The arrival of the M5 MacBook Air means that Apple once again has two laptops with the standard M5 chip inside. Apple first put the plain M5 chip inside a laptop with the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Both machines occupy the “under $2000” space in Apple’s laptop lineup. Here’s how the two MacBooks with the same chip compare.
14-inch M5 MacBook Pro and 13-inch M5 MacBook Air
While both machines run on the standard M5 chip, there’s a $600 price difference between the two laptops.
The M5 MacBook Air starts at $1099 compared to the M5 MacBook Pro which starts at $1699.
The base model MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display while the MacBook Pro has a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. XDR refers to the ability to display high dynamic range content, like HDR photos and videos.
There’s also a difference between the M5 chip used in the base model of each laptop. Each M5 chip has a 10-core CPU. The MacBook Air version starts with an 8-core GPU compared to the 10-core GPU inside the M5 MacBook Pro.
Both machines can be configured with up to 4TB SSD storage. However, MacBook Pro starts with 1TB storage compared to the MacBook Air’s 512GB storage.
Memory on each starts at 16GB with options for 24GB and 32GB RAM.
Portability and battery life
MacBook Air is lighter at 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg) compared to the MacBook Pro at 3.4 pounds (1.55 kg). Lighter also means thinner. The MacBook Air is 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick compared to the MacBook Pro at 0.61 inches (1.55 cm).
The display difference extends to the width and depth too. MacBook Air is 11.97 inches (30.41 cm) wide and 8.46 inches (21.5 cm) deep. MacBook Pro is 12.31 inches (31.26 cm) wide and 8.71 inches (22.12 cm) deep.
Battery life is another difference. The thicker and heavier MacBook Pro promises up to 24 hours of battery life compared to up to 18 hours on MacBook Air.
That six-hour battery life difference is based on video streaming, though. MacBook Pro only touts one hour longer battery life with wireless web browsing at 16 hours versus 15 hours on MacBook Air.
Air vs Pro I/O
Both machines feature the same 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View support and 1080 HD video recording.
The speaker system is more impressive on the MacBook Pro with a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers and wide stereo sound. Apple only advertises a four-speaker sound system for MacBook Air without the other specs.
Apple also puts better built-in mics inside the MacBook Pro, which features a studio-quality three-mic array with high signal-to-noise ratio. The MacBook Air is simply described as having a three-mic array.
Both feature a 3.5 mm headphone jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones, while the MacBook Pro adds an HDMI port that supports multichannel audio output.
Other port differences include three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports and an SDXC card slot on the MacBook Pro compared to no HDMI, no SD card, and just two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports on the MacBook Air.
One area where the M5 MacBook Air is more modern than the plain M5 MacBook Pro is wireless. The more expensive MacBook Pro has Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3 compared to the MacBook Air’s Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 6.
MacBook Pro’s display provides the real picture of what’s different
But the MacBook Pro is the overwhelming champion when it comes to display quality.
The MacBook Pro’s 14.2-inch display has more screen real estate at 3024 by 1964 pixels, and it uses mini-LED backlighting for much deeper blacks and better contrast.
The MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch display lacks mini-LED backlighting and has 2560 by 1664 pixels.
Both support the P3 wide color gamut standard and have True Tone technology for automatically adjusting the color temperature based on ambient lighting.
MacBook Pro, however, features ProMotion technology with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. MacBook Air’s display is capped at 60Hz.
The MacBook Pro also touts 1000 nits brightness compared to just 500 nits brightness on MacBook Air. MacBook Pro brightness can also crank up to 1600 nits peak for HDR content.
Which is best for you depends on your needs (and maybe color preference)
Finally, MacBook Air comes in four colors: sky blue, silver, starlight (light gold), and midnight (dark blue). MacBook Pro offers just two colors, but one is space black (and the other is silver).
The M5 MacBook Air is a solid machine that balances performance with portability. The M5 MacBook Proon the other hand, packs more ports, a much better display, and slightly more battery life with mixed use at the cost of being thin and light.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings