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MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air (M5): Pricing and specs
Left:
The 15-inch Apple MacBook Air.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
Right:
The Apple MacBook Neo.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
Apple raised its MacBook prices in June 2026 because of the global memory chip shortage , aka RAMageddon . (The AI boom has driven up the cost of components like memory and SSD storage.) For its part, the M5 MacBook Air is now $200 more expensive than it was at launch. The 13-inch base model costs $1,299, while the 15-inch version now starts at $1,499. The Apple Store's education discount knocks $100 off for college students, their parents, and school staff.
Both sizes of the M5 MacBook Air are kitted with the following specs:
Processor: M5 chip with a 10-core CPU and an 8-core or 10-core GPU
Memory : 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB RAM
Storage : 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB SSD
Display: 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display
The M5 MacBook Airs have double the starting storage of their predecessors — 512GB instead of 256GB. Their 4TB storage option is also new for this generation.
SEE ALSO:
Laptop specs explained: A jargon-free guide to what's inside your computer
The MacBook Neo saw a $100 price hike because of RAMageddon this summer. It now starts at $699 with 256GB of storage. An upgraded model with double the storage and Touch ID costs $799. Once again, students and educators can save $100 by buying direct.
The MacBook Neo is available in one size with the following specs:
Processor: A18 Pro chip with 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU
Memory : 8GB RAM
Storage : 256GB or 512GB SSD
Display: 13-inch Liquid Retina display
The MacBook Neo's specs are more "iPad in spirit," to quote Mashable's Stan Schroeder . It starts with half the memory and storage of the MacBook Air, and that RAM isn't upgradable. It also runs on a pared-down iPhone chip. (The 2024 iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max had an A18 Pro chip with one extra GPU core.) Overall, it's much less customizable and future-proof than the Air.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air (M5): Performance
We use Primate Labs' Geekbench CPU test to measure laptops' performance. This test produces two different scores: The single-core score reflects how fast a laptop feels in simple tasks like web browsing and word processing. The multi-core score shows how fast the laptop can run more demanding workloads like content creation. The higher these scores, the better.
The MacBook Air outperforms the Neo (as expected).
Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable
The M5 MacBook Air is astonishingly fast for a mid-range laptop, earning a single-core score of 4,025 and a multi-core score of 16,099 . In the former case, it has almost no real competition except for some newer Windows laptops that run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite series chips (and even then, it's slightly better). In multi-core scenarios, the M5 Air performs on par with premium PCs and gaming laptops that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars more. It has more oomph than most people probably need on a regular basis, realistically.
The M5 MacBook Air (pictured here in midnight) is the most powerful ultraportable on the market.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable
The MacBook Neo is equally impressive for what it is. Its Geekbench single-core score came in at 3,484 , which is amazing for two reasons. One, it still beats most of the Windows laptops we've tried in the past two years, including some that cost over $2,000. Secondly, it rivals the single-core score of the M4 MacBook Air , which was 3,778. That means the Neo feels just as snappy as last year's mid-tier MacBook when you're not working it too hard.
The Neo earned a multi-core score of 8,770 , which puts it on par with the M1 MacBook Air (8,783) from 2020. It's slightly faster than the two nicest Chromebooks we've tried: Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (7,680) and the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (7,187), which both have MediaTek's Kompanio Ultra 910 chip.
The MacBook Neo's single-core performance rivals that of last year's M4 MacBook Air.
Credit: Timothy Werth / Mashable
Compared to the M5 MacBook Air, the Neo is 13 percent slower in single-core tasks and 46 percent slower in multi-core ones . They should feel equally peppy in practice, but the Air has a much higher performance ceiling to run more demanding apps. Its higher RAM capacity also makes it vastly better for multitasking; a dozen Chrome tabs won't make it sluggish.
I'll add that the MacBook Neo is fanless, so it should run as quietly as a MacBook Air, if not nearly as fast.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air (M5): Battery life
We test laptops' stamina by having them loop a 1080p video at 50 percent volume and brightness until they die. The MacBook Air lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes in this benchmark, or almost three hours longer than the MacBook Neo, which held out for 14 hours and 50 minutes . That's a short battery life for a MacBook, but a good one for a budget laptop: The sub-$1,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks we've tested in recent years have a median battery life of just 10.5 hours.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air (M5): Design
Interesting MacBook colors! Finally!
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable
The MacBook Neo and the MacBook Air look pretty similar — both have a flat, fully aluminum chassis with rounded edges — but there are a few key design differences between them. For two, the Neo has larger bezels surrounding its display and lacks a webcam notch. It also comes in different colors, including a flashy new yellow hue called "citrus":
MacBook Neo colors: Silver, indigo, blush, and citrus
MacBook Air colors: Silver, starlight, midnight, and sky blue
The MacBook Neo is slightly thicker and smaller than the 13-inch Air, but they both weigh the same:
MacBook Neo: 11.71 x 8.12 x 0.5 inches, 2.7 pounds
13-inch MacBook Air: 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air (M5): Display
Left:
The 15-inch Apple MacBook Air.
Credit: Joe Ma...
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