This Is My Favorite Laptop Of The Last Year, And It Just Hit Its Lowest Price Ever.

I review dozens of laptops each year on CNET and have reviewed hundreds of models over the years. The MacBook Air is mine A popular laptopespecially the larger of the two sizes that Apple offers. The 15-inch MacBook Air sits in the sweet spot of productivity, portability and price. Its larger 15.3-inch display is better for multitasking than the smaller 13.6-inch model’s screen, and it’s still surprisingly thin and lightweight. It allows you to get a bigger display without having to pay the premium of a MacBook Pro.

Apple updated the MacBook Air with its latest M5 processor earlier this month, but last year’s M4 models are still available — and at deep Amazon discounts. Big Spring Sale. A better deal is for my favorite MacBook Air, the 15-incher.

I 15-inch M4 MacBook Air it retails for just $949, ​​which is $250 less than its full price and the lowest price I’ve seen. That’s also $300 less than new The M5 MacBook Air is currently on sale at Amazon for $50 off.

For a more apples-to-apples comparison between the M4 and M5 MacBook Air models, you should consider storage capacity. Apple has increased the minimum storage from 256GB SSD in the M4 model to 512GB in the M5 Air. Thankfully, the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with a 512GB SSD upgrade is also on sale at a very low price. You can find it $1,099 at Amazonwhich is $300 less than its original price and still $150 less than the base M5 MacBook Air price on Amazon.

With the same design and similar performance and battery life as the M5 Air, the M4 MacBook Air remains a good choice in 2026 for laptop buyers.

13-inch M4 MacBook Air

I The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air is also on sale for $899 for the Amazon Big Spring Sale, which is $100 off its original price but nowhere near its $749 low price. And if you want it with the 512GB SSD upgrade, it’s expensive $949 at Amazonwhich is also $250 less than what Apple previously charged but only $100 less than the current base 13-inch M5 MacBook Air with 512GB SSD. selling on Amazon. I’m not sure it’s enough to cut the price to sacrifice a new model.

If you’re looking for a 13-inch MacBook for less, you should consider a new one MacBook Neo. It it costs just $599 and it’s an unbelievable price. It’s $500 less than the M5 MacBook Air, and I’m willing to live without many of the features it lacks for its lower price. The Neo is near-perfect for students and others looking for an inexpensive MacBook that still offers enough performance and battery life for everyday use.

MacBook Air M4 vs M5 performance

CNET tested both sizes of last year’s M4 MacBook Air and the 13-inch model of the M5 MacBook Air that Apple just released.

The MacBook M5 Air offers you the evolutionary performance benefits you might expect from one generation to the next instead of a dynamic jump from last year’s model. It was about 9% to 13% faster in our Geekbench 6 test and 12% to 18% faster in our Cinebench 2024 test than the M4 Air.

Battery life, too, is about the same. The 13-inch M5 Air lasted about an hour longer than the 13-inch M4 Air in the battery test, but both can last longer on a single charge. The 13-inch M5 Air lasted just over 17 hours, while the 13-inch M4 Air lasted about 16 hours in the same test. Meanwhile, the 15-inch M4 Air fell between the two 13-inch models, lasting about 16.5 hours in the test.

Another difference between this year’s MacBook Airs and last year’s

Primary memory remains at 16GB, but the M5 chip supports faster integrated memory — 153Gbps of bandwidth compared to 120Gbps on the M4. Storage also grew rapidly. Apple says the SSDs in the M5 models offer twice the read and write speeds of the previous M4 model.

The M5 Air also offers advanced networking. It includes the Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

For more, see my comparison The M5 MacBook Air is compared to the previous models M4, M3, M2 and M1 and for deep discounts, see our collection of deals under $25.