The first fork in the road you’ll come to when shopping for a MacBook is whether to follow the Air path, head down the Pro road or take the Neo shortcut. For people who are looking for an everyday home laptop or a work laptop for running basic office apps, a MacBook Neo will suffice. For creative types who need the added processing and graphics muscle of Apple’s new M5 Pro and Max chips, a MacBook Pro is worth the added cost. And in between, the MacBook Air remains an excellent mainstream laptop and the cheapest way to get a large display powered by an Apple M-series processor. To help you find the right MacBook for your needs and budget, here are the main considerations to keep in mind.
Price
The entry price for a MacBook is $599. That gets you the new MacBook Neo. Pricing starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch MacBook Air and $1,299 for the 15-inch MacBook Air. Stepping up to a MacBook Pro model starts at $1,699. Here are the starting prices of Apple’s current MacBook lineup:
- MacBook Neo: $599
- 13-inch M5 MacBook Air: $1,099
- 15-inch M5 MacBook Air: $1,299
- 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro: $1,699
- 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro: $2,699
Size and display
If you’ll be taking your MacBook with you to class, work or even down to your local coffee shop most mornings, an Air is the better choice. The 13-inch MacBook Air models weigh less than 3 pounds, and the roomier 15-inch Air weighs only 3.3 pounds, which is still lighter than the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
The flip side to portability is screen size. The 16-inch MacBook Pro gives you ample room to work and multitask, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro tries to hit the sweet spot between roomy display and travel ease. Unless you need Pro-level performance, we feel the 15-inch Air does a better job of hitting that target.
- 13-inch MacBook Neo: 13-inch display (2,408×1,506 pixels), 2.7 pounds
- 13.6-inch M5 MacBook Air: 13.6-inch display (2,560×1,664 pixels), 2.7 pounds
- 15.3-inch M5 MacBook Air: 15.3-inch display (2,880×1,864 pixels), 3.3 pounds
- 14.2-inch M5 MacBook Pro: 14.2-inch display (3,024×1,964 pixels), 3.4 pounds
- 16.2-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro: 16.2-inch display (3,456×2,234 pixels), 4.7 pounds
Processor
The processor, aka the CPU, is the brains of a laptop. MacBooks have used Apple’s own processors since the introduction of the M1 processor in 2020. The M1-based MacBooks were clear improvements over Apple’s earlier Intel-based machines in terms of overall performance, efficiency and battery life. The M1 MacBooks were more powerful, boasted longer runtimes and operated more coolly and quietly.
The latest lineup of MacBook Airs feature Apple’s M5 chip, with the exception of the new MacBook Neo that’s based on the A18 Pro chip borrowed from the iPhone 16 Pro. With the MacBook Pro line, more powerful configurations are available with Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.
Graphics
The graphics processor handles all the work of driving the screen and generating what gets displayed, as well as speeding up a lot of graphics-related (and increasingly, AI-related) operations. Apple’s M-series CPUs integrate the GPU. The more processing cores the GPU has, the better the graphics performance. Here’s the breakdown:
- A18 Pro: 5-core GPU
- M5: 10-core GPU
- M5 Pro: 16-core or 20-core GPU
- M5 Max: 32-core or 40-core GPU
Memory
Memory (or RAM) is where the operating system stores all the data for currently running applications, and it can fill up fast. After that, it starts swapping between RAM and SSD, which is slower. The MacBook Neo has 8GB of RAM, and MacBook Air models start at 16GB of RAM, along with the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro. The minimum on the M5 Pro MacBook Pro models is 24GB, and the M5 Max MacBook Pros serve up 36GB or more.
You can’t upgrade the memory on recent MacBooks post purchase, so you’ll need to get all of the RAM you’ll need upfront. MacBooks are able to smoothly run MacOS and the preinstalled apps with the minimum RAM offered, but doubling the RAM will make your MacBook feel faster and likely lead to a longer life of the laptop.
Storage
MacBooks feature solid-state drives, or SSDs. The MacBook Neo starts with a 256GB SSD, but MacBook Air models offer a minimum of 512GB. MacBook Pros now start at 1TB SSD. If you use cloud storage for your files, music collection and photo library, then you might be able to get away with a 256GB SSD without filling it up before too long.
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