MacBook Air M5 Review: The Easy Apple Laptop to Buy

By Editorial Team | April 2026

The 13-inch MacBook Air M5 is the one to buy if you want a laptop that disappears into your day and still gets serious work done. It is fast, silent, and finally starts at 512GB, which fixes the Air’s most annoying old compromise.

Our picks at a glance

Based on hands-on research, expert review consensus (RTings, Wirecutter, relevant subreddits), and current pricing.

Best overall: MacBook Air (13-inch, M5)

MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) — £988.97

This is the MacBook Air most people should buy. The M5 chip gives it enough headroom for office apps, lots of browser tabs, calls, and light creative work, while the fanless design keeps it completely silent. The 16GB of unified memory and 512GB SSD make it feel like a proper main laptop rather than a stripped-down starter machine, and the 12MP Center Stage camera is genuinely useful if you spend your life on video calls.

Why we picked it:

• The M5 chip is a real step up over the M4, with better CPU, graphics, and AI performance.
• 512GB is the right starting point for a laptop you plan to keep for years.
• The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, Wi‑Fi 7, and silent cooling make it easy to live with every day.

The trade-off: it still has a 60Hz display and the same Air chassis, so you are not getting a modern OLED screen or MacBook Pro-level performance.

Buy the MacBook Air M5 if you want the cleanest balance of portability, speed, and battery life.

Best upgrade: MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5)

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5) — £1,699

The extra money buys you a better screen, better sustained performance, and a machine that is happier under heavy loads. This is the right move if you edit video, batch-process photos, or keep demanding apps open all day and hate seeing a thin laptop slow down.

Worth it if: you want MacBook Air portability but need more display quality and longer stretches of hard use without compromise.

Best budget pick: Apple MacBook Neo

Apple MacBook Neo — £599

The Neo is the cheaper way into macOS, and that matters if your laptop life is mostly email, browsing, streaming, and schoolwork. You give up headroom, but you keep the basic Mac experience at a much lower price.

Worth it if: you only need a simple everyday laptop and you want to spend as little as possible on a new Mac.

How we chose

We focused on the things that actually matter for a daily laptop: speed in real work, battery-friendly portability, screen quality, storage you will not outgrow immediately, and value for the money. We also checked current pricing and cross-referenced expert review consensus from outlets including TechRadar, Expert Reviews, and PCMag.

Frequently asked questions

Is the MacBook Air M5 good enough for video editing? Yes, for light to moderate editing it is fine. If you do long exports, heavy effects work, or professional-grade workflows, buy a MacBook Pro instead.

Is £988.97 good value for the MacBook Air M5? Yes, because 16GB RAM and 512GB storage make it feel properly specced for a main laptop. The price only stops making sense if you do not need the M5 bump and can find a cheaper M4 deal.

Will the MacBook Air M5 last for years? Yes, because the 512GB base storage and 16GB memory give it room to stay useful longer than older entry-level Airs.