Powered by its new M5 family of chips, Apple has unveiled a fresh lineup of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops.
The updated MacBook Air now runs on Apple’s standard M5 chip. The base model now comes with 512GB of storage, double that of the previous M4 version. Users can also configure it up to 4TB, instead of the earlier 2TB limit.
The company says the new SSD delivers up to twice the read and write speeds compared to the last generation.
Battery life remains one of the Air’s strengths. Apple claims it has up to 18 hours of usage. The new lineup includes a 13-inch model starting at $1,099 and a 15-inch model starting at $1,299. Both are $100 more expensive than their M4 predecessors.
While the Air targets everyday users, the MacBook Pro lineup is clearly aimed at professionals. The new models feature the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Apple calls them their most advanced CPU cores yet.
The company says these chips are designed with artificial intelligence workloads in mind. The new Pro models can handle AI tasks up to four times more than their M4 equivalents. The machines are powerful enough to let developers train custom AI models directly on their laptops.
Storage has also increased across the Pro range. The base models now start at 1TB instead of 512GB. The M5 Max models start at 2TB.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199, while the 16-inch version starts at $2,699. Models with the M5 Max begin at $3,599 for the 14-inch. The base 14-inch model sees a price bump too, now starting at $1,699. Pre-orders have already started, and in-store availability will begin on March 11.
