M5 MacBook Air vs. M4, M3, M2, M1: Should You Upgrade?

The arrival of new MacBooks each spring marks the start of the season for potential laptop renewal. Apple updated its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines with new M5 processors last week and introduced the new MacBook Neo for budget shoppers. This new raft of machines might have you wondering if it’s time to move on from your current MacBook.

We’ve tested and reviewed the MacBook Neo, M5 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with both M5 Pro and M5 Max chips so you can compare the performance and features of these new M5 machines with those of older generations to help you answer the question: Should I upgrade?

Read more: Is the MacBook Neo more than just a student laptop?

If you have an Intel-based MacBook from the previous decade, the answer is easy: Don’t think twice and buy a new M5 MacBook Air. I prefer the larger 15-inch model and think it’s worth the additional $200 over the 13-inch model, but either the 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch M5 Air will be larger than the 13.3-inch display of an older Intel MacBook Air and offer drastically better performance.

If you have a MacBook Air with one of Apple’s M-series processors, the answer to the question varies, based on whether you have an Air with an M1, M2, M3 or M4 chip. Let’s take a run through each generation of Apple’s M-series MacBook Air roster from the past six years and answer the to-upgrade-or-not-to-upgrade question for each.

What’s new with the M5 MacBook Air?

Let’s start with what’s changed and what hasn’t changed with the M5 MacBook Air that Apple just introduced.

The design and displays remain the same, as do the color choices, with this year’s update. The changes are on the inside, starting with Apple’s M5 processor. With 10 CPU cores and either eight or 10 GPU cores, M5 has the same number of cores as the previous M4 chip, but the M5 introduces a new GPU architecture that puts a neural accelerator on each core to boost AI and ray-tracing performance.

The minimum storage and starting price have both increased. Apple did away with the undersized 256GB SSD and now supplies 512GB of storage at a minimum on the M5 Air. Pricing now starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air and $1,299 for the 15-inch model, an increase of $100 for each. When you consider that Apple previously charged $200 to double the storage on the M4 Air, the M5 Air is $100 less than what you would have paid last year for a MacBook Air with a 512GB SSD.

Read more: Should you choose a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

The starting memory remains at 16GB, but the M5 chip supports faster unified memory — 153GBps of bandwidth compared to 120GBps on the M4. Storage, too, got faster. Apple says the SSDs on the M5 models offer twice the read and write speeds of the previous M4 model.

The M5 Air also offers improved networking. It incorporates Apple’s N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

Should I upgrade from an M4 MacBook Air?

The MacBook M5 Air has the same design as the M4 model and offers only evolutionary, generation-over-generation performance gains rather than revolutionary leaps over last year’s model. It was roughly 9% to 13% faster on our Geekbench 6 tests and 12% to 18% faster on our Cinebench 2024 tests than the M4 Air. 

Battery life made a huge leap from the Intel-based models to the M1 MacBook Air and has improved slightly since then, but the MacBook Air hasn’t taken another leap in efficiency or battery life. Any MacBook with an M-series processor offers excellent battery life, lasting 15 hours or more on a single charge in our tests.

The only reason to upgrade from an M4 MacBook Air to an M5 model is to move from the 13-inch to the 15-inch model. But if you have an M4 Air and are happy with its size, I’d definitely recommend holding onto it for at least another year.

There’s no urgent need to upgrade from an M4 MacBook Air, and I’d also argue the 15-inch M4 model — even a year after its release — remains a good option for MacBook shoppers looking to save a little money. You can get the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with the 512GB SSD upgrade for $1,099 at Amazon. That’s $300 less than its full price and $200 less than you’ll pay for the same M5 model.

I wouldn’t make the same argument for the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air. You can get it for $999 at Amazon with a 512GB SSD, which is only $100 less than the same M5 Air. I think it’s worth the extra $100 to get the new M5 model if you’re deciding between it and the M4 Air.

But, again, if you already own an M4 MacBook Air, there’s nothing earth-shattering about the new M5 model that makes upgrading a necessity.

Verdict: Don’t upgrade

Should I upgrade from an M3 MacBook Air? 

There’s definitely a bigger gap in performance between the M3 and M5 Air than the M4 and M5. On Geekbench 6, the M5 Air was 33% faster on the single-core test and 40% faster on the multicore test than the M3 model. On Cinebench 2024, the M5 Air was 41% faster on the single-core test and 57% to 71% faster on the multicore test. Even with those higher percentages, most people with a two-year-old M3 Air don’t need to upgrade. 

For starters, the M3 chip was the first Apple chip manufactured on the 3-nanometer process, and the M5 is built on the same 3nm process. The M3 has fewer CPU cores than the M4 and M5 chips, but its GPU includes a big advancement. It was the first M-series processor to offer a GPU with hardware acceleration for ray tracing and mesh shaders. (Ray tracing allows for more realistic lighting and reflections in games, and mesh shaders help render complex 3D scenes more efficiently for better frame rates.) So, now that we are three generations deep in 3nm M-series chips, it’s reasonable to expect Apple to move to a new manufacturing process as soon as later this year with the M6, which could result in drastic improvements in power and efficiency.

Secondly, the MacBook Air’s design hasn’t changed since 2022, with the introduction of the M2 Air, which did away with the tapered, wedge shape of the M1 Air in favor of a thinner, flatter design that continues through the M5 Air. Could the M6 Air bring with it a design overhaul? It’s certainly not out of the question.

Verdict: Don’t upgrade

Should I upgrade from an M2 MacBook Air?

Apple first released the M2 MacBook Air in 2022. Along with the new M2 processor, it introduced a new design and a slightly larger 13.6-inch display. And a year later, Apple released the first 15-inch MacBook Air using the same M2 chip.

The M2 chip was the last to be manufactured on a 5nm process before Apple moved to 3nm. The M5 MacBook Air was 59% faster than the 15-inch M3 Air on the single-core Geekbench 6 test and 71% faster on the Geekbench 6 multicore test. (The 15-inch M3 MacBook Air predates the Cinebench 2024 test, so we don’t have results for it.)

The performance gap is large enough between the M2 and M5 chips to justify moving on from an older M2 Air, especially if you bought the 13-inch model in 2022 before the 15-inch Air was released and have been wanting to move up in size. But if you bought the 15-inch model of the MacBook Air in 2023, I might suggest holding onto it for another year in hopes we see a new design and an even greater boost to performance next year with the M6 Air.

Verdict: Probably upgrade

Watch this: New MacBooks Arrive With M5, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips

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Should I upgrade from an M1 MacBook Air?

If you’ve been holding onto your M1 MacBook Air since 2020, it’s time for an upgrade. You can get better performance from the $599 MacBook Neo, and the latest M5 Air or even last year’s M4 model will feel so much faster. You’ll also get a sleeker design and a larger display, whether you choose the 13.6-inch Air or go big with the 15.3-inch model.

Verdict: Definitely upgrade

MacBook Air performance results