Apple introduced the MacBook Air (M5) and the MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/M5 Max). While they bring substantial improvements in graphics and AI capabilities over what came before, there are several tidbits that you may have missed that are worth mentioning.
Power adapter configurations for MacBook Air
Previously, the M4 MacBook Air included either of these power adapters, depending on the model:
- 30W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M4 with 8-core GPU) [13-inch only]
- 35W Dual USB-C port Compact Power Adapter (included with M4 with 10-core GPU) [both 13-inch and 15-inch]
You could configure the M4 MacBook Air with the 70W USB-C Power Adapter for faster charging.
Now, for the M5 MacBook Air, whether you’re getting either the 13-inch or 15-inch model, you’ll get a different adapter included in the box: a 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. This adapter was released alongside the iPhone 17 lineup and the iPhone Air last September. You can still configure the M5 MacBook Air with either the 35W Dual USB-C port Compact Power Adapter or the 70W USB-C Power Adapter.
Subtle changes for the Magic Keyboard [MacBook Air/Pro]
As previously mentioned, Apple slightly tweaked the Magic Keyboard on this year’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models to have the symbols replace the words on the side keys (Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, Delete, and Return).
N1 wireless networking chip
Apple continues to bring its N1 wireless networking chip to more of its latest products. Introduced on the iPhone 17 lineup and the iPhone Air, it made its way to the iPad Pro (M5) and the just-announced iPad Air (M4). Thanks to the N1 chip, both the MacBook Air (M5) and MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/M5 Max) now feature Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support. This is an improvement over the Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 on their respective predecessors.
Storage options
Apple has made several changes to the storage configurations across the whole MacBook lineup.
- The M5 MacBook Air has double the base storage: 256GB ➡️512GB.
- Even the base 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5), introduced last October, saw the same base storage increase (256GB ➡️ 512GB).
Yes, the starting prices for both machines increased by $100, but if you think about it, you would be paying $100 less than before if you were to upgrade from 256GB to 512GB of storage. Additionally, the M5 MacBook Air now has a new 8TB storage option.
Additionally, we’re also seeing similar base storage bumps for higher-end MacBook Pro models:
- MacBook Pro with M5 Pro: 512GB ➡️ 1TB
- MacBook Pro with M5 Max: 1TB ➡️ 2TB
In addition to up to 2x faster read/write speeds than the previous generation, the value in every MacBook model just got better with double the base storage, no matter which model you get.
Conclusion
With all of these under-the-hood changes across the board, these MacBook models are an even better value than before, especially when you’re getting double the storage by default. Expect Apple to at least announce one more thing for tomorrow (Wednesday, March 4) at 6:00 a.m PT, which will be 15 minutes before pre-orders start for all new products announced this week.
