MacBook Air M5: Double Storage and Higher Price

Apple has refreshed its best‑selling line of laptops with the launch of the MacBook Air M5. While the base model carries a US$100 price increase (about Rp1,690,000), the device offers a matched specification upgrade, including initial storage now twice as large and more advanced wireless connectivity. Available in 13.6‑inch and 15.3‑inch sizes, the laptop retains a Liquid Retina display with 500 nits brightness capable of supporting up to one billion colours. The main draw of the update lies in the use of the M5 chip, equipped with a 10‑core CPU and up to a 10‑core GPU, complete with a reliable Neural Accelerator on every core. John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple, said the MacBook Air with the M5 delivers exceptional performance and greater capabilities, especially in handling creative workloads and AI‑based tasks that are now faster. Apple claims AI performance on the M5 is up to four times that of the M4 generation, and up to 9.5 times faster than the MacBook Air M1. Other technical improvements are also visible in graphics and the speed at which heavy applications run. With the latest shader cores and third‑generation ray‑tracing engine, work in Topaz Video is now 1.9× faster, while Blender usage is 1.5× more efficient than the previous model. Remarkably, despite dramatic performance gains, the MacBook Air M5 still offers all‑day battery life of up to 18 hours. In addition, Apple has embedded an in‑house‑designed N1 network chip enabling Wi‑Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support. On storage, users now get a base capacity of 512GB on the base model doubled from the M4 era, with an upgrade option up to 4TB using SSDs whose speeds have also doubled. While retaining the fanless design and Thunderbolt 4 port, the laptop is fully capable of supporting two external displays simultaneously. Available in Sky Blue, Starlight, Silver, and Midnight, the MacBook Air M5 is priced from US$1,099 (about Rp18,579,000) for the 13‑inch model, with prices potentially rising to just under US$3,000 (about Rp50,718,000) for the top‑spec 15‑inch model. Pre‑orders opened on Tuesday, 3 March, and units will be broadly available on Wednesday, 11 March.