This is the brand new 13-inch M5 MacBook

Air. And this is the new 15-inch M5

MacBook Air. And in this video, we're

going to unbox both of them, compare the

13-in and 15-in sizes, compare the

performance to previous models and the

MacBook Neo, and just give my overall

first impressions on whether or not I

think these are worth buying. Okay, so

let's start with the 13-in base model M5

MacBook Air, which this year is $1099.

So, it's $100 more than the M4 from last

year, but we get double the storage at

512 GB while retaining the 16 gigs of

RAM. So, I did go ahead and get this in

the blue color, which was new last year.

And we have the same colors this year

for M5. And you can see the specs here

on the back. And you'll see right there

in the small text that this is a 10 core

CPU and an 8 core GPU. Now, you can

upgrade to a 10 core GPU for an extra

$100, which comes standard on the 15-in.

Okay, so let's go ahead and pull our

peel tabs right here.

And I'm very curious to see how this

compares to the MacBook Neo in terms of

performance, just everything in general,

because I think that's going to be

something a lot of people are trying to

decide between is the Air and the Neo.

And we'll look at that in a moment. But

here is the blue 13-inch MacBook Air.

Inside we do also have a braided cable

here which this is Mag Safe. So we do

have MagSafe charging on the MacBook

Air. That's something you do not get on

the MacBook Neo. Also inside we have our

pamphlet right here along with our

charging block. Now this charging block

is the 40 watt dynamic power adapter

that goes up to 60 watts as the maximum.

So this is something you'll get with

both the 13-in and the 15-inch MacBook

Air. Okay. So let's put that to the side

and take the paper off of the blue

MacBook Air.

Love this color. The technical name is

sky blue. And you can see it's kind of

that light shade of blue there on the

back. Here's what it looks like on the

top side with that Apple logo. Love this

look. And we're going to open this guy

on up. And you can see the keyboard. We

do have those black keys. Unlike the

MacBook Neo where we have white colored

keys that are kind of shaded in the

color that you choose, we just have our

typical keyboard here with our trackpad.

And you can see that blue color on here.

Let's take this paper off. Always

satisfying to see that perfect screen,

which will never be perfect after the

first day. And we have the Mac OS Tahoe

wallpaper pre-installed on there. So,

this is sky blue. This is my favorite

color. It was my favorite color last

year as well. Again, it was new last

year for M4, but this is the same color,

same shade and everything as last year's

model. So, let's set this to the side

and go ahead and unbox the 15-in MacBook

Air, which is a lot heavier when you

pick up the box even. So, this is the

15-inch MacBook Air, which I got in the

midnight color. And you can see this

comes standard with 16 gigs of RAM and

512 gigs of storage as well. And we get

a 10 core CPU and a 10 core GPU. So

again, it was 8 cores on the 13-in. So

we will be comparing that later to see

if there's actually a difference. Now,

you can spec both of these up to 32 gigs

of RAM. And for the first time ever on

an Air, we can spec the 13-in and the

15-in up to 4 TB of storage. Now, if you

max these out, you're going to be

spending a lot of money because for the

13-in, you can max it out at $26.99 and

$28.99 for the 15-in, which in my

opinion, you know, if you upgrade both

the storage and the RAM on an Air, you

might as well just go ahead and get a

base M5 Pro MacBook Pro for $21.99 and

save some money and get even more power

out of it. But that's a story for

another day and possibly a video for

another day. So, let's go ahead and pull

off these peel tabs here. So, here we

go. This is the midnight color right

here. Here you can see we do have the

color matching cable here. So we do have

a darker shade on this cable, which I

love that Apple does this with the

MacBook Air. We have our pamphlet

inside. And once again, we have our 40 W

dynamic power adapter that goes up to 60

watts maximum. Let's take our paper off.

You can see what that midnight color

looks like right there. And man, every

time I pick up a 15-in after holding the

13-in, I realize how heavy this MacBook

Air is, especially for being considered

an Air. The 15-inch is a bit hefty

compared to the 13-inch. You could

absolutely feel the difference. So,

here's what that sky blue looks like

next to the midnight. Obviously, a big

difference. When we open it up, though,

I love the look of the Midnight with the

dark keyboard. And you can see also just

how much larger, you know, that area is

down there for the keyboard and the

trackpad. You just have so much more

real estate on that 15-in model. And by

the way, the weight of the 13-in is 2.7

lb. So, that's the same weight as the

previous generation. And that's actually

slightly lighter than the M1 MacBook Air

back in 2020. So, if you're looking to

upgrade, it will be lighter than that.

And the 15-in is 3.3 lbs. Also the same

weight as the previous generation. And

also slightly lighter than the M4

MacBook Pro, the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

So, keep that in mind. The M5 MacBook

Pro as well. So, this is slightly

lighter than that. Even though it is

heavy, it's lighter than the Pro. So, as

far as the IO on the sides, we're going

to get to the setup here in a moment.

But I do want to talk about the IO on

the sides, the connectivity, because

over here on the left hand side, we have

two Thunderbolt 4 ports. So, M4 was the

first to bring Thunderbolt 4 to the

MacBook Air. It was Thunderbolt 3

before, and we retain those same two

ports right there. Also, we do have our

MagSafe 3 charging port right here.

Again, something you won't see on the

MacBook Neo. And then, if we flip this

over to the right hand side, we have the

3.5 mm headphone jack. So, we still have

the headphone jack on both the 13-inch

and on the 15-in. And keep in mind, this

is also the first MacBook Air with

Apple's in-house in one chip. So, we

have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. So, before

last year on the M4, we had Bluetooth

5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. So, connectivity will

absolutely be improved here, and we're

going to be testing that later compared

to the M4. And here's a quick comparison

of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Neo.

So, I did get the upgraded MacBook Neo

here with the Touch ID sensor up there.

So, that is $100 extra. That's not the

base model, but you can see the

difference in the keyboard keys here as

well. So, again, that lighter shade

versus the darker shade on the MacBook

Air. And you'll also see the difference

in the trackpad down here. So, the

trackpad on the MacBook Air is going to

be a good bit larger. Also, it's a force

touch trackpad, which means it doesn't

actually have a mechanical click. It

just kind of emulates a click with

haptic feedback. whereas we have an

actual full mechanical trackpad here on

the MacBook Neo. So, it's not going to

feel as smooth. It's not going to feel

as good as what we have on the MacBook

Air. And of course, it's also, you know,

potentially going to break sooner in the

future. It's not something that's going

to break like within the next couple

years, but it is a moving part that has

more of a potential to break than what

we have on the MacBook Air. So,

something to keep in mind. Now, before

we set these MacBook Airs up and also

get into the comparison and the

benchmarks and all that fun stuff, I do

want to talk about the display and

external display support. So, we do have

a 13.6 in display over here and a 15.3

in display over here. So, these are both

going to be liquid retina displays at 60

hertz. So, they're not going to be

prootion displays like on the MacBook

Pro. And they also get up to 500 nits of

peak brightness. They do also have the

P3 wide color gamut and true tone. So

you don't get that on the MacBook Neo.

So the colors and all that is going to

be better and you will also have auto

brightness which you don't get again on

the MacBook Neo. Now as far as external

display support goes, we do have support

for up to two external monitors with the

lid open. So you can have the computer

open while supporting two external

displays at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 hertz.

Now, we also have support for one

display up to 8K 60, 5K 120, or 4K 240

hertz. So, this will work with the new

Studio Display XDR. Okay, so we're going

to set these guys on up. So, you can set

this up with an iPhone or an iPad if you

would like to. That's a quick and easy

way to get into your machine pretty

quickly because it's going to log you in

and everything like that. Or you can

transfer over from a separate Mac. I'm

actually going to transfer from a Mac

and I'm going to transfer from my

MacBook Neo, which I just got. So, you

do also have your accessibility options

right here if you do want to enable

accessibility. And then you will need to

connect to your Wi-Fi network. Okay. So,

now it's saying that your Mac will

download and install the latest software

update. We're going to tap on continue

for that. And now it says transfer data

to this Mac and it's going to look for

our other Mac. So, we're going to open

up the migration assistant on our

MacBook Neo and we're going to continue.

And now our MacBook Neo shows up where

we can transfer data to that machine.

Okay. So, now is where you can choose

what you want to transfer over. So, I'm

going to select down right here because

68 GB is going to take forever. So, I'm

just going to deselect movies right here

because I'm sure I don't need whatever

is in the movies. That was my testing

files. So, we'll go ahead and empty that

or just remove that from this selection.

We'll also remove the trash. And this is

where you just basically need to select

whatever you don't want to transfer over

to the new machine. And now it's going

to start transferring over your data.

All right. So, we've got these guys all

set up. and I want to compare the

speakers and the microphones on the

13-inch and on the 15-inch M5 MacBook

Air. And then we're going to do some

Geekbench tests, some performance tests

against the M4 MacBook Air and also

comparing the GPU speeds in the 15-in

versus the 13-in. But let's first start

with the speakers because in the 13-in

we have a four speaker sound system

whereas in the 15-in we have a six

speakeraker sound system with force

cancelling woofer. So, on paper, 15-in

is much better, but let's actually see

if there's a difference.

So, let me know in a comment down below

which one you think sounded better. Now,

keep in mind if you're upgrading from an

M1 MacBook Air, you did not have support

for spatial audio, but both of these

sizes do have support for spatial audio,

so it's going to sound great. The bass

is going to be solid with Apple Music

and wherever else spatial audio is

supported. Now, as far as microphones

go, if you are looking to record on your

MacBook, keep in mind that the

microphones are the same on both models,

so the 13-in and the 15-in. We have a

three mic array with directional beam

forming. And we also have voice

isolation and wide spectrum microphone

modes. And then as far as the webcam

goes, we do have the same 12 megapixel

webcam on both of these. So, we do have

center stage. So, it'll follow you

around to keep you in frame as long as

you turn that on, which you can kind of

go up here and you can turn on center

stage. And then you'll see that it will

kind of follow you around and make sure

that you are in frame. So, that's nice.

And this is actually a big upgrade. This

12 megapixel camera here is a big

upgrade from the M3 MacBook Air and

earlier, which had a 1080p FaceTime

webcam. So, keep that in mind if you are

upgrading from an older Air model. And

then before we get into the benchmarks,

I do just want to say the battery life

is going to be the same 15 hours of web

browsing and the same 18 hours of Apple

TV movie playback on both sizes. So the

13-in and the 15-in both get the same

battery life and that's been the same

battery life for quite some time with

the MacBook Air. So no change there.

Okay, so before we compare the M5 to the

M4, because we do have a pretty

interesting change there in performance,

one that I was absolutely not expecting,

we're going to compare the 13-inch to

the 15-inch because keep in mind the

base 13-in comes with an 8 core GPU,

whereas the base 15-in comes with a 10

core GPU. And we could see how those

scores do, you know, we could see the

difference there in Cinebench. So on

Cinebench for the GPU, we scored a 17988

on the 13-in and a 1999

on the 15-in. So you can see a decently

higher score there in GPU. And then we

also ran a Geekbench 6 GPU test here

using Open CL and you can see the scores

that we got here. Again, this is both

M5. The 13-inch scored a 4577 whereas

the 15-inch scored a 47530.

So, those extra two GPU cores are

actually making a decent difference. So,

whether that's worth a $100 upgrade on

the 13-inch or not is up to you, but

just know that you are seeing noticeable

differences between having, you know, 8

cores and 10 cores. Now, we're also

going to do a test for Geekbench AI,

specifically for the GPU. So, the AI

backend is going to be GPU, and we're

going to use the CoreML framework for

AI. So, let's go ahead and run this

benchmark and see if there's a

difference here with Geekbench AI for

the GPU. Okay, so take a look at the

scores here. We also scored higher on

the 15 inch. So the quantitiz

318 on the 15-inch, 23713

on the 13-in. So we'll see better GPU

just across the board, of course,

because we have those two extra cores.

But as far as the CPU goes with like

disc speeds and everything like that,

that's going to be exactly the same on

both the 13-in and the 15-in. So you're

only going to see the difference in the

GPU speeds between the two. And then as

far as thermals go, both of these are

fanless, so you're not gonna have a fan

in the 13-inch or the 15-inch MacBook

Air, and they don't typically get very

hot. Now, I am running benchmark, so

they are running a little bit more warm

than usual. I would say that the 15-in

actually stays a bit cooler than the

13-in, and that's probably just because

there's more room internally, you know,

to dissipate that heat. But there's not

going to be a big difference at all

between these two in terms of heat and

thermal throttling. And man, just

playing around with the 13-inch and the

15-in side by side makes me remember how

much I love the trackpad and the

keyboard on the 15-in, you just have so

much more room on the sides and the

trackpad. And this whole area just feels

so much more expansive and just feels so

much more roomy. You don't feel as

crammed as you do on the 13-in. Now, of

course, that's not going to matter too

much when you're traveling and you can't

fit the 15-in in your, you know,

airplane little tray there. So, that's

where I like the 13-in a lot more is

because it is, you know, better for when

you take it on the go. But at home,

nothing beats the 15-in in my opinion,

especially if it's just sitting on a

desk like this and you actually have the

room. Okay, so we're going to talk about

the 15-in versus the 13-in again in a

moment, but I first want to compare the

M4 MacBook Air to the M5 MacBook Air

because there are some differences here

that I absolutely was not expecting.

Okay, so the very first thing I want to

compare on the M4 versus the M5 MacBook

Air is going to be the SSD read and

write speeds because Apple claims that

we have two times faster read and write

performance compared to M4. And take a

look at the Blackmagic disc speed test

here. You can see that we're scoring

right around 2,000 on the right for the

M4 and about 6,400

on the M5 for the right. And take a look

at the read. It's about 2,800 on the M4

and again it's over 6,500

on the M5. So that's definitely at least

twice as fast for both of those. So

that's very impressive going just from

one generation to the next, especially

for an Air. So, if you're looking for

faster speeds, especially for that SSD,

which is really, you know, one of the

most important things in a computer when

you're talking about speed, you're going

to see a pretty noticeable difference

year-over-year from M4 to M5. I was

really not expecting that. Now, also, as

far as memory bandwidth goes, we do have

153 gigs a second on the M5 versus 120

gigs a second on the M4. So, you also

see a difference there. Now, we also

have neural accelerators in the M5 for

better AI performance. So, Apple claims

that we have up to 6.9 times faster AI

video enhancement performance versus the

M1 MacBook Air. And M5 compared to M4,

the M5 is about 1.9 times faster than

M4. So, that's pretty crazy. And then

also, we have up to 6.5 times faster 3D

rendering versus M1 and up to 1.5 times

faster than M4. So, I did go ahead and

run a Geekbench AI test here using the

neural engine and take a look at the

score here from M4 to M5. So, look at

the half precision score 38,000 versus

43,000. And then the quantitized score

54,000 versus 59,988.

So, almost 60,000 on the M5. So, just

year-over-year, you know, that neural

engine is also a good bit more powerful.

Now, also the M5 MacBook Air is the

first MacBook Air with the N1 chip

inside for wireless connectivity. So,

that means that we do have Wi-Fi 7

support instead of Wi-Fi 6E on the M4.

And of course, we have Bluetooth 6 as

well. So, we're going to run a quick

speedometer 3.1 test to see if there's

any difference in web browsing speed.

So, what this does is it measures web

browsing speeds, and we should probably

get a little bit higher score on M5 just

because of the new chipset inside. I'm

not expecting a major difference here,

though. So, scored a 59.1. That actually

finished really quickly. 59.1 on the M5.

Let's see what we score on the M4. So,

we scored a 44.8. So, actually, yeah,

that's a pretty noteworthy difference

there as well. So, that's actually

pretty surprising to me. So, decent

upgrade there even with web browsing.

So, wow. M5 is impressing me. And then

also, like I said, we do have the N1

chip inside for better Wi-Fi

performance. So, we do have Wi-Fi 7

support versus Wi-Fi 6E. Let's see if

that makes any difference here with

fast.com. So, it's really hard to

measure Wi-Fi speeds, especially when

they're connecting to the same network.

We could see that we are getting

slightly higher speeds on the M5. So,

not a massive difference. It's kind of

fluctuating a lot. So, looks like it's

going to be actually now it's about

double the speeds on the M5. But, as you

guys know with Wi-Fi speeds, those are

very, you know, random and sporadic

sometimes. So, I'm going to refresh both

real quick and see if we get a different

score here. But you should in theory get

better Wi-Fi speeds, faster Wi-Fi

speeds, and also better performance when

you have low signal on the M5 because of

that N1 chip inside. So, as you can see

on this test, it's much closer. So,

again, it's going to vary, but

especially if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router,

you will see an improvement. Okay, so

with all that being said, should you buy

the M5 MacBook Air and should you buy

the 13-in or the 15in? So, first off, I

think that if you need more memory and

RAM than what the like MacBook Neo, for

example, offers, I think that the M5

MacBook Air is the next best thing, and

you will see quite the improvement for

intensive tasks. So, obviously, not just

do you have more memory at 512 gigs

versus 256, but also you have 16 gigs of

RAM versus 8. So, that, but also the

read and write disc speeds are going to

be significantly higher than what you

get on the MacBook Neo. So, the MacBook

Air is going to be a solid upgrade if

you're looking to get something, you

know, more powerful than the Neo. And

even going from M4 to M5, there's

actually a pretty noteworthy difference

there as well. I'm not sure that I'd

upgrade, you know, unless you actually

need that extra speed, but it is nice to

see because now, you know, also if you

have an M3 or M2 or even older, this is

going to be a very solid upgrade. I

would say that if you have the maybe M2

Air or older, this is going to be one to

upgrade to because again, compared to

M2, you have more storage, you have more

RAM, you have better display support for

external displays, you have faster Wi-Fi

speeds, you have better speed and

battery improvements, just across the

board, it's going to be a big upgrade

for the M2 Air and older and even maybe

M3, but that's debatable. I'd say M2 and

older definitely worth the upgrade. Not

to mention, you also have the better

webcam performance as well. So M5 is

rock solid. Now, should you buy the

13-in or the 15-inch MacBook Air? This

is where the decision is pretty

difficult, and it really depends on how

you use your computer on a day-to-day

basis. Now, I would say that if you use

creative applications like Photoshop or,

you know, anything like that, it might

be worth getting the 15-in just for that

more screen real estate that you have.

So, you have more real estate on the

screen and also down here near the

trackpad area, near the keyboard, you

have so much more space. But when it

comes to tight areas and really just

traveling with your MacBook, like on a

plane, if you're in a just a tight space

where you can't really expand your arms

out a lot, that's where it gets tough to

recommend the 15-in because it's kind of

a pain to be honest. Like there's a lot

of times where the 15-in and also my

16-inch MacBook Pro just simply don't

fit on the tray on the plane and it's

like halfway hanging off. And that's

where the 13-in really comes in handy.

Also, the 13-in is much lighter. Whether

you're carrying it around the house,

whether it's in a backpack, you're going

to feel the weight difference. It also

just, like I said, fits better in tight

spaces and it's really just easier to

use. Yes, the trackpad's smaller. Yes,

the area beside the keyboard is smaller.

But, you know, unless you have a lot of

area, like you're on a desk all the

time, then I think the 13-in is probably

the best for most people. But if you're

hooking this up to an external monitor,

then the 15-in might be better because

you do get those two additional GPU

cores and you don't have to worry about,

you know, needing space or not because

you probably are going to put it on a

desk. So although you can pay an extra

$100 to get those two GPU cores on the

13-in as well. So there's kind of a

debate to be made for both. Me

personally, I'm going to be sticking

with the 13-in just because I like

traveling a lot with my computer. This

is the computer I take on the go with

me. So I'm going to stick with the

13-inch myself. But I don't doubt

anybody. I don't really, you know, blame

anybody for picking a 15-in, especially

if you consume a lot of media on it. So,

if it's your primary device for, you

know, watching media, that's also

another really great contender, you

know, really great reason to get the

15-in because the speakers are

noticeably better. The video, you're

going to have more space to see that

video. So, yeah, if you watch a lot of

movies, TV shows, things like that on

your MacBook, I think the 15-in is

easily the one to go with. But again, if

you're traveling a lot, you're worried

about tight spaces, and you don't need

the extra real estate, the bigger

trackpad, 13-in is the one to go with.

So, there you have it. I hope this video

helped you out. That was a look at the

new M5 MacBook Air 13-in and 15-in, also

compared to the M4 MacBook Air, which

again was a bigger difference than I

expected. So, I hope this video was

helpful. If it was, let me know in a

comment down below. And if you want to

see my full review on the M5 MacBook

Air, that will be coming over the next

few months. But anyways guys, thanks for

watching and I'll see you