Apple has launched new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with the company’s M5 chips, though they will be more expensive than previous generations amid the industry-wide memory shortage.
The new M5 chips include a faster central processing unit and a next-generation graphics processing unit, which Apple has said will enable complex artificial intelligence tasks. The MacBook Pro also features M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, allowing even faster performance than the standard M5.
“The new MacBook Air with M5 brings incredible performance and even more capability to the world’s most popular laptop,” said Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus.
“With M5, MacBook Air powers through a wide range of tasks, from everyday productivity to creative workloads, and is even faster for AI.”
The new MacBook Pro is also up to four times faster than previous generations, said Ternus.
Both the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will be available to pre-order from tomorrow, and will be widely available on 11 March.
The MacBook Air will be US$100 more expensive than its predecessor, while the MacBook Pro is priced $400 higher.
The price increase comes amid a shortage of memory components as manufacturers reroute their capacity to artificial intelligence chips. Memory prices surged by 80-90% in the first month of 2026, according to a Counterpoint Research report.
It also follows Apple reporting a slump in Mac sales last quarter, with Mac revenue falling well below LSEG estimates.
The company reportedly uploaded a new regulatory document to its website mentioning a new product called the MacBook Neo today, though this has now been removed. Apple has yet to announce the MacBook Neo, and no details appeared in the document.
Apple also introduced the budget-level iPhone 17e and a new iPad Air model earlier this week.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares closed 0.37% lower at $263.75. Its market capitalisation is $3.88 trillion.
