MacBooks have been ridiculously easy to recommend since we first started reviewing them in the mid-2010s, but especially since Apple rolled out its first M-series chips in 2020. That custom silicon affords them much faster, quieter performance than most competing Windows laptops. When you factor in their elite build quality and polished operating system, it's no wonder our guide to the best laptops is teeming with MacBooks.

Every current MacBook model got a price hike this summer — thanks, RAMageddon — but we still think they're pretty good values in the current market. After hands-on testing the lineup for performance, battery life, and build quality, here are the best MacBooks we recommend for different kinds of users.

Overview

These are the tech, tools, and products — from laptops to e-readers, from earbuds to robovacs, and more — that Mashable ranks best in class.

Table of Contents

Which is the best MacBook to buy right now?

As of August 2026, I think the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air is the best MacBook for most people. It's a sleek, future-proofed ultraportable with the right amount of premium features and more than enough muscle for everyday multitasking, including occasional content creation. It's the ideal daily driver.

You might also consider the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air, which is slightly cheaper and more portable. I think it's the best MacBook for college students.

The MacBook Neo is my top pick for budget shoppers, casual users, and younger students. It's not nearly as fast or as fancy as the latest MacBook Air, but it's a good performer for its price point, and it's just as well-made as any other MacBook. If your typical workload involves bopping between some Chrome tabs and an app or two, look no further.

If you want the nicest features and enough sustained power for photo editing, video rendering, AI work, and occasional gaming, the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is your best bet. It one-ups the Air with better thermal management, more ports, more base storage, a smoother display, and a longer battery life. Just come prepared to spend at least $500 more.

The Good & The Bad

  • M5 chip is incredibly powerful
  • Now starts with 512GB of storage
  • Sleek all-aluminum design with a pretty display
  • Excellent webcam, speakers, and keyboard
  • Premium haptic trackpad

  • More future-proof than a MacBook Neo

  • Battery life is slightly worse than before

  • Got a $200 price hike because of RAMageddon (but still a solid deal in this market)

Who it's for

Apple's latest MacBook Air packs the blazing-fast performance of the M5 chip inside a predictably polished and portable design. It's a great daily driver that can do basically anything the average person needs a laptop for, making it the best MacBook for everyday use. Yes, it's several hundred dollars pricier than a MacBook Neo, but it's a much better, more future-proofed computer in every way. It's worth the upcharge.

I think most folks will make good use of the larger screen on the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air, which starts at $1,499. It's configurable with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 4TB of storage.

Why we picked this

The M5 MacBook Air successfully beats the awkward middle child allegations. It easily handles the workloads of everyday multitaskers, and it has some premium features that won't feel outdated in a few years (without going too overboard on nice-to-haves).

This is one of the fastest laptops on the market, no matter how you stack it. In heavy multi-core workloads like video editing, the MacBook Air rivals premium Windows laptops with Intel's new high-end Panther Lake chips. In simpler single-core tasks like web browsing, it doesn't have any competition except for a couple PCs with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite chips and Apple's own M5 MacBook Pro.

Speaking of: The M4 chip closed the performance gap between Apple's MacBook Air and Pro series, and that continues in the M5 era. The M5 MacBook Pro is only five percent faster than the Air in single-core tasks and nine percent faster in multi-core tasks. (They're effectively equals on both fronts.) Their biggest difference lies in the way they handle the stress of these tasks over a longer period of time. Heavy workloads are a breeze for the MacBook Pro, which has fans, but they can make the fanless MacBook Air get a bit warm, resulting in thermal throttling. If you're occasionally editing videos or playing some light games, you're totally fine with an Air. If you're a professional content creator who toils over demanding software on a daily basis, you probably need the Pro.

The M5 MacBook Air lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes in our battery life benchmark, which is a video rundown test. That's a small downgrade from the last generation, but you won't be screwed if you forget your charger at home.

Aesthetically, this is largely the same laptop as the M4 MacBook Air, which isn't a terrible thing, since that laptop slapped. (It just makes for a boring gen-over-gen update.) It has a crisp 12MP Center Stage webcam, a vivid Liquid Retina display, amazing speakers, a luxe haptic trackpad, a snappy backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and a sleek all-aluminum design. Like all MacBooks, its build quality is class-leading. You can take your pick from four neutral finishes: sky blue, silver, starlight, and midnight.

Details

The Good & The Bad

  • M5 chip is incredibly powerful
  • Now starts with 512GB of storage
  • Sleek all-aluminum design with a pretty display
  • Excellent webcam, speakers, and keyboard
  • Premium haptic trackpad

  • More future-proof than a MacBook Neo

  • Got a $200 price hike because of RAMageddon (but still a great deal in this market)

  • Battery life is slightly worse than before
  • Base model has a slightly less powerful GPU

Who it's for

For its ultraportable design and slightly lower price tag, I deem the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air the best MacBook for college students — particularly liberal arts, humanities, nursing, and social science majors. The budget MacBook Neo can serve you well in the short term if you just need a basic laptop for writing essays and sending emails. But this compact Air is a smarter investment that will last you past graduation.

As a college student, you'll save $100 on the 13-inch MacBook Air with Apple's education discount. It starts at $1,199 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which you can bump up to 32GB and 4TB, respectively.

Read PCMag's full review of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M5). PCMag and Mashable are both owned by Ziff Davis.

Why we picked this

The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air is just as fast and pretty as the 15-inch model, but easier to carry across campus (and a little nicer on your wallet).

There are only a couple minor differences between the two sizes. The 13-incher has two fewer speakers, and its base model has a lesser GPU with two fewer cores (eight versus 10), making it a hair worse for stuff like light video editing and gaming. Otherwise, their performance and specs are identical. It comes in the same four colorways, too.

Details

The Good & The Bad

  • The cheapest MacBook you can buy
  • A18 Pro chip offers amazing single-core performance
  • Same all-aluminum chassis as nicer MacBooks
  • Fun color options
  • Pretty Liquid Retina display

  • Great speakers with Dolby Atmos

  • Doesn't last as long as other MacBooks

  • Only 8GB of RAM (and you can't upgrade it)
  • No keyboard backlighting
  • Touch ID costs extra
  • Few ports and no Thunderbolt support
  • Got a $100 price hike because of RAMageddon (but still affordable)

Who it's for

The MacBook Neo is the best choice for budget buyers and casual users, including K-12 students. It's not as well-rounded as a MacBook Air, but it's an amazing starter laptop with the same great build quality (and livelier color options). It also makes a good secondary laptop for entertainment and online shopping if you like leaving your daily driver at the office.

The MacBook Neo comes in two configurations. There's a $699 base model with 256GB of storage, and a $799 version that doubles your disk space and adds Touch ID.

Why we picked this

The Neo doesn't have a ton of pizzazz or multitasking brawn, but it's great for what it is: a very cheap MacBook. It outclasses similarly priced Windows laptops and Chromebooks.

Inside the Neo, you'll find an A18 Pro chip with a six-core CPU and a five-core GPU, which is a lesser version of the processor inside 2024's iPhone 16 Pro. A laptop running on a smartphone chip? How does that work? Very well, actually, per our benchmarking. (Modern smartphones have been holding their own against PCs for some time now.) In basic single-core tasks, the Neo scores on par with an M4 MacBook Air. In other words, it feels just as snappy as a much more expensive MacBook when you're browsing the web, sending emails, and streaming videos.

In heavy multi-core tasks like video editing, the Neo scores about as well as an M1 MacBook Air from 2020 — not too shabby. Mashable Tech Editor Timothy Beck Werth had no trouble using it for a simple Final Cut Pro edit. But keep in mind that its 8GB of fixed RAM is really going to limit your ability to juggle a bunch of apps or files. The archetypal Neo user will only have a couple of browser tabs open at any given time, maybe with Spotify running in the background. Anything too demanding will make it pokey.

The Neo lasts for around 15 hours per charge. It dies much sooner than an Air or Pro, but it'll definitely get you through a full workday with plenty of juice to spare. For what it's worth, the Windows laptops and Chromebooks in our current testing database have median battery lives of 14 hours and 10 hours, respectively.

The 13-inch Neo weighs the same as a 13-inch MacBook Air (which technically measures 13.6 inches across), but it's slightly thicker. It's also fanless, just like the Air. It has a pretty Liquid Retina display and excellent speakers with Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio support. Its 1080p webcam is located in its upper bezel, so unlike a MacBook Air or Pro, it doesn't have an uggo notch jutting down into its screen. Apple ditched features like keyboard backlighting, True Tone display technology, a haptic touchpad, and fast Thunderbolt ports in making the Neo affordable, but it didn't skimp on build quality. It has an all-aluminum design that makes it just as sturdy and polished as any other MacBook. (Most cheap laptops have plastic components.) It also comes in some fun blush and citrus colors.

Details

The Good & The Bad

  • Best battery life
  • Better at handling demanding workloads than a MacBook Air
  • Beautiful mini-LED 120Hz display with optional nano-texture finish
  • Great mix of ports
  • Awesome keyboard, speakers, and webcam
  • Premium haptic trackpad

  • Optimized for running AI models locally

  • Space black colorway clings to fingerprints

  • Expensive, especially after a $300 price hike because of RAMageddon

Who it's for

The M5 MacBook Pro is my top pick for power users and deep-pocketed shoppers who want a MacBook with the nicest, most future-proofed specs. It's overkill for the average person, but it's worth the splurge for artists, content creators, developers, AI enthusiasts, and other professionals with consistently demanding workloads. (It's also the best MacBook for gaming, relatively speaking.) It's available in one 14-inch size that makes it well-suited for on-the-go lifestyles.

The M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, making it the priciest pick on this guide. It maxes out with 32GB of RAM and 4TB of disk space, and there's an optional nano-texture display upgrade that costs $150 extra.

Read Mashable's full review of the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M5).

Why we picked this

Some creative professionals will look at the M5 MacBook Air and find its specs a little lacking — more "adequate" than "amazing." For you, there's the M5 MacBook Pro.

To date, this guy has the best performance-to-battery-life ratio out of any MacBook we've tested. In demanding multi-core workloads, it's faster than 90 percent of the laptops in our current testing database, including many newer Windows laptops that cost well over $2,000. It's only nine percent faster than the M5 MacBook Air in such scenarios, but again, its fans make it better at handling them over a long period of time. Thermal throttling is more likely with an Air.

It's worth mentioning that Mashable's Timothy Beck Werth was able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the M5 MacBook Pro. I wouldn't buy it solely for this reason: Windows laptops are compatible with way more games than MacBooks, and PCs with discrete GPUs, especially, are much better-equipped to run graphically taxing titles. But just know that AAA gaming is possible here if you want to run the occasional mission after work.

The M5 MacBook Pro held out for 21 hours and 17 minutes in our battery life benchmark, lasting almost 30 percent longer than its M4 predecessor (an impressive gen-over-gen bump); it beats the M5 MacBook Air by well over three hours. It's our battery life champ among MacBooks.

Design-wise, the M5 MacBook Pro is slightly less portable than the Air, but not by much. It's less than 0.2 inches thicker than both sizes and 0.1 pounds heavier than the 15-inch model. This affords it enough room for extra fixings like an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a bonus Thunderbolt port, as well as an awesome hi-fi sound system with force-cancelling woofers. I've tested dozens of laptops over the course of my career, and none of them sound better than a MacBook Pro.

The M5 MacBook Pro looks as spectacular as it sounds, as per tradition. (Apple hasn't made any drastic design changes to it since 2021.) Its mini-LED "Liquid Retina XDR" display offers a resolution of 3,024 x 1,964 pixels, a peak brightness of 1600 nits in HDR, and a 120Hz refresh rate. Compared to the M5 MacBook Air's standard Liquid Retina screen, it's crisper, brighter, and smoother when displaying visuals in motion — not necessary for all users, again, but very nice to have if you can swing the spend. Take your pick from two finishes: space black or silver. Be mindful that the former is a fingerprint magnet.

Details

Recent updates to this guide

In August 2026, I updated this guide to reflect Apple's newly increased MacBook prices. I also added the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air as a new pick for college students.

In May 2026, I added the results of our battery life testing for the M5 MacBook Air. It was able to loop a video for 17 hours and 40 minutes before dying.

The latest MacBook news

Apple raised its MacBook prices in June 2026 because of the ongoing global memory crunch, aka "RAMageddon." The MacBook Air has gotten $200 pricier since launch, while the Neo is now $100 more expensive. The MacBook Pro costs anywhere from $300 to $500 more, depending on the configuration.

RAMageddon is also reportedly causing a MacBook Air shortage. According to Bloomberg's Apple expert, Mark Gurman, "Retail store sources say Apple is struggling to keep the laptop in stock and that shipments of new units are more constrained than they can ever recall." At the time of writing, the MacBook Air was on backorder for two to six weeks in Apple's online store.

If you don't mind the possible shipping delay, Apple's back-to-school promotion is now live through Aug. 27, and it earns you a free gift card worth up to $150 when you buy a new MacBook Air or Pro. The offer is open to college students, their parents, and school faculty.

You can also now rent your MacBook instead of buying it. The new Klarna-powered Apple Upgrade program lets you lease a new MacBook Air or Pro for up to 36 months (starting at $24.99 per month). Once your term is up, you can either return your loaner, swap it for a newer model, or buy it outright.

What's on deck

Bloomberg's Gurman reports that Apple is working on several new MacBooks, including a MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen, an entry-level M6 MacBook Pro, a redesigned MacBook Air, and a second-generation MacBook Neo with more RAM and color options. The OLED MacBook Pro could arrive as soon as this October.

Frequently Asked Questions

MacBooks tend to go on sale at their deepest discounts during the back-to-school season, Amazon's summer Prime Day sale, and Black Friday. They also see steep price cuts as soon as they're no longer current-generation models, meaning right after Apple announces their successors (which usually happens every year in March and October.)

We spot the best MacBook deals at third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. The Apple Store's rare sales just entail free gift card promotions, not proper price cuts.

First, a little info about how Apple classifies its older products. Devices that it stopped selling more than five years ago but less than seven are considered "vintage," whereas devices it stopped selling more than seven years ago are "obsolete."

Vintage MacBooks are still eligible for hardware support from Apple, depending on parts availability, but it won't fix obsolete MacBooks. And you can't get parts for them from third-party service providers like Best Buy and Micro Center.

If your obsolete MacBook is still chugging along like normal, is in good condition, and doesn't seem sluggish or scant on storage, by all means, keep using it. However, if any component breaks, deteriorates, or no longer meets your needs, it's time to send it off to the great MacBook farm in the sky. Consider recycling or donating it so it doesn't sit in a landfill.

While MacBooks don't get software updates forever, it's not a dealbreaker if yours can't run the latest version of macOS. You might be able to repurpose it as a streaming device or turn it into a Chromebook. That said, a MacBook you use as your primary laptop for school or work needs to be compatible with the current macOS in order to stay secure and continue running Apple apps.

FYI: The upcoming version of Apple's Mac operating system, macOS 27 (aka macOS Golden Gate), will only work with M-series MacBooks from 2020 or later. That means if your daily driver is an older model with an Intel chip, it's officially time to upgrade. It will still get security updates for the next two-ish years, but it won't support any new features going forward.

Some of the best Windows laptops and Chromebooks we've tested can rival MacBooks on performance and/or build quality. My current favorite MacBook alternatives include the Asus Zenbook A14, the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514, and the Dell XPS 14.

If you want to stay within the Apple ecosystem, iPads also make good MacBook alternatives thanks to iPadOS's "windowing" system.

Mashable has been writing about laptops for over a decade, and I've personally been covering them since 2023. I also helped develop the rigorous hands-on testing process we currently use to review them. This methodology revolves around four criteria:

The laptops we review get put to work as our primary computers. This includes trying any unique software or use cases they support. We also subject all of our loaners to a multi-app/tab stress test and Primate Labs' Geekbench, which measures CPU performance in common tasks. Gaming laptops get put through additional graphical benchmarking.

To gauge a laptop's stamina, we conduct a battery rundown test that involves playing a looped 1080p version of "Tears of Steel," a short open-source Blender movie, at 50 percent brightness and 50 percent volume. Ideally, we hope to get at least 19 hours of battery life from MacBooks.

As we're using a laptop, we zero in on certain components to evaluate its build quality. These include the display, keyboard, touchpad, webcam, speakers, and ports. We also assess its overall aesthetic and portability.

We determine the ultimate value of a laptop by comparing its performance, design/build quality, and battery life to other laptops with similar pricing, specs, release dates, and use cases. We consider any accessories it comes with, any upgrades from its predecessor(s), and its future-proofing.

Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.