Apple Debuts MacBook Air at $1,099 and Pro with M5 Chips, 8× Faster AI
Apple rolled out new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air and 14-inch/16-inch MacBook Pro models powered by M5, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, boosting base storage to 512GB (Air) and up to 2TB (Pro). Mac segment posted $33.7 billion in 2025; Pro models deliver up to 8× faster AI processing.
1. New MacBook Air and Pro Models
On March 3, Apple introduced redesigned MacBook Air in 13-inch and 15-inch configurations starting at $1,099 (a $100 increase) with the M5 chip, 512GB base storage, N1 wireless connectivity, Center Stage webcam and up to 18 hours of battery life. The company also refreshed its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro line with support for the new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.
2. M5 Pro and M5 Max Architecture and Performance
Both M5 Pro and M5 Max leverage a Fusion Architecture combining two dies into a single chip with 18-core CPUs (6 performance cores and 12 efficiency cores). M5 Pro features a 20-core GPU, while M5 Max offers a 40-core GPU, enabling up to 6.9× faster LLM prompt processing versus M1 Pro, 8× faster AI image generation than M1 Max, and 5.2× to 5.4× faster 3D rendering.
3. Pricing and Financial Impact
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M5 chip starts at $1,699 (up $100), the M5 Pro model at $2,199 and the M5 Max at $3,599, with fully configured 16-inch models reaching $7,349. Apple's Mac segment generated $33.7 billion in 2025, up from about $30 billion the prior year, underscoring its contribution to the company’s hardware revenue mix.