Apple last month announced a new MacBook Air, introducing the M5 chip, faster wireless connectivity, double the base storage, and a more capable charger, while simultaneously discontinuing the M4 model. So how does the new machine compare? The M5 MacBook Air starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch model and $1,299 for the 15-inch, a $100 increase over the equivalent M4 models. In exchange, base storage doubles from 256GB to 512GB, and Apple says the new SSD delivers twice the read and write speeds of the previous generation. Education pricing is also available directly from Apple and typically shaves at least $100 off the price. The main upgrade between the two models is the chip. Compared to the M4, the M5 delivers: Up to 15% faster multithreaded CPU performance Up to 30% faster overall graphics performance Up to 45% faster ray tracing performance 27.5% higher unified memory bandwidth In addit