The first fork in the road you’ll come to when buying a MacBook is to follow the Air path, go down the Pro path or take the Neo shortcut. For people looking for an everyday home laptop or work laptop for running basic office applications, the MacBook Neo will suffice. For creative types that require more processing and the graphics muscle of Apple’s new M5 Pro and Max chips, the MacBook Pro is worth the extra cost. And in the middle, the MacBook Air remains the best portable computer 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 some important things to keep in mind.
Price
The MacBook entry price is $599. That gets you a 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 the MacBook Pro model starts at $1,699. Here are the starting prices for the current Apple 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’re going to take your MacBook to class, work or down to your local coffee shop early in the morning, the Air is the better choice. The 13-inch MacBook Air models weigh less than 3 pounds, while the roomier 15-inch Air weighs only 3.3 pounds, which is lighter than the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
The flip side to portability is the screen size. The 16-inch MacBook Pro gives you enough space to work and multitask, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro tries to hit the sweet spot between a large display and portability. 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
The processor
The processor, also known as the CPU, is the brain of the laptop. MacBooks have used Apple processors since the introduction of the M1 processor in 2020. The M1-based MacBooks were a clear improvement over Apple’s previous Intel-based machines in terms of overall functionality, performance and battery life. The M1 MacBooks were powerful, boasted long runtimes and ran cool and quiet.
The latest line of MacBook Airs features the Apple M5 chip, except for the new MacBook Neo which is based on the A18 Pro chip borrowed from the iPhone 16 Pro. For the MacBook Pro line, more powerful configurations are available with Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.
Pictures
The graphics processor handles all the work of driving the screen and generating what is displayed, as well as speeding up many graphics-related (and increasingly, AI-related) tasks. Apple series CPUs include a GPU. The more cores a GPU has, the better the graphics performance. Here is the breakdown:
- A18 Pro: 5-core GPU
- the 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 the applications that are currently running, and it can fill up quickly. After that, it starts switching between RAM and SSD, which is slow. The MacBook Neo has 8GB of RAM, while the MacBook Air models start at 16GB of RAM, as well as the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro. The minimum for the M5 Pro MacBook Pro models is 24GB, while the M5 Max MacBook Pros offer 36GB or more.
You can’t upgrade the memory on the latest MacBooks, so you’ll need to get all the RAM you’ll need up front. MacBooks are able to run macOS and pre-installed operating systems well with less RAM provided, but doubling the RAM will make your MacBook feel faster and likely lead to a longer laptop life.
Storage
MacBooks include solid-state drives, or SSDs. The MacBook Neo starts with a 256GB SSD, but the MacBook Air model offers a minimum of 512GB. MacBook Pros now start at 1TB SSD. If you use cloud storage for your files, music collection and photo library, you may be able to get away with a 256GB SSD without filling it up too soon.
