MacBook Air M5 launched with 512 GB of starting memory

The news that the MacBook Air will have an upgrade using the M5 chip has been predicted for a long time, but the surprising thing is that the starting configuration has an SSD with a capacity of 512 GB, up to 4 TB, not inferior to the MacBook Pro lines. Major technology sites generally believe that this parameter will make many major Windows laptop brands such as Asus and Lenovo worried.

Often criticized for being “stingy” on RAM and internal memory, Apple has become generous in the past two years with the Macbook Air. At the end of 2024, the company will double the starting RAM to 16 GB, keeping the price unchanged while the M4 version launched in 2025 also reduces the price by 1-5 million VND for the best-selling versions for the first time.

In addition to increased capacity, the SSD in the MacBook Air M5 also has read and write performance twice as fast as the previous generation. The device is also updated with Apple’s N1 wireless chip, supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity. The two connection ports on the device both support Thunderbolt 4 standard.

The M5 chip in the MacBook Air has a 10-core CPU, introduced by Apple as the fastest CPU cores in the world. Users can optionally configure up to 10 GPU cores with a Neural Accelerator in each core, providing four times faster performance for AI tasks compared to MacBook Air using M4 chip.

The new processor also comes with an upgraded GPU and third-generation ray tracing technology. Unified Memory in the processor is also faster with 153 GB/s bandwidth, a 28% improvement compared to M4.

MacBook Air 2026 still has two screen options of 13.6 and 15.3 inches with a maximum brightness of 500 nit, supporting one billion colors. 12 megapixel Center Stage camera supports Desk View, combined with three microphones for video calls and group meetings. The device’s battery life is 18 hours and the colors to choose from are sky blue, dark blue, starlight gold and silver.

In the US market, Apple’s new laptop has a starting price 100 USD higher than the old generation while in Vietnam it starts from 29.99 million VND (13-inch version) and 34.99 million VND (15-inch version). Prices for pupils, students and education workers are from 27,269 million VND and 32.99 million VND respectively. The company has not announced the time to sell the device in the Vietnamese market.