and opened 25 tabs (of course set to TechRadar). Finally, I loaded Lies of P and started playing. Lastly, I installed Steam and downloaded Inzoi, which overwhelmed me a bit with its rich, open-world SIM choices and scope.

The MacBook Air kept going without a hitch. At one point, I received a system message indicating that Inzoi was consuming many system processes and battery, suggesting I should consider switching to low power mode, but when I exited the game, the battery was still around 90%. Overall, I struggled to push the M5 and its 16GB of RAM.

For specific comparisons with the M4, Tom’s Guide shared several test results. Tony Polanco writes:

In Geekbench 6, a test measuring overall CPU performance, it achieved a solid multi-core score of 17,276. This is a significant increase from last year’s model (14,921)… In our Handbrake test, when we tasked the laptop with converting 4K video to 1080p, the MacBook Air M5 completed it in 4 minutes and 34 seconds. That’s more than 20 seconds faster than the previous model.

These are modest improvements. However, as Dan Moren from Six Colors points out, the M5 offers particularly strong gains for anyone with an older MacBook Air.

He says, “If you go back to M3, M2, M1, you’re looking at increases in single-core performance ranging from 38%, 57%, and 75%.”

Faster SSD Speeds Exceed Apple’s Claims

Another change in the M5 MacBook Air contributing to performance gains is the faster SSD.

Apple claims that the latest generation SSD is twice as fast as the M4 model. And reviews have confirmed this and more.

Dan Moren writes in Six Colors:

You’ll find a significant increase in storage. The Air now starts with 512GB SSD storage, which is double that of its predecessor, and offers up to 4TB, which is the maximum for all except the M5 Max configured MacBook Pros. This capacity increase comes with speed improvements: Apple claims the new SSDs are twice as fast as the previous generation, and my tests confirmed this. Compared to my personal M4 MacBook Air, the M5’s read speed increased by 125%, and the write speed showed an extraordinary 219% increase according to Blackmagic’s disk tests. These numbers were so impressive that I ran AmorphousDiskMark as a comparison and got better results: a minimum of 250% improvement.

M5 MacBook Air: Who Should Upgrade?

The new M5 model is not designed to attract M4 MacBook Air users. It offers only a few changes compared to last year’s model.

However, reviews generally suggested that anyone with an M2 or older model could see a significant improvement.

Zarif Ali writes in Pocket-lint:

If you’re using an M2 Air or an older model, you should consider upgrading if your workflow demands it. The M5 offers a sufficiently meaningful improvement in terms of chip architecture, memory bandwidth, and storage that if your current machine is struggling, it’s worth making the generational leap. For anyone on an M1 Air or an Intel-based MacBook, the M5 offers a transformation in daily responsiveness, AI capabilities, and longevity that no incremental update can adequately express.

Are you considering upgrading to the M5 MacBook Air? What model do you currently have? Let us know in the comments.

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