After reviewing hundreds of laptops over the years for CNET, the MacBook Air is still my favorite overall laptop. Specifically, the 15-inch model, because it nails the balance between a big, multitask-friendly display and the kind of thin, lightweight build that you can toss in a bag every day without having to worry about it. This MacBook lets you get a big display without shelling out the extra hundreds to thousands of dollars for a MacBook Pro.
Apple launched the M5 MacBook Air earlier this month, but last year's M4 models are still around -- and currently available at deep discounts for Amazon's Big Spring Sale. The better deal is for my preferred MacBook Air, the 15-incher.
The 15-inch M4 MacBook Air is selling for just $949, which is $250 less than its full price and the lowest price I've seen for it. That's also $300 less than what the new M5 MacBook Air is currently selling for at Amazon with a $50 discount.
For a more apples-to-apples comparison between the M4 and M5 MacBook Air models, you have to consider the storage capacity. Apple raised the minimum storage from 256GB SSD on the M4 model to 512GB on the M5 Air. Thankfully, the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with the 512GB SSD upgrade is also selling at its lowest price ever. You can get it for $1,099 at Amazon, which is $300 less than its original price and still $150 less than the baseline M5 MacBook Air costs at Amazon.
With the same design and similar performance and battery life as the M5 Air, the M4 MacBook Air remains a great option in 2026 for laptop shoppers.
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13-inch M4 MacBook Air
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air is also on sale for $899 for the Amazon Big Spring Sale, which is $100 less than its original price but nowhere near its lowest price of $749. And if you want it with the 512GB SSD upgrade, it costs $999 at Amazon, which is about $200 less than what Apple previously charged for it -- but only $100 less than what the current baseline 13-inch M5 MacBook Air with a 512GB SSD is selling for on Amazon. I'm not sure that's enough of a price break to forgo the newer model.
If you want a 13-inch MacBook for less, then you should consider the new MacBook Neo. It costs just $599 and is an incredible value. It's $500 less than the M5 MacBook Air, and I'm willing to live without most of the features it lacks because of its low price. The Neo is near-perfect for students and others who want a cheap MacBook that still offers enough performance and battery life for everyday use.
MacBook Air M4 vs. M5 performance
CNET has tested both sizes of last year's M4 MacBook Air and the 13-inch model of M5 MacBook Air that Apple just released.
The MacBook M5 Air offers evolutionary performance gains you might expect from one generation to the next rather than revolutionary leaps over last year's model. It was roughly 9% to 13% faster on our Geekbench 6 tests and 12% to 18% faster on our Cinebench 2024 tests than the M4 Air.
Battery life, too, remains roughly the same. The 13-inch M5 Air lasted about an hour longer than the 13-inch M4 Air in battery testing, but both can run a long time on a single charge. The 13-inch M5 Air ran for just over 17 hours, and the 13-inch M4 Air lasted nearly 16 hours on the same test. Meanwhile, the 15-inch M4 Air fell in between the two 13-inch models, lasting roughly 16.5 hours on the test.
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Other differences between this year's and last year's MacBook Airs
The starting memory remains at 16GB, but the M5 chip supports faster unified memory -- 153Gbps of bandwidth compared to 120Gbps on the M4. Storage also got faster. Apple says the SSDs on the M5 models offer twice the read and write speeds of the previous M4 model.
The M5 Air also offers improved networking. It incorporates Apple's N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
For more, check out my comparison of the M5 MacBook Air versus the earlier M4, M3, M2 and M1 models and for more deep discounts, check out our roundup of deals under $25.
