Sophia Windsor
[ Gearbest Technology News] Gearbestnoticed that Apple released a new MacBook Air equipped with M5 chip last month and discontinued the M4 model at the same time. The new models have upgrades in performance, storage, wireless connectivity and chargers, and the price has also increased.
MacBook Air
It is reported that the 13-inch model of the new M5 MacBook Air starts at US$1,099 (approximately RMB 7,500), and the 15-inch model is US$1,299 (approximately RMB 8,880), which is an increase of US$100 compared to the corresponding M4 model, but the basic storage capacity is doubled from 256GB to 512GB. Apple said that the new solid-state drive has twice the reading and writing speed of the previous generation, and education users can usually enjoy at least a $100 discount when purchasing through Apple's official channels.
MacBook Air
The core upgrade of the new M5 MacBook Air lies in the chip. Officially, compared to M4, M5 has improved multi-threaded CPU performance by up to 15%, overall graphics performance by up to 30%, ray tracing performance by up to 45%, and unified memory bandwidth by 27.5%. For AI-driven applications, specific workload results announced by Apple show: AI peak GPU computing performance is improved by more than 4 times, first token generation time for large language models is 3.6 times faster, Topaz Video Enhance AI processing is 1.8 times faster, Blender ray tracing rendering is 1.7 times faster, and AI voice enhancement in Premiere Pro is 2.9 times faster.
MacBook Air
In addition to performance, the new M5 MacBook Air also brings important changes in architecture. Each core of its GPU is equipped with a dedicated neural network accelerator. This is a new hardware feature that M4 does not have. Apple has opened it up through the new Metal 4 developer API with Tensor capabilities. At the same time, the ray tracing engine of the new M5 MacBook Air has been upgraded to the third generation, the dynamic cache has been upgraded to the second generation, and the memory bandwidth has been increased from 120GB/s to 153GB/s.
In terms of wireless connectivity, the new M5 MacBook Air is equipped with Apple's N1 wireless chip and supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, replacing the M4 model's Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The new model also supports the simultaneous connection of two external monitors through a single Thunderbolt port, and the charger has also been upgraded to a 40W dynamic power adapter (maximum 60W), replacing the previous 30W USB-C power adapter.
MacBook Air
However, for typical daily use, including web browsing, productivity, media playback, and basic editing, the difference between the Apple M4 and M5 MacBook Air will most likely be imperceptible. For new buyers, the new M5 MacBook Air is a more direct long-term choice, and just doubling the base storage capacity changes the value considerations. Considering that Apple previously charged an additional US$200 to upgrade the M4 MacBook Air from 256GB to 512GB, the actual cost of the new M5 MacBook Air is US$100 lower than the M4 model at launch with the same configuration. If future compatibility is a priority and you plan to use the machine long-term, the new M5 MacBook Air will be better equipped to handle the increasingly popular and maturing on-device AI workloads.
Login with Google