MacBook Air 15-inch (M5) vs MacBook Air 13-inch (M5)

Apple announced both sizes on 3 March 2026, took pre-orders from 4 March and had them in US stores on 11 March. They come in the same four colors (sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver), and under either lid you’ll find a backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, a Force Touch trackpad and a 12MP Center Stage camera. Everything that separates them comes from the size of the lid.

Side by side

Spec	MacBook Air 15-inch (M5)	MacBook Air 13-inch (M5)
Screen	15.3-inch Liquid Retina, 2880 × 1864, 224 ppi	13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 × 1664, 224 ppi
Brightness	500 nits	500 nits
Size	0.45 × 13.40 × 9.35 in (1.15 × 34.04 × 23.76 cm)	0.44 × 11.97 × 8.46 in (1.13 × 30.41 × 21.5 cm)
Weight	3.3 lb (1.51 kg)	2.7 lb (1.23 kg)
Battery	66.5 Wh	53.8 Wh
Battery life	Up to 18 hours video streaming; 15 hours wireless web	Same
CPU	M5, 10-core (4 super, 6 efficiency), 153GB/s	Same
GPU	10-core	8-core; 10-core optional
Memory	16GB, up to 24GB or 32GB	Same
Storage	512GB, up to 1TB, 2TB or 4TB	Same
Speakers	Six, with force-cancelling woofers	Four
Ports	MagSafe 3, headphone jack, two Thunderbolt 4	Same
US price	$1,299 (education $1,199)	$1,099 (education $999)

Size and weight: what you carry

The 15-inch is 13.40 inches wide and 9.35 inches deep; the 13-inch is 11.97 by 8.46. That’s more than an inch of extra width and nearly an inch of extra depth, which can decide whether it fits a smaller sleeve or a cramped airline tray table. Thickness barely moves: 0.45 inches against 0.44.

Weight is the other half of it. The 15-inch weighs 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg) and the 13-inch 2.7 pounds (1.23 kg), so you carry about six-tenths of a pound more for the bigger screen. Apple notes that the exact weight varies with configuration and manufacturing.

A bigger screen, not a sharper one

Both screens are 224 pixels per inch, so the 15.3-inch panel isn’t any crisper. It has more pixels, 2880 × 1864 against 2560 × 1664, which means room for a second window or a longer editing timeline without an external monitor. Both are rated at 500 nits and show 1 billion colors across the wide P3 range, with True Tone.

Neither is a touchscreen, and neither has ProMotion or the mini-LED XDR screen of the 14-inch MacBook Pro. If those are what you want, you’re shopping for a Pro, not a bigger Air.

Battery: bigger in the 15-inch, same hours

The 15-inch’s battery is 66.5 watt-hours, against 53.8 in the 13-inch, yet Apple rates both for up to 18 hours of video streaming and 15 hours of wireless web. If you were counting on the bigger battery to stretch to 20 hours, it doesn’t on Apple’s numbers.

Apple ran both tests in January 2026 on machines with the 10-core CPU, 16GB and 512GB, each with its standard GPU (10-core in the 15-inch, 8-core in the 13-inch). The web test cycles through 25 sites, the video test streams 1080p in Safari over Wi-Fi, and brightness sits eight clicks from the bottom.

Charging is identical too. Both come with a 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max and a USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable, and both fast-charge from a USB-C adapter rated at 70W or more. When you order, you can swap the included brick for a 35W Dual USB-C Compact adapter or a 70W adapter; the bigger battery doesn’t get a bigger charger by default.

Sound and graphics come with the size

The 15-inch has six speakers with force-cancelling woofers; the 13-inch has four. Both handle Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. If you watch on the laptop rather than through headphones, this is the difference you’ll hear.

Every 15-inch has the 10-core GPU. The 13-inch starts with 8 GPU cores, and the 10-core version costs extra. Apple doesn’t give a US price for that upgrade, so price it in the configurator before you weigh it against the $200 step. Both GPUs have Neural Accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Everything else is shared

The M5 is the same chip in both: a 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores, a 16-core Neural Engine and 153GB/s of memory bandwidth. Memory starts at 16GB and goes to 24GB or 32GB; storage starts at 512GB and goes to 1TB, 2TB or 4TB.

The connections match. Each has MagSafe 3, a headphone jack and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which also handle USB4, at up to 40Gb/s, and Apple’s N1 chip handles Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 6 and Thread, with Wi-Fi 7 depending on your region. Going to 15 inches doesn’t add HDMI, an SD card slot or a third USB-C port. Either size drives up to two external displays with the lid open: two at up to 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz, or one at up to 8K at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz.

Both have three microphones with Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum. Both are fanless aluminum and completely silent, and both run macOS Tahoe with Apple Intelligence.

What they cost

The 15-inch starts at $1,299, or $1,199 with education pricing. The 13-inch starts at $1,099, or $999 for education. With the same 16GB and 512GB in both base models, the $200 goes entirely to size: the screen, the six speakers, the 10-core GPU and the bigger battery. Configuring a 13-inch with the 10-core GPU narrows that gap, and Apple’s prices change, so check its store before you buy.

If the laptop will mostly sit beside an external monitor, the 13-inch gives you the same computer for less. If its own screen is the one you’ll work on all day, the 15-inch is the one to stretch for.