It was fun while it lasted. When Apple’s 13-inch M4 MacBook Air launched last year, it earned an Editors’ Choice award from PCMag, in part for returning to $999 for its base model, after a long stint with a four-digit price. That short-lived pricing rolls to an end this week with the launch of the M5 MacBook Air, which will retail starting at $1,099 when it lands on March 11.
Why this change back to more than $1,000, and what do you get for your dollar now? Multiple factors contribute here, but here’s one quick explanation: Apple doubled up on the storage. The base model of the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 came with just 256GB of solid-state storage, and the new base M5 model will have a 512GB SSD (which is also twice as fast, Apple claims).
If you’re shopping for a new MacBook Air, hopefully that provides some relief: The starting price increase goes toward something tangible. But it’s only part of the picture.
The M5 Chip, Boosted Storage, and Global Memory Woes
The M5 base processor—as opposed to the brand-new M5 Pro or M5 Max—debuted inside the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro last fall. That same chip is now coming to the 13-inch Air, and while it’s not always the case from generation to generation, you can squint and justify the faster chip contributing to a price increase. For what it’s worth, the 15-inch MacBook Air is also jumping $100 (from $1,199 to $1,299) for the M5 model, and doubling the starting storage.
The new M5-based MacBook Air models (Credit: Apple)
The increase in storage capacity is the obvious part of the equation; more gigabytes equals more expense. In fact, with the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air, a voluntary upgrade from the base model’s 256GB of storage to 512GB cost $200 at the time, so you’re actually coming out ahead in dollars-per-gigabyte with this increase.
A $100 increase for 512GB is a reasonable deal on the modern market; configuring up on most laptop-manufacturer sites costs at least that much. We also find 256GB to be borderline insufficient in today’s market, so no one should complain about having too much storage forced on them, in this case.
However, perhaps Apple could have kept the base SSD at 256GB if it wanted to maintain the $999 price. But it didn’t. We can only speculate on exactly why, but Apple is not immune to the ongoing memory shortage—rising RAM costs are affecting virtually every kind of electronic device that relies on memory chips. The mad rush of investment pouring into AI data centers has sucked up much of the memory-manufacturing capacity, and that has increased costs for consumer RAM—with laptops and desktops suffering the hardest hits so far.
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The 2025 MacBook Air 13-Inch (Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
That means, at least from a memory-sourcing perspective, it’s more expensive to make the same laptop now than it was last year. The storage upgrade, too, is likely a marginal cost increase for Apple to absorb, but one it can swallow to subsidize the added memory costs.
Since the $100 price increase with the M5 MacBook Air is still less than what it formerly cost to jump from 256GB to 512GB, buyers shouldn’t necessarily feel shortchanged. Indeed, Apple can almost spin this move as a positive. It’s certainly better than the alternative: A flat price hike for the same amount of storage and memory as the M4 model would sting.
The MacElephant In the Room: The ‘Cheap MacBook’ Rumors
Another facet of this pricing dynamic? A rumored pending announcement. News of an alleged “MacBook Neo” has leaked, and conjecture has long had it that a colorful, low-cost MacBook model will become Apple’s new proper budget solution, positioned below the cheapest MacBook Airs.
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The rumor mill suggests that Apple will cut costs, in part, by employing the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro chip inside the laptop, rather than the Apple M-series silicon used in all MacBooks since late 2020. We don’t know how much it might cost, but any type of bare-budget Apple laptop needs enough separation from the MacBook Air to be relevant. That would suggest a price in the $599-to-$899 range.
The fresh M5 MacBook Air in transit (Credit: Apple)
Again, no one knows Apple’s internal logic. The new MacBook Air pricing could be a chosen consequence of a coming “MacBook Neo”: Apple may have decided to raise the MacBook Air’s price to create more daylight between the Air and the “true” new budget model. Maybe Apple could have stuck with the original pricing and not increased the storage capacity. Still, the putative budget model looks less appealing if the MacBook Air is only a little more expensive, with a full-on laptop processor inside.
Side profiles of the M5 MacBook Air (Credit: Apple)
Alternatively, the cards may have fallen this way if Apple felt it had to raise the MacBook Air’s starting price to maintain margins. If the Air doesn’t look super-cheap to you anymore with that $1,099 price, “Hey, that’s OK!” Apple can spin it. “We have a much more affordable option for you now!”
It will be easier to judge what’s actually at play—and speculate about the reasoning—when we know whether this purported “MacBook Neo” exists, when it will launch, and what it will cost. Apple’s March 4 event, held in three cities, may clarify things. Whatever is or isn’t revealed, though, one thing’s for sure: With rising prices for core components, all of these factors may have informed Apple’s decision to boost the Air’s price. It’s not a giant leap, and at least you’re seeing more storage and a new chip for your dollar. But the days of the under-$1,000 MacBook Air are gone for now. Maybe for good.
About Our Expert
Matthew Buzzi
Principal Writer, Hardware
Experience
I’ve been a consumer PC expert at PCMag for 10 years, and I love PC gaming. I’ve played games on my computer for as long as I can remember, which eventually (as it does for many) led me to build and upgrade my own desktops to this day. Through my years at PCMag, I’ve tested and reviewed many, many dozens of laptops and desktops, and I am always happy to recommend a PC for your needs and budget.
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