M5 14-inch MacBook Pro vs M5 13-inch MacBook Air
M5 14-inch MacBook Pro vs M5 13-inch MacBook Air
https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/06/m5-14-inch-macbook-pro-vs-m5-13-inch-macbook-air/
Publish Date: 2026-03-06 14:22:00
Source Domain: 9to5mac.com
The arrival of the M5 MacBook Air means that Apple once again has two laptops with the standard M5 chip inside. Apple first put the plain M5 chip inside a laptop with the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Both machines occupy the “under $2000” space in Apple’s laptop lineup. Here’s how the two MacBooks with the same chip compare.
14-inch M5 MacBook Pro and 13-inch M5 MacBook Air
While both machines run on the standard M5 chip, there’s a $600 price difference between the two laptops.
The M5 MacBook Air starts at $1099 compared to the M5 MacBook Pro which starts at $1699.
The base model MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display while the MacBook Pro has a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. XDR refers to the ability to display high dynamic range content, like HDR photos and videos.
There’s also a difference between the M5 chip used in the base model of each laptop. Each M5 chip has a 10-core CPU. The MacBook Air version starts with an 8-core GPU compared to the 10-core GPU inside the M5 MacBook Pro.
Both machines can be configured with up to 4TB SSD storage. However, MacBook Pro starts with 1TB storage compared to the MacBook Air’s 512GB storage.
Memory on each starts at 16GB with options for 24GB and 32GB RAM.
Portability and battery life
MacBook Air is lighter at 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg) compared to the MacBook Pro at 3.4 pounds (1.55 kg). Lighter also means thinner. The MacBook Air is 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick compared to the MacBook Pro at 0.61 inches (1.55 cm).
The display difference extends to the width and depth too. MacBook Air is 11.97 inches (30.41 cm) wide and 8.46 inches (21.5 cm) deep. MacBook Pro is 12.31 inches (31.26 cm) wide and 8.71 inches (22.12 cm) deep.
Battery life is another difference. The thicker and heavier MacBook Pro promises up to 24 hours of battery life compared to up to 18 hours on MacBook Air.
That six-hour battery life difference is based on video streaming, though….
