Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What's Coming in the M5 MacBook Air

MacRumors said:
Apple's M5 chip uses third-generation 3-nanometer technology, and it features up to a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU with 3.5x faster performance than the M4 chip.
Click to expand...
Which metric is the M5 supposed to be 3.5 times faster at? It seems to be more like 15-20% in most metrics so I'm not sure where 3.5x comes in.
 
Dark_Omen said:
I'm not sure what you mean. The Macbook Air is still much too fat.

0.16 > 0.44 inch thickness over the last 18 years is not progress. Yeah I understand the back part was thicker than the current "uniform" slab design, but other companies have caught up with their own ultra books.

Apple should've kept making the Air thinner while keeping the Pro as the option with longer battery life. The current MBA should be about as thick as the iPhone Air on the bottom and the top.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping this is just ragebait, but it already is exactly as thick as two iPhone Airs. iPhone Air 0.22in, MacBook air 0.44in.
 
WarmWinterHat said:
Went from the M1 Air to M4 Pro, and I miss the Air. Other than a port on the right, I haven't noticed any advantages.

I don't like the extra weight, either.
Click to expand...
When you are interested in Audio you will notice that the M4 series supports 96KHz sample rate where all M1 series only support 48KHz. For people who want to build plexamp, roon or other media server the m4 base is superior to m1 max.
 
  • Like
Reactions: delsoul
Considering trading in my MacBook Pro (14" Late 2023) this weekend for a store credit. I have a 15" Air as well and find myself using it 99% of the time. The Pro is nice, but the extra screen and lighter weight makes the Air a better option.

Might as well do it this weekend while the trade-in is decent

Thoughts?
 
kb2755 said:
I just retired a 2020 Pro for a 2025 M4 Air. My work computer is an M2 Pro.

This air is perfect. I'm very happy I didn't spend $600+ more on a pro for my personal use. I don't think I'm going to come remotely close to pushing the limits of this machine.
Click to expand...
Yeah, again maybe for your usage, you may not want to get a pro !
 
lfaa said:
Those have iPads already
Click to expand...
An iPad and also have a Mac laptop, give them the option of one device with two modes and who knows the iPad will be yesteryears news.

Apple is like a teenage girl who has no clue what their want, take for example:

iPad: has touchscreen, keyboard, trackpad, mouse and pencil. Limited OS but hardware is more than capable.

MacBook A/P: keyboard, mouse and trackpad. Full OS and hardware is capable.

Can the Mac gain pencil support at least.
 
bodonnell202 said:
Which metric is the M5 supposed to be 3.5 times faster at? It seems to be more like 15-20% in most metrics so I'm not sure where 3.5x comes in.
Click to expand...
Closest example I could find is in this article here regarding the M5 iPad.

www.macstories.net

I Finally Tested the M5 iPad Pro’s Neural-Accelerated AI, and the Hype Is Real

The best kind of follow-up article isn't one that clarifies a topic that someone got wrong (although I do love that, especially when that “someone” isn't me); it's one that provides more context to a story that was incomplete. My M5 iPad Pro review was an incomplete narrative. As you may recall...
www.macstories.net www.macstories.net

Essentially, as I suggested in my iPad Pro review, the M5’s improvements for local AI performance largely apply to prompt processing (the prefill stage, when an LLM needs to ingest the user’s prompt and load it into its context) and result in much, much shorter time to first token (TTFT) numbers. Since prompt processing with neural acceleration scales better with long prompts (where you can more easily measure the difference in latency between the M4 and M5), I focused on testing two different long prompt sizes: 10,000 and 16,000 tokens.
Click to expand...

Which is only one aspect of the entire LLM usage workflow. So depending on how you use your iPad, you may very well not be in a position to realise any of the promised gains, especially if you do not run local AI models on your iPad (which I suspect is a niche of a niche right now).
 
Dark_Omen said:
I'm not sure what you mean. The Macbook Air is still much too fat.

0.16 > 0.44 inch thickness over the last 18 years is not progress. Yeah I understand the back part was thicker than the current "uniform" slab design, but other companies have caught up with their own ultra books.

Apple should've kept making the Air thinner while keeping the Pro as the option with longer battery life. The current MBA should be about as thick as the iPhone Air on the bottom and the top.
Click to expand...
I write this on my M4 15" MBA, but I also have an M1 MBP 16", and it's (comparitively) FAT. It also has the full gamut of ports..
I guess ya pays your nickel and takes your choice.
 
shogunswb said:
So what is the excuse for the extorsionate [sic] prices up to now other than making sure the shareholders get richer.
Click to expand...
I’ll tell you exactly what it is: Apple customers buy their products happily at what they consider to be a fair price for the value they receive. The proof of this, which you conveniently ignore, is that Apple’s all-time profits are matched by all-time and industry-leading customer satisfaction. Those sure are some happy customers with guns to their heads in Apple Stores!

Your problem is that you are utterly blind to that value proposition because you reduce all computing value to BOM+3% margin for handling manufacturing and shipping. The good news is, that’s a popular worldview for which there happens to be an enormous hardware/software ecosystem. You might be happier if you availed yourself of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Abazigal
iLondoner said:
Quote, "Storage tiers are likely to stay the same, starting at 256GB with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB available as upgrade options."
Click to expand...
There will be no 256GB storage tier on the M5 MacBook Air. The $999 price point will be reassigned to the new MacBook (with higher storage) and the Air line will start at the existing (no price hike!) 16/512/$1199 model.

A18 MacBook 16/256/$799
A18 MacBook 16/512/$999
M5 MacBook Air 16/512/$1199
 
  • Like
Reactions: Happy_John and Christopher Kim
I was thinking about waiting for the event before picking up either the new M5 Air or the current M5 pro.

I ended up with the M5 pro, 16gb and 1tb ssd and paid £1450 new with various offers in the UK. I am expecting storage and ram upgrade cost increases so hoping I made the right decision based on this prediction.

Had my base M1 air (8gb / 256gb) from new and it did me well for 5 or so years, I expect this M5 Pro will last the same, if not longer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Velora Bloom
Vincent Hanna said:
Because you don't know that for sure, and waiting 72 hours does no harm?

I just think it's strange to buy an Apple laptop three days before an Apple laptop event and just cross your fingers.
Click to expand...
Well, there's a 14-day return policy if he gets his from the Apple Store, though I agree that unless you somehow expect Apple to hike the price of the M5 MBP this week, no harm in waiting a few days, and saving myself the hassle of possibly having to return a product (and troubling the Apple Store staff in processing the return).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jamie's_Tech and Funny Apple Man
Vincent Hanna said:
Because you don't know that for sure, and waiting 72 hours does no harm?

I just think it's strange to buy an Apple laptop three days before an Apple laptop event and just cross your fingers.
Click to expand...

you are right, it’s not nailed on, but I am only interested in the M5 and not the m5 pro or m5 max. So the wait is to see what the new air is only.

If the prices to upgrade do go up (unconfirmed) then the model I bought will increase from £1799 to £1799+X.

I managed to get the M5 pro for £1437 (insane deal on a new machine)

I am confident that saving nearly £400 is better now than waiting 72 hours. But time will tell.

Abazigal said:
Well, there's a 14-day return policy if he gets his from the Apple Store, though I agree that unless you somehow expect Apple to hike the price of the M5 MBP this week, no harm in waiting a few days, and saving myself the hassle of possibly having to return a product (and troubling the Apple Store staff in processing the return).
Click to expand...
There is the potential price rise of SSD and ram upgrade costs in line with market trends. We know Apple loves that margin! It’s the first time in a while that the upgrade costs are somewhat reasonable
 
  • Like
Reactions: geta
Vincent Hanna said:
There will be no 256GB storage tier on the M5 MacBook Air. The $999 price point will be reassigned to the new MacBook (with higher storage) and the Air line will start at the existing (no price hike!) 16/512/$1199 model.

A18 MacBook 16/256/$799
A18 MacBook 16/512/$999
M5 MacBook Air 16/512/$1199
Click to expand...
No way ! If so, buyers will not buy the new ones and instead search a deal on old ones, especially MBA M4
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hardijs
Yes they will, for a few weeks until the channel runs dry on the old M4s. Then discounts on the new models kick in and the new pricing ladder takes hold for the next 11 months.

Why is this so hard for people to understand?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back