I for One am VERY happy with my M5 MBA

[Wahlstrm]

I feel a bit robbed for buying the M4 Air.. 🙂

Waited since Intel days for an Air with the same ability to run dual external monitors.

Given how long it took i wasn’t expecting the M5 to be both cheaper and so much better.

 

[dizmonk]

That's awesome that you are so pleased with your MBA. What about thermals? Have you noticed it getting hot when you use it?

It does not. The only time I've noticed any warmth is with video editing. I don't do a lot of it, so it's not an issue. The MBPs I had would even get hotter especially during the setup process than the Air.

 

[drunkaviator]

It does not. The only time I've noticed any warmth is with video editing. I don't do a lot of it, so it's not an issue. The MBPs I had would even get hotter especially during the setup process than the Air.

I have faith in the thermals of the M5 MacBook Air, I’ve done some heavy photo editing on my M5 iPad Pro, with multiple layers and masks, very large files, and not only does it do it effortlessly, there’s minimal heat coming from the back of the iPad.

 

[Bacong]

I've noticed my MBA getting a little warm when the memory pressure gets yellow, but other than that it's cool as a cucumber.

 

[snipr125]

I feel a bit robbed for buying the M4 Air.. 🙂

Waited since Intel days for an Air with the same ability to run dual external monitors.

Given how long it took i wasn’t expecting the M5 to be both cheaper and so much better.

Apart from the upgrade to M5 and faster SSD speeds, not that much better than the M4 MBA right?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apart from the upgrade to M5 and faster SSD speeds, not that much better than the M4 MBA right?

Correct.

I will say, though, I was surprised that I actually did notice a bit of snappiness upgrade going from M4 to M5 on nearly the exact same MBA.

I think it's more about what a dog Tahoe is than anything else.

I've pondered going back to a Mini M4 and Sequoia (really struggling with some aspects of Tahoe), but I think I'm just going to soldier on and hope for 27 improvements. I don't really want to go back off of the M5 speed (particularly on SSD side) now that I have it.

 

[KPOM]

Apart from the upgrade to M5 and faster SSD speeds, not that much better than the M4 MBA right?

Not enough to justify upgrading from an M4 to an M5 but the price actually went down slightly based on comparable configurations. Apple just eliminated some of the lower specced options.

 

[noshooz]

I just today went from a 16" M1 Pro to an M5 15" Air. (Have had various Pro's for years) I compared the 2 side by side and the difference in screens is so small that I now don't notice it. The Pro for sure NOT $1000 better. I don't need the fans and fancy screen and extra ports, etc.

I sold my 13" M2 iPad Pro and got the same Air and still have the same M1 Pro. The MBP's screen gets brighter. I've rarely done enough to get the fans to come on over the four years I've had it. The big plus for the Air is how much lighter it is to carry around. The Air will be my travel laptop and the Pro will stay at home.

 

[drunkaviator]

After spending quite a bit of time with the 15" MBA this weekend, I have some updated views on moving from the Pro.

- Scaling, this is actually much better on the MBA, than both the 14" and 16" MBP. Effectively the 15" and 16" are running at the same resolution, and everything feels a bit smaller and better on the MBA screen.
- It's nice not to have the edge shadows of the mini-LED panel.
- The lower resolution panel isn't particularly noticeable to my eyes unless you're really looking closely.
- Perfect black Levels and HDR are things I can live without, although I do notice the slightly worse contrast and highlights in SDR photos. If I really need to view something in HDR, I can use my iPad.
- 120 Hz, I actually think I prefer the 60hz on the MBA because the panel feels fast. Hear me out, 120 Hz on the MBP isn't the same as on an OLED panel, there's a lot of smearing and blurring due to the MBP's very slow response times, and if feels like it lags after your finger's movement on the trackpad, like it's catching up. I only noticed this after getting the iPad Pro.
- Colours really are great on the MBA, and noticably better than my 2019 MBP, way better than the Neo.
- Keyboard, upon re-examining, the MBA keyboard feels the same as the stand alone Magic Keyboard or the iPad Magic Keyboard. It's not as "spongy" as the MBP, but some people will prefer it I'm sure.
- I like the precise, technical look of the MBPs generally, but I'm warming to the very clean and minimalist look of the MBAs top deck. Silver is still the best colour.

- Speakers, this is the hardest to get past, they're simply nowhere near as good as the MBP 14 or 16, but fine for spoken stuff. However on the move I usually use headphones, and I'm thinking of getting a pair of stereo Homepod Minis on my coffee table at home, which will sound better than any of them!

Didn't get to use it on my lap though, how does it feel compared to the 14" pro.

 

[romanof]

I am coming from a 2017 MBA that I really liked... like. But, the new M5 MBA is a fine machine and no doubt. It has far more umph than I need for my usual typing of words into a text app, but if I need any power it is there. Hope it lasts for 9 years or so like the last.

In my daily use, it does not get warm, far less hot. Actually, it doesn't even rise above the detectable temperature of the room. But, since it has good GPU cores and I got the box with 24gb of ram, I decided to try a local LLM - qwen:14b something or other. It worked and as well as my big tower with a Radon 7900xt, giving results just as good.

But... The MBA instantly got hot, and I mean far hotter than I have ever felt on any system. Almost to the point I was worried about the melting point of the keytops. In my mild panic, I didn't think about grabbing a laser thermometer to get a real reading - I just control -d'ed out of Ollama and ended the test.

So. No more stress testing of a new Air. I will leave that task to the big box with big fans and replaceable parts.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I am coming from a 2017 MBA that I really liked... like. But, the new M5 MBA is a fine machine and no doubt. It has far more umph than I need for my usual typing of words into a text app, but if I need any power it is there. Hope it lasts for 9 years or so like the last.

In my daily use, it does not get warm, far less hot. Actually, it doesn't even rise above the detectable temperature of the room. But, since it has good GPU cores and I got the box with 24gb of ram, I decided to try a local LLM - qwen:14b something or other. It worked and as well as my big tower with a Radon 7900xt, giving results just as good.

But... The MBA instantly got hot, and I mean far hotter than I have ever felt on any system. Almost to the point I was worried about the melting point of the keytops. In my mild panic, I didn't think about grabbing a laser thermometer to get a real reading - I just control -d'ed out of Ollama and ended the test.

So. No more stress testing of a new Air. I will leave that task to the big box with big fans and replaceable parts.

I wonder how much a comparable Mac mini handles it better simply by having a fan.