If you’re looking for a laptop that’ll still perform well several years from now, Apple’s latest MacBook Air is hard to beat. Now, in particular, is a good time to pick one up, as you can currently buy the 13-inch MacBook Air at Amazon in the run-up to Memorial Day with an M5 chip, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for $899.99 ($200 off), which is a new low price. The 15-inch model, meanwhile, is also on sale at Amazon for $1,099.99 ($200 off) in select colors, or at Best Buy for $1,149.
Unless you need a laptop for intensive gaming or demanding workloads like 3D modeling, the M5 Air is the laptop we recommend to most people. Apple’s latest model is faster and better at handling everyday workloads than the new MacBook Neo, whether that means juggling dozens of tabs or tackling some light video editing. The 2026 iteration is an even better value than before, as it boasts double the base storage, allowing for more apps and files. Storage performance is also impressive, with read and write speeds that rival the M5 MacBook Pro, so transferring files and multitasking feel much faster.
Apple’s mid-tier laptop excels in other ways, too. Its sharp, vibrant display makes everything from spreadsheets to Netflix shine, and it’s both slim and light enough that it’s easy to tote around in a backpack. It also lasts around 13 hours on a single charge — more than enough for a full day of use — while its 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam offers best-in-class performance. Sure, none of it is a huge step up from prior models, but given how good the MacBook Air has become in recent years, sometimes a few subtle refinements are all you need.
