Apple does not run sales on its own store, so a cheaper MacBook Air has to come from another retailer. A few days before Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon is that retailer: the 2026 13-inch MacBook Air with the M5 chip goes from $1,299 to $1,099, a 15% drop, and the price is shown to every shopper, with or without a Prime membership. The configuration is the one with 16GB of unified memory and a 512GB SSD, in Midnight.
18 Hours of Battery and Wi-Fi 7 in a 13-Inch Laptop
The battery figure is Apple’s, and it is quoted as “up to” 18 hours, so the real number will depend on what you do with the machine. Even with that caveat it changes how you carry a laptop: a full day of classes, or a long-haul flight with a film and some work, without looking for an outlet or packing the charger. I’ll admit that is the spec I look at first on any Air, ahead of the chip.
The chip is the M5, which Apple describes as having a faster CPU than the previous generation, a new GPU and a Neural Engine intended for on-device AI tasks. Those tasks go through Apple Intelligence, the set of writing and productivity tools built into macOS, and Apple says the data involved is not accessible to anyone else, the company included. For most buyers the more tangible part is the 16GB of memory, which is what keeps a browser full of tabs, a video call and a photo editor open together without the system slowing down. The 512GB SSD is a comfortable amount for documents and a photo library, less so for large video projects.
The screen is a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina panel that displays a billion colors, and text on it is sharp enough for long reading sessions. Above it sits a 12MP camera with Center Stage, which reframes the picture to keep you in shot when you move during a call, and a Desk View mode that shows what is on the table in front of you. Sound comes from four speakers with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support, and three microphones pick up your voice.
Connectivity is where the Air stays modest. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a MagSafe port for charging (so both Thunderbolt ports remain free) and a headphone jack, and that is the whole list. Anyone who plugs in an HDMI cable or a camera card should plan for an adapter, and that’s the part I find hardest to forgive on a laptop at this price. The machine does drive up to two external displays, and Apple’s N1 wireless chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, though Wi-Fi 7 speeds require a router that supports the standard.
Midnight is the color shown at this price: the 13-inch MacBook Air M5 with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD is $1,099 instead of $1,299 on Amazon, labeled a limited time deal with free returns and no Prime requirement. The two 1TB versions are reduced as well, to $1,399 instead of $1,599 with 16GB of memory and $1,599 instead of $1,799 with 24GB.