MacBook Air M5 Rumours: Everything We Know So Far
Update: Apple announced the M5 MacBook Air on 3 March 2026, with pre-orders opening the same day and units shipping from 11 March. This roundup now covers what's confirmed versus what analysts got right before launch.
What's confirmed
Confirmed
The M5 MacBook Air starts at USD $1,099 for the 13-inch model, with base storage doubled to 512GB and faster SSD performance, configurable up to 4TB. It's available in 13- and 15-inch sizes, in sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver.
Confirmed
The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU and an enhanced GPU with a Neural Accelerator, delivering roughly 4x faster on-device AI processing than M4 according to Apple, alongside 153GBps of unified memory bandwidth — a 28% jump over M4.
Confirmed
The design and Liquid Retina LCD display carried over unchanged from the M4 generation — there is no OLED panel on this model, and none is expected until at least 2027, when OLED is tipped to land on MacBook Pro first.
What's reported
Reported
Ahead of launch, MacRumors and Macworld both correctly forecast the March 2026 timing and the 16GB standard RAM configuration based on supply-chain sourcing, well before Apple's official announcement.
Reported
Some pre-launch coverage speculated about a possible price cut given Apple's push to keep the Air as the "entry" Mac; instead Apple held pricing steady and added value through storage and Wi-Fi 7 rather than a lower sticker price.
Twisti's opinion
Opinion
This was one of the more accurately leaked Apple products in recent memory — the chip, storage bump and pricing structure all matched pre-launch reporting closely. For most NZ buyers who aren't doing heavy AI or creative workloads, the M4 Air remains a perfectly capable machine at a discount once M5 stock settles retail pricing — but if you want the extra AI headroom and don't mind paying full price, the M5 is a clean, low-risk upgrade with no surprises.
What we'll update
We'll track NZ retail pricing as it stabilises post-launch and update this page if Apple announces any additional configurations.
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