Along with the budget MacBook, Apple could unveil a refreshed version of the MacBook Air at its event next week. The focus will likely be on the new device, but the MacBook Air is expected to get some useful internal upgrades.
MacBook Air: M5 Chip
The next-generation MacBook Air will adopt the M5 chip, which Apple already introduced in the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models released last year. Apple's M5 chip uses third-generation 3-nanometer and features up to 10 CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores with performance 3.5 times faster than the M4 chip.
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The M5's multithreaded CPU performance is up to 15% faster than the M4 , and it offers 30% faster GPU performance . Apple added a Neural Accelerator to each GPU core to improve the speed of GPU-based AI tasks . Unified memory bandwidth is 153GB/s , representing a nearly 30% improvement over the memory bandwidth of the M4.
Unified memory architecture allows the chip to use a single memory pool to run AI models on the device, boosting GPU performance and improving multithreaded performance in applications.
RAM will continue to start at 16GB , with upgrade options to 24GB and 32GB .
Third -generation ray-tracing, second-generation dynamic caching , and enhanced shader cores bring improvements to gaming and other demanding tasks. An updated Neural Engine is more power-efficient than before, so we could see improvements in battery life.
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Storage options will likely remain the same, starting at 256GB with upgrade options to 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.
Design
The MacBook Air received a design refresh in 2022. There is no indication that Apple is planning an update in 2026. The company often uses the same design for several years, and design refreshes are usually associated with significant new features.
There are rumors that the MacBook Air will get an OLED display sometime after the launch of new MacBook Pro models with OLED technology in late 2026. p
We expect Apple to release the same 13-inch and 15-inch size options. Both will feature the same aluminum design and fanless thermal management system, along with display Retina LCD.
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The MacBook Air will likely continue to offer two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, and the same speaker, microphone, and camera layout.
Pricing
Pricing for the MacBook Air is not expected to change. It will likely continue to start at $1,099. There is a possibility that memory upgrades will be more expensive due to DRAM shortages that have driven up prices.
Release Date
Apple CEO Tim Cookhas announced product announcements that are set to begin on Monday, so we could see the MacBook Air as soon as next week.
