MacBook Air 15-inch M5 review: is the bigger screen worth the extra money

Same Air as last year, faster chip. Tom's Guide says the design is unchanged and the update is modest for M4 owners. I agree, and the 8.0 is my opinion from published tests, not from carrying one around.

What the money buys

Apple's store lists $1,499 for the 16GB/512GB model (November 1, 2026). The 13-inch sits at $1,299. Launch coverage from Tom's Guide and Notebookcheck quoted $1,299 for the 15-inch, so check Apple's page before you pay.

What you get for the gap: a 15.3-inch panel at 2880x1864 instead of 13.6 inches, a 66.5 Wh battery instead of 53.8 Wh, and six speakers, per Apple's spec page. The weight goes from 1.23 kg to 1.51 kg. If you carry it daily, that weight gap is the real cost.

Battery and screen

Apple claims up to 18 hours of video and 15 hours of wireless web. Tom's Guide ran a continuous web test at 150 nits and got 15 hours 37 minutes, which it says is slightly longer than the previous model. That's below Apple's video claim but fine for a workday plus a flight.

The screen is where I'd grumble. It's an IPS panel at 60 Hz, which Notebookcheck lists as a con. Tom's Guide measured 454 nits SDR and 470 HDR in its lab, short of the 500 nits Apple promises. Notebookcheck's own unit measured 538 nits peak. Two outlets, two panels, two answers. Call it roughly 450 to 540.

Speed

Tom's Guide tested a 1TB unit and scored the 15-inch M5 at 17,276 multi-core in Geekbench 6, up from 14,921 on the M4 version. Notebookcheck put the chip about 14% ahead of the M4 Air 15 in its own tests. Neither will matter for email.

The Air has no fan. Notebookcheck found gaming performance stable at about 8 W, with no throttling. The catch is that its multi-core CPU result was about 10% lower after a 30-minute Cinebench run, and graphics dropped about 23% in the 3DMark stress test, so long renders will slow down. A MacBook Pro wins there.

Gaming is meh. Tom's Guide got 27 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 and 19 in Assassin's Creed Shadows at medium settings. Smaller games run well.

What annoys me

• RAM and SSD are soldered, per Notebookcheck. Pick your memory on day one.
• Only two Thunderbolt 4 ports on a laptop this size.
• The webcam is 12MP but has no Face ID, which Notebookcheck flags.
• One-year warranty, also from Notebookcheck.

Who it's for

Buy it if you want a big, quiet laptop for documents and light editing, and the 13-inch feels cramped. Skip it if you own an M4 Air: Tom's Guide says you likely won't notice gains browsing or working. Students on a budget should read my laptops for college students roundup first.

For the size decision, the 13-inch against 15-inch comparison goes through it in more detail. Programmers might also want best laptops for programming. Spec details for both are on the MacBook Air 15 M5 page.