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Its hard to believe that its been almost four years since Apple gave the MacBook Air a serious glow-up. The 2022 model was a total redesign that bumped its performance with the M2 chip and also improved a number of key components. It was also the first MacBook Air to drop the signature tapered design, and Apple added a 15-inch model one year later to boot. Since then, Apples primarily focused on making sure it has a new chip every year were already up to the M5, if you can believe it. As such, the latest MacBook Air is an expected update that doesnt change the game. Not that it needed changing: its been our favorite ultraportable laptop for years now. But the Airs place in Apples lineup has changed with the simultaneous introduction of the $599 MacBook Neo. And unfortunately, Apple didnt keep the $999 price that last years M4 MacBook Air hit; its back up to $1,099, the same price as the M2 and M3 models. Now that theres the new, inexpensive MacBook Neo out there, who is the MacBook Air for? While I havent used the Neo yet, Im pretty comfortable answering that question: its still for almost anyone. The essentials havent changed While the latest MacBook Air is physically unchanged from its 2022 revision, I dont have a problem with that. I find the Air to be the Platonic ideal of a laptop that most people will be hard-pressed to find issues with. The 13.6-inch (or 15.3-inch, if you opt for the bigger size) display isnt the most cutting edge screen out there, but its still sharp, bright and colorful. Its stuck at a 60Hz refresh rate at a time when many PC manufacturers are using faster screens, but for the Airs audience I dont think thats a problem. I may be miffed that the iPad Air similarly only has a pedestrian 60Hz refresh rate but I think its less crucial on a Mac, where youre not literally touching the screen (at least for now). Other minor quibbles include the fact that Apple still hasnt put a USB-C port on the right side of the computer in addition to those on the left, and the screen notch is still weird if you focus on it too much. But other than that, I cant really come up with any issues here. At 2.7 pounds, the Air isnt the lightest laptop out there, but Ill take the extremely solid feel of the unibody aluminum case over a lighter and possibly flimsier plastic. MacBook Air M5 Nathan Ingraham for Engadget The keyboard and trackpad remain delightful, as well. My main laptop is a 14-inch MacBook Pro, and I can perceive the Airs comparatively thinner case when typing on it. Its not bad at all, it just feels slightly different. But after a short adjustment period, I really didnt think about it and typed away without a care in the world. Its baffling to me that a company that made a keyboard this good also made the horrific butterfly keyboards of yore, but fortunately that era is far in the past. The haptic-powered trackpad is huge, smooth and responsive, just like the ones on all other recent Mac laptops. Altogether, the input experience is great, and I rarely find myself really feeling like I need an external keyboard or mouse. I know people have strong feelings about that, so do as you wish, but its not really something I think about anymore. The MacBook Airs speakers and webcam are also still excellent. Last year, Apple upgraded the 1080p webcam in the Air to a 12-megapixel Center Stage model that can follow your movements to keep you in frame or switch to a desk view that shows a top-down viewpoint of the area in front of the laptop. The old 1080p webcam was already pretty solid, and while this one doesnt magically repair your wrinkles, its definitely more versatile and detailed. The speakers, meanwhile, remain one of those things that Apple has absolutely nailed with this generation of its laptops. Theyre relatively loud and well-balanced, providing far better sound than Id expect from such a thin enclosure. MacBook Air M5 Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Enough power to last for years All of this is well-known, though. The big change this year is the M5 chip, which has been available for a while already in the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. So, we have a good idea of what to expect here as well. Im testing the 13-inch model with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage that costs $1,299. Its hard to perceive a difference between the M5 and last years M4 in my normal routine (dozens of tabs, Slack, Lightroom, Apple Music streaming and a bunch of lightweight apps like Bear notes, Todoist and so on). And based on my history with Apples M-series chips, the M5 will be a great performer for years to come. My work-issued MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip still runs like a champ almost five years after it was released, for example. That said, users who do more than the basics with their laptop and have one with a chip older than 2022s M2 will likely find the M5 Air to be a nice upgrade. Geekbench 6 benchmarks show the M5 is 11 percent and 17 percent faster than the M4 Air in single-core and multi-core tests (both with 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSDs). There were bigger GPU gains this year, with the M5 scoring 31 percent higher than the M4. Few people out there are likely looking to upgrade from an M4 Air. But the M5 could be a noteworthy upgrade from the M3, depending of course on your workload. The M5 is 31 percent and 43 percent faster than the M3 in single- and multi-core testing. And the GPU is a whopping 56 percent faster as well. If youre interested in doing things like video editing, music creation, gaming or AI tasks, youll definitely appreciate these performance gains. MacBook Air M5 Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Finally, these benchmark illustrate the gap between the MacBook Neo and the Air. The M5 is about 24 percent faster than the A18 Pro in the single-core test, but it demolishes the Neos chip in multi-core (105 percent) and GPU (144 percent) performance. This just reiterates what we already know the Neo is best-suited for basic tasks, while the Air should have more than enough power until you get into more specialized use cases. And while no one will mistake the MacBook Air for a gaming laptop, Apple has had increasing success at getting developers to bring big titles to the Mac. Games like Assassins Creed Shadows, Cyberpunk 2077, Lies of P, Control and Resident Evil Village, along with indies like Neva, Stray and Balatro, are available here. Thats not to mention the many quality games worth checking out on Apple Arcade. All this is to say that Macs may still not be the premiere gaming platform, but people who dont have access to a PlayStation, Xbox or more powerful gaming PC can still try a lot of great games on the platform. Thanks to the M5, these games play pretty well to boot. I tried Cyberpunk 2077, one of the more notoriously demanding games out there, and had a stutter-free experience. Most graphically intense Mac games default to a for this Mac setting so you dont really need to worry about optimizing settings. Cyberpunk 2077 stayed pretty well locked at 30 fps in my experience obviously not as good as what youll get on a high-end PC or PlayStation 5, but I never felt like I was having a degraded experience. It was smooth, responsive and looked gorgeous. Getting that kind of performance from an ultraportable like the MacBook Air is hard to complain about. Finally, battery life was close to Apples expectations. The company promises 18 hours of streaming video playback or 15 hours of web browsing. In my test, I looped a locally-stored 4K video file with my screen at half brightness and got exactly 18 hours of playback before the laptop died. Im sure it would have been less if I was streaming the video, but still. Under my usual working conditions running a variety of apps, I got more in the 10-hour range, which is more than good enough for me. MacBook Air M5 Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Wrap-up Even with the MacBook Neo showing its chops despite its relatively humble hardware, I think the MacBook Air is by far the best Apple laptop for most people. Sure, Apples continued insistence on limiting screens with higher refresh rates to its most expensive hardware is increasingly frustrating. But other than that, the MacBook Air punches above its weight in just about every aspect particularly when it comes to performance. The M5 is extremely powerful now and should make this years Air a useful computer for five years or even longer, depending on what you do with it. The MacBook Air is so mature and well-engineered at this point that its not the most exciting thing to review. But if you use one for a bit, its easy to appreciate just how good of a laptop it is.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/macbook-air-m5-review-same-but-faster-120000685.html?src=rss
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Apple's exclusive deal for US broadcast rights of Formula 1 was a big shift to streaming from ESPN's cable coverage of the past, but after the first race (the Australian Grand Prix), it seems to be going well. "The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start, with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations," Apple VP Eddy Cue told The Hollywood Reporter. Apple didn't give any ratings or other details, but we can glean some clues from previous data. Last year, ESPN said the Australian GP averaged 1.1 million viewers, way up from the previous record of 659,000 in 2019. If Cue's comments were accurate, that means Apple TV's audience was above that, which would be impressive considering that it's a streaming-only service. When Apple's Formula streaming deal was first announced, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali was bullish on the deal. "It will allow us to enter in the houses of other people in a different way, in great quality that is very important for us," he told Racer. Indeed, Apple is pouring resources into it in a way that ESPN never did. That includes advanced tech that offers multiple ways for fans to watch, including Multiview, Podium Viewer, driver cams and 4K Dolby Vision coverage, Cue noted. Apple has jumped into Formula 1 racing in other other ways as well, taking advantage of a surge in the sport's popularity aided by Netflix's series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. The streaming service's F1 movie starring Brad Pitt did huge box office numbers and is likely to see a sequel. Apple also struck a deal with Netflix on the aforementioned Drive to Survive series to share streaming of the current season eight (which details the F1 2025 championship). That agreement will also allow Netflix to stream the F1 Canadian Grand Prix live, along with Apple TV. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-says-f1-streaming-already-exceeds-everyones-expectations-111028328.html?src=rss
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Bandai Namco has announced a new Little Nightmares game, this time for virtual reality. Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes is developed by Iconik and not by Tarsier Studios, but its still connected to the beloved titles Little Nightmares I and II. Remember Dark Six, the protagonist Sixs dark doppelganger from the previous games? Well, in this installment, you will control her as she goes on a journey to reunite with the actual Six in order to reunited with her and become whole. The adventure horror puzzle game promises an eerie, atmospheric universe with an immersive first-person perspective. It features new locations within Nowhere, a nightmarish world only accessible through dreams filled with dangerous creatures, such as the human-like Residents. The Thin Man, the antagonist of the franchises second installment, is also back. Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes is optimized for the PSVR2, the Meta Quest 2, 3 and 3s, the Oculus Rift and Rift S, the Pico 4, the Valve Index and the HTC Vive. However, it also works with other PC VR headsets. It will be available on April 24, 2026, and you can add it to your Wishlist right now on the PlayStation, Steam and Meta stores. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/little-nightmares-vr-altered-echoes-arrives-in-april-101626370.html?src=rss
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