M4 MacBook Air vs. M5 MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide

Apple has refreshed both tiers of its MacBook lineup in 2025, first updating the MacBook Air with the M4 chip and now introducing the MacBook Pro with the new M5 chip, so how do the latest models compare?

While the 13- and 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ continue to start at $999 and $1,199 respectively, moving to the 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ requires spending at least $400 more. For some buyers, the extra cost is unnecessary; for others, the Pro's hardware advantages meaningfully change the experience in ways the Air cannot match even with higher configurations. Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two popular laptops is best for you. Beyond their chips, the key differences are as follows:



‌MacBook Air‌

‌MacBook Pro‌





13.6- or 15.3-inch display

14.2-inch display







Slimmer borders around the display





LCD Liquid Retina display

Mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display





60hz refresh rate

ProMotion for refresh rates up to 120Hz





Up to 500 nits brightness

Up to 1,000 nits brightness and 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness







Nano-texture display option





Passive cooling

Active cooling





Two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports

Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports









HDMI 2.1 port with support for multichannel audio output







SDXC card slot





13-Inch: Four-speaker sound system

15-Inch: Six-speaker sound system with force-canceling woofers

High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers





Three-mic array with directional beamforming

Studio-quality three-mic array with high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming





256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage

512GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB storage





13-Inch: 53.8-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery

15-Inch: 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery

14-Inch: 72.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery





18-hour battery life

24-hour battery life



30W, 35W, or 70W USB-C Power Adapter

70W or 96W USB-C Power Adapter





Silver, Sky Blue, Starlight, or Midnight color options

Silver or Space Black color options





13-Inch: Starts at $999

15-Inch: Starts at $1,199

Starts at $1,599



Dimensions are also a key area of difference between the ‌MacBook Air‌ and ‌MacBook Pro‌. The ‌MacBook Pro‌ is noticeably thicker and heavier than both ‌MacBook Air‌ models:





‌MacBook Air‌ (13-Inch)

‌MacBook Air‌ (15-Inch)

‌MacBook Pro‌ (14-Inch)





Height

0.44 inches (1.13 cm)

0.45 inch (1.15 cm)

0.61 inches (1.55 cm)





Width

11.97 inches (30.41 cm)

13.40 inches (34.04 cm)

12.31 inches (31.26 cm)





Depth

8.46 inches (21.5 cm)

9.35 inches (23.76 cm)

8.71 inches (22.12 cm)





Weight

2.7 pounds (1.24 kg)

3.3 pounds (1.51 kg)

3.4 pounds (1.55 kg)



With the latest version of the ‌MacBook Pro‌, Apple is touting the power of the M5 chip. Compared to the M4, it says the M5 is:

Up to 15% faster multithreaded CPU performance

Up to 30% faster overall graphics performance

Up to 45% faster ray tracing performance

27.5% higher unified memory bandwidth

In addition to general performance claims, Apple published a set of specific real-world workload results showing measurable gains in AI-driven applications:

4×+ peak GPU compute performance for AI

3.6× faster time to first token (LLM)

1.8× faster Topaz Video Enhance AI processing

1.7× faster Blender ray-traced rendering

2.9× faster AI speech enhancement in Premiere Pro

Other notable changes compared to the M4 chip in the ‌MacBook Air‌ include:



M4 Chip

M5 Chip





Made with TSMC's second-generation 3nm process (N3E)

Made TSMC's third-generation ‌3nm‌ process (N3P)





Based on A18 Pro chip from iPhone 16 Pro

Based on A19 Pro chip from iPhone 17 Pro





No integrated Neural Accelerators

Integrated Neural Accelerator in every GPU core





Metal 3 developer APIs

Metal 4 developer APIs with Tensor APIs to program GPU Neural Accelerators





Second-generation ray tracing engine

Third-generation ray tracing engine





First-generation dynamic caching

Second-generation dynamic caching





Shader cores

Enhanced shader cores





120 GB/s unified memory bandwidth

153 GB/s unified memory bandwidth



Taken as a whole, the M4 ‌MacBook Air‌ continues to represent the most suitable choice for users whose workloads are light to moderate and who value portability and an affordable price over sustained performance. Its starting price of $999, which is frequently reduced further through Apple education pricing and third-party promotions, places it within reach for the majority of buyers. For daily tasks like email, light productivity, browsing, and media consumption, it delivers performance that is effectively indistinguishable from more expensive models. Its thinner chassis, lower weight, and selection of color options also remain important advantages for many.

M4 vs. M5 Chip Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M5?

By contrast, the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌ exists for those whose work or expected longevity justifies the premium. The combination of a more advanced chip, mini-LED XDR display with ProMotion, active cooling for sustained performance headroom, a dedicated HDMI port with multichannel audio support, an SDXC card slot, a third Thunderbolt port, higher memory ceilings, larger storage options, improved speakers and microphones, and materially longer battery life produces a machine with materially different capabilities. If you expect to perform extended tasks in video editing, 3D workloads, software development, or AI-driven tasks, the ‌MacBook Pro‌ is designed to avoid the thermal and bandwidth constraints that the Air will encounter.

A notable exception arises at the upper end of the Air's pricing. The 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ at $1,299, and especially when configured to 512GB of storage at $1,399, approaches the 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌'s $1,599 entry point closely enough that the trade-off changes. For an increment of $200–300, the Pro substitutes a significantly more advanced display, active cooling, six additional hours of battery life, superior speakers and microphones, an additional Thunderbolt port, and integrated HDMI and SDXC. In that specific pricing band, the Pro will likely constitute the stronger long-term purchase for the majority of buyers unless screen size or minimal weight are the overriding priorities.Related Roundups: MacBook Air, MacBook ProBuyer's Guide: 15' MacBook Air (Neutral), MacBook Pro (Buy Now), 13' MacBook Air (Neutral)Related Forums: MacBook Air, MacBook ProThis article, "M4 MacBook Air vs. M5 MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums