Apple has released the full lineup of M5 MacBooks, including the M5 MacBook Air at a starting price of $1099. But how does it compare to the $1699 MacBook Pro with M5 chip? And what exactly does the extra $600 get you? Let’s find out.
Outside
On the outside, the MacBook Air comes in several colors, including Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, and Midnight. The MacBook Pro comes in only Space Black and Silver.
Screens
The MacBook Air and Pro screens all have basically the same 14:9 aspect ratio that is a bit taller than the usual 16:10 to accommodate the notch at the top. The Air comes in either a 13.6” size with PPI of 225, or a 15.3” size a slightly less PPI of 224.
The MacBook Pro comes in either a 14.2” size or a 16.2” size with PPIs of 254, so its both bigger in size and resolution detail than the Air. However, the M5 chip model that we are comparing here is only available in the 14” MacBook Pro and NOT the 16”, so we’ll only focus on the 14” model going forward.
The MacBook Air display goes up to 500 nits of brightness, while the Pro offers 1000 nits sustained full-screen and SDR, and 1600 peak with HDR content.
An even bigger benefit is ProMotion support for adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate on the Pros, while the Airs are limited to 60 Hz. I really wish Apple would have brought ProMotion to the Air screens by now, as this could be a deal breaker for some, including myself.
Another difference in screens is that the MacBook Pro offers the option to upgrade to a Nano-texture display, which reduces glare and reflections, for an extra $150.
Chips
As we are looking at the M5 chip versions of both the MacBook Air and Pro, most chip capabilities are the same, and performance should be close as well, with a few caveats.
The first is that the MacBook Air is passively cooled, which is great for silence, but could potentially start overheating and throttling down performance in sustained load scenarios. The MacBook Pro has fans for active cooling, which means it should be able to sustain high performance levels longer.
Second, the base 13” Air only has an 8 core GPU, and there are 2 ways to get the 10 core GPU found in the Pro. You can either pay an extra $100 to upgrade it directly, or the smarter way is to upgrade either the memory or the storage, which includes the 10 core GPU upgrade for free.
If you prefer the 15” size, the good news is that starts with the 10 core GPU in the base model. An increase of 2 cores, or 25% could have a potential performance difference of that much too.
Memory and Storage
When it comes to memory, both the MacBook Air and Pro start with 16 GB can be upgraded to 24GB for $200 more, or 32GB for $400, keeping a consistent $200 / 8 GB upgrade price.
For storage, the MacBook Air starts at 512 GB, and you can opt to move up to 1 TB for $200 more, or 2 TB for $600 more, again giving a consistent, though still high, upgrade price of $400 per terabyte. But if you go up to 4 TB, the upgrade price is “only” $343 per terabyte.
The MacBook Pro starts at 1 TB, and you can choose to upgrade to 2 TB for $400, which is a cost of $400 per TB. Or you can move to 4 TB for $1000, which is a cost of $333 / TB.
Audio
For sound, the MacBook Airs feature a 4 speaker system for the 13” model or a 6 speaker system with woofers for the 15” model, and 3 microphones.
The MacBook Pro upgrades this with a “high-fidelity” 6 speaker system that has wide stereo sound, and the 3 microphones are said to be “studio-quality”.
The HDMI port on the MacBook Pro, which doesn’t exist on the Air, also can output multichannel audio.
Wireless and Bluetooth
When it comes to connectivity, this is one area the MacBook Air is actually BETTER than the MacBook Pro. As the MacBook Pro with M5 chip was released way earlier, it only supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, while the MacBook Air has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
This is one area Apple kind of messed up with not adding the N1 chip to the M5 MacBook Pro. As a consequence, the Pro also doesn’t support Thread networking, while the Air does.
Ports
For the ports, the MacBook Air has 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, a MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The MacBook Pro has a lot more, with 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, the MagSafe charging port, 3.5mm audio jack, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader.
Even though any of the Thunderbolt ports can power displays and there is an HDMI port, remember that only 2 external displays can be used with this M5 chip version of the MacBook Pro.
Battery Life and Charging
When it comes to power, the 13” Air has a 53.8 watt-hour battery while the 15” Air has a 66.5 watt-hour battery, but both are rated at 15 hours of web and 18 hours of video.
The Pro comes with an even higher 72.4 watt-hour battery, which delivers slight more battery life at 16 hours of wireless web (7% more) and 24 hours of video (33% more).
The Air comes with a 40 watt dynamic power adapter that can boost to 60 watts max. Optionally, you can choose to pay $20 more for a 35 watt dual usb-c adapter that can charge 2 devices at once, or a 70 watt adapter that can fast charge to 50% in 30 minutes.
The Pro comes with the 70 watt adapter by default, or you can pay $20 more to get a 96 watt adapter, which is more useful when paired with the M5 Pro or Max chip models as it enabled High Power Mode.
Size and Weight
And finally, the thickness of the MacBook Air is quite a bit less than the Pro, with the Pro being 39% thicker than the 13” Air and 36% thicker than the 15” Air.
The wight of the 14” MacBook Pro is also more than even the 15” Air, sitting at 3.4 lbs, which is 26% more than the 13” and 3% more than the 15”.
Value Comparison
Alright, let’s summarize the pricing of each base model to see exactly what you get for your money.
If you upgrade from the 13” MacBook Air to the 15” MacBook Air paying an extra $200 gets you:
- A 13% larger screen with similar PPI
- 25% or 2 extra GPU cores and potential extra performance
- 6 speakers instead of just 4, and with force-cancelling woofers as well
- A 24% larger battery but with the same rated battery life
- An extra hundredth of an inch thickness
- And a 22% heavier weight
The 15” model is priced pretty well. If you prefer the larger size, the extra GPU power and better speakers make the screen size upgrade a pretty good deal.
If you move from the 13” Air to the MacBook Pro, the extra $600 gets you:
- A 4% larger screen with 13% higher PPI, up to 1000 or 1600 nits of brightness, 120 Hz refresh rate instead of 60, an the option for a Nano-texture coating to reduce glare
- Active cooling fans to increase sustained performance at the cost of noise
- 25% or 2 extra GPU cores and potential extra performance
- 1 TB of storage vs 512 GB
- 6 high-fidelity speakers with wide stereo sound instead of just 4 normal ones, and studio-quality mics
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and no Thread instead of Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread networking support
- 1 extra Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader
- A 35% larger battery with 7-33% more battery life
- A 70 watt power adapter instead of a 40 that can boost to 60
- And a 39% thicker and 26% heavier machine
And finally, if you move from the 15” Air to the Pro, the extra $400 gets you:
- A 7% smaller screen with 13% higher PPI, and the same other benefits as the 13” model
- The same active cooling benefit and detriment
- Same storage increase
- 6 high-fidelity speakers with wide stereo sound instead of 6 normal ones, and studio quality mics
- The same wireless connectivity and port benefits
- A 9% larger battery with 7-33% more battery life, and the same power adapter upgrade
- And a 36% thicker and 3% heavier machine
Overall, the 2 biggest differences between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro has to be, firstly, the screen, with the Pro having a much brighter display, but especially the 120 Hz refresh rate. And secondly, the increased ports.
But the rest is kind of a mixed bag. You do get more sustained performance with active cooling, but at the cost of noise. And if you really care a lot about performance, you should look to the M5 Pro or maybe even Max models. The M5 MacBook Pro even has worse wireless connectivity, and is significantly thicker and heavier, for not a whole lot of performance benefit.
Ultimately, I think the MacBook Air is the better value here, if you can live with the 60 Hz screen.
