The new M5 MacBook Air pre-orders are live and we uncovered some deals for folks looking to make the upgrade. You can score a FREE $50 gift card with your purchase and even leverage some of the enhanced trade-in values over at Best Buy to land one at up to $600 off. But the question remains, is the M5 boost worth the spending close to $200 more if you don’t have something substantial to trade-in? Amazon is clearing out select M4 models, and even with the storage boost on the new M5, you can still land the M4 for $200 less than right now.
Apple upped its storage offerings on the new M5 MacBook Air. There is now longer a 256GB storage tier and that means that, while the starting price did jump up $100, it actually brings the list prices down on the upgraded models. For example:
16GB/512GB comparison:
- 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB $1,199 (Reg. $1,399)
- 15-inch M5 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB $1,299
24GB/512GB comparison:
- 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB $1,299 (Reg. $1,599)
- 15-inch M5 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB $1,499 (Amazon does not sell this configuration)
- 15-inch M5 MacBook Air 24GB/1TB $1,699
As you can see above, despite the higher price on the entry model, the price on the upgraded M5 machines has effectively gone down by comparison to the list prices on the M4 MacBook Air with the same specs.
That said, you can indeed still land the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with 24GB of RAM and the 512GB SSD at $1,299 right now – that’s $300 under its list price and $200 less than the comparable M5 MacBook Air.
Yes, the M5 chip is faster and more powerful, and the SSD inside the newer models delivers, according to Apple, 2x faster read/write performance compared to the previous generation.” You’ll also get a better charger included in the box and the new model features Apple’s N1 wireless chip with Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 6.
We aren’t talking about meaningless upgrades here, but we are also looking at relatively modest enhancements for most users – the machine also looks basically identical. Over in our M5 MacBook Air vs M4 MacBook Air feature, my guy Ryan Christoffel said it best I think:
If you’re already using an M4 MacBook Air, the M5 chip almost certainly won’t be worth the upgrade. But it does bring solid year-over-year improvements nonetheless. And the new MacBook Air is targeting owners of older models, such as the M1, rather than users who just bought a model last year.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments