Well, That Didn’t Last: With M5, the MacBook Air Is Back …

The 2026 M5 MacBook Air now starts at $1,099—$100 more than last year’s M4 model. What’s to blame: Storage? Memory? The new CPU? Apple’s rumored budget MacBook? Here’s my take on what pushed up the price. It was fun while it lasted. When Apple’s 13-inch M4 Ma…

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 new ultra-cheap MacBook Neo, and other more subtle factors, also play a part. 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 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.

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. Another facet of this pricing dynamic? The newly announced MacBook Neo. This colorful 13-inch laptop, starting at just $599, will become Apple's new proper budget solution, positioned well below the cheapest MacBook Airs.

A key factor in this super low price is Apple's deployment of 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. The 256GB base storage capacity has also shifted to the Neo, along with only 8GB of memory. A 256GB SSD is certainly more palatable at $599. Its screen is also 13 inches flat, unlike the Air's 13.6-inch display.

We (correctly) expected, prior to the Neos' rumored announcement, that any possible budget model would have to come in significantly under the MacBook Air to be relevant. Apple delivered, even landing on the lower end of the projected price band; that's now a big $500 price gap between the two starting prices. Again, no one knows Apple’s internal logic. The new MacBook Air pricing could be a chosen consequence of the "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 budget model looks less appealing if the MacBook Air is only a little more expensive, with a full-on laptop processor inside. With a $500 delta and some notable spec differences, the two slot into their own positions naturally. 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!" The MacBook Neo pricing confirmed our suspicions and makes Apple's pricing stratification make more sense now. 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. And now, there is a true, no-doubter budget macOS alternative to offset all that. But the days of the under-$1,000 MacBook Air are gone for now. Maybe for good.

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This report covers the latest developments in iphone. The information presented highlights key changes and updates that are relevant to those following this topic.

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