Apple’s newest MacBook Air has only been out for about a month, and Amazon is already hammering down the price in a big way. Right now, you can grab the 2026 MacBook Air with M5 chip — in both 13-inch and 15-inch flavors — for $150 off, and these aren’t minor, blink-and-you ‘ll-miss-them discounts. These are record lows, and this is the first time the M5 Air has dipped this low since it launched in early March 2026.

To put it plainly: Apple still sells these at full price on its own website. Amazon is an authorized Apple reseller, which means you get the exact same one-year Apple warranty — just with significantly more money staying in your wallet.

Here’s the full breakdown of what’s on sale right now:

13-inch MacBook Air (M5)

• 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD — $1,099 → $949 (save $150)
• 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD — $1,299 → $1,149 (save $150)
• 24GB RAM / 1TB SSD — $1,499 → $1,349 (save $150)

15-inch MacBook Air (M5)

• 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD — $1,299 → $1,149 (save $150)
• 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD — $1,499 → $1,349 (save $150)
• 24GB RAM / 1TB SSD — $1,699 → $1,549 (save $150)

All models are in stock and ship free, with Prime members getting delivery as soon as the next day.

A $150 discount on any laptop is decent. A $150 discount on a brand-new Apple laptop that launched less than five weeks ago? That’s remarkable. If you haven’t been keeping up with Apple’s latest silicon releases, here’s why the M5 chip is a meaningful upgrade — not just a spec bump for the sake of it.

The M5 chip is a genuine performance leap. Compared to the M4 Air, the M5 delivers roughly an 11% improvement in single-core performance and about 14% better multi-core scores in Geekbench 6 benchmarks. That might sound modest in isolation, but in real-world use — think snappy app launches, smooth multitasking, faster exports — it adds up.

Storage speeds are dramatically faster. This is arguably the biggest under-the-radar improvement. Expert Reviews benchmarked both read and write speeds on the M5 Air at more than double those of the M4 Air, which brings it in line with what you’d see on the M5 MacBook Pro. For anyone who works with large files — video editors, photographers, developers — this is a huge deal that doesn’t always get the headline attention it deserves.

The GPU got a serious AI-focused redesign. Apple embedded Neural Accelerators directly into each GPU core. According to Apple (and corroborated by benchmark testing), this delivers “over 4x the peak GPU compute performance for AI compared to M4.” Whether you’re using Apple Intelligence features, local AI tools, or creative apps that lean on the GPU, this is a meaningfully different machine under the hood.

Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 are now standard. Powered by Apple’s N1 wireless chip, the M5 Air supports Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 6, making it one of the most future-proof wireless setups you’ll find on any laptop today.

Battery life is still up to 18 hours. Apple’s efficiency story hasn’t changed — this thing still comfortably lasts a full workday and then some.

13-inch or 15-inch — which one should you buy?

This is the classic MacBook Air dilemma, and the honest answer depends on how you use your laptop.

Go for the 13-inch if you’re primarily on the move. It weighs just 2.7 pounds, and its 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is sharp and color-accurate. It’s the quintessential “throw it in your bag and forget it’s there” machine. The base 16GB/512GB configuration at $949 is, frankly, an outstanding value for what you’re getting — M5 chip, fast storage, all-day battery, and a brilliant display.

Go for the 15-inch if you spend more time at a desk or want more screen real estate without buying an external monitor. The 15.3-inch display runs at 2880×1864 resolution, and the six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers is legitimately impressive for a laptop this thin. It weighs 3.3 pounds — still very portable, just a bit heftier.

Both share identical chip configurations, port selection (two Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe 3, and a 3.5mm headphone jack), and the same 12MP Center Stage camera.

What configuration should you actually buy?

Here’s an honest take:

16GB / 512GB — This is the sweet spot for most people. Students, writers, casual creatives, and general-purpose users will never feel bottlenecked here. At $949 for the 13-inch, this is one of the best laptop values on the market, period.

16GB / 1TB — Step up here if you store a lot of locally — large photo libraries, music collections, game installs, or project files. The $200 premium over the 512GB is reasonable if storage is a recurring headache for you.

24GB / 1TB — Power users, developers, and anyone regularly running large language models locally or doing heavier creative work should consider this. The Verge stress-tested the Air with 500 RAW photos in Lightroom, a 4K export in Premiere, a Steam download, and 17 Chrome tabs simultaneously — and while it slowed down and got warm, it didn’t crash. That’s impressive for a fanless machine. The 24GB unified memory gives you meaningful headroom.

One caveat worth mentioning

Early reviews and some customer feedback flagged a firmware issue at launch that prevented some units from connecting to Wi-Fi during initial setup. Apple acknowledged the problem and addressed it via a software update. If you buy today, you should be getting a unit with the fixed firmware — but if you run into setup issues straight out of the box, know that an Apple Store visit or a call to Apple Support can sort it out. The overwhelming majority of customer reviews since mid-March have been positive.

Deals like this don’t tend to stick around. Stock is available now, but pricing can change without notice.

Disclaimer: Prices and promotions mentioned in this article are accurate at the time of writing and are subject to change based on the retailers’ discretion. Please verify the current offer before making a purchase.