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#1Apple MacBook Air 13 - M5 Series

Best overall student laptop

Apple MacBook Air 13 - M5 Series

$1,499starting price

Key Specs

  • 13-inch display
  • 16GB RAM
  • 512GB storage
  • Apple M5 10-core CPU
  • M5 8-core GPU
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Why we recommend it

The MacBook Air 13 is one of the safest and easiest laptops to recommend to students. It is lightweight, silent, powerful enough for everyday school work, and has excellent battery life. It is ideal for students who want a reliable laptop for writing, browsing, research, presentations, video calls, and general productivity.

Pros

  • Excellent value for students who are comfortable with macOS
  • Very strong everyday performance
  • Excellent real-world battery life
  • Completely silent fanless design
  • Very portable
  • Best-in-class trackpad with excellent palm rejection

Cons

  • M5 is only a modest upgrade over the M4 model
  • Fanless design limits sustained heavy performance
  • Display is still a 60Hz IPS panel
  • Keyboard travel feels a bit shallow
  • Only two USB-C ports, both on the left side

Ready to buy the Apple MacBook Air 13?

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