The MacBook Air M5: A Comprehensive First Look
It’s early days in the life of the MacBook Air M5, which Apple unveiled this week alongside a new iPhone 17e, a fresh MacBook Pro, and the unique MacBook Neo. Early testing confirms that it outperforms its predecessor, the MacBook Air M4, which has been a favorite among users.
Although these results are preliminary, running just a single set of tests right after unboxing and updating the laptop to macOS Tahoe 26.3.1, the performance difference is notable. Even in the highly popular MacBook Air lineup, the M5 appears to be a significant upgrade.
Performance Metrics: Benchmarking the M5 and M4
According to Geekbench results, the M5 is clocked at a slightly higher frequency than the M4, with 4.46GHz compared to 4.41GHz. Both chips feature 10 cores, maintaining the same distribution of performance (4) and efficiency (6) cores. However, these figures only give part of the story.
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Single Core | Multi-Core |
MacBook Air M5 | 4190 | 17073 |
MacBook Air M4 | 3832 | 15034 |
These results align with earlier M5 scores observed on the 14-inch MacBook Pro released last year. The distinctions become even more notable when evaluating GPU performance.
With the M5 SoC introducing a neural accelerator to every GPU core, OpenCL scores experience a substantial boost, while native Metal results show a more modest increase.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | GPU (OpenCL) | GPU (Metal) |
MacBook Air M5 | 47171 | 49557 |
MacBook Air M4 | 30132 | 48075 |
While these metrics are based solely on early benchmarks, the MacBook Air M5 demonstrates proficiency even in demanding scenarios. I’ve experimented with various applications, including:
- Lies of P
- Pixelmator Pro
- Adobe Lightroom
- Safari
- Chrome (25 tabs)
- FinalCut Pro
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
The system continues to handle these applications with ease, likely aided by the adequate 16GB of RAM.
Pro-Level Performance in a MacBook Air
Essentially, we are witnessing Pro-level performance becoming more accessible within the MacBook Air range. This trend is evident with Apple’s introduction of the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips in their latest MacBook Pro models—an encouraging move for users seeking high performance in a lightweight form factor.
Stay tuned as we delve deeper into our full review of the MacBook Air M5, exploring its capabilities and features in greater detail.
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