Build Daily

Tinley Park · August 23, 2026
Alex ZiskindAug 12, 2026

I Put the M5 MacBook Air Against Every Generation for Dev Work

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What it covers

The video compares five generations of Apple Silicon MacBook Airs (M1 through M5) for development work, highlighting improvements in storage speed, CPU performance, and multi-core throughput while noting persistent issues like Wi-Fi bottlenecks and thermal throttling.

The outline

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  1. 0:00

    Introduction & Setup

    The creator introduces the five MacBook Air generations and explains that all machines are updated to macOS Tahoe for a fair comparison.

  2. 2:17

    Hardware Overview

    The M5 retains the same chassis as previous models but adds Wi-Fi 7 via the N1 chip, though it lacks Thunderbolt 5.

  3. 3:30

    Wi-Fi Performance

    Despite having Wi-Fi 7 hardware, the M5's network speeds are bottlenecked by Apple limiting channels to 160 MHz, resulting in performance similar to or slightly behind older models.

  4. 3:52

    External Displays

    The M5 maintains the M4's support for two external displays plus the built-in screen but adds the ability to drive both externals through a single Thunderbolt port.

  5. 4:42

    Storage Speeds

    The M5 significantly improves SSD performance with sequential speeds that more than double previous generations and eliminates the base 256GB storage option.

  6. 5:45

    Web & Single-Core Performance

    Speedometer benchmarks show a modest 5% single-core improvement over the M4, while a C++ sorting test reveals an 8% gain due to architectural changes in the new 'super cores'.

  7. 8:47

    Build Times & Throttling

    The M5 builds Llama.cpp 14% faster than the M4, and a sustained merge sort test shows it is the fastest but experiences slightly more thermal throttling variance than its predecessors.

Performance vs. trade-offs

Each generation's improvements come with lingering constraints—like base storage speed and monitor limits—that impact workflow consistency. For a solo builder, these hidden friction points can accumulate into real bottlenecks during sustained development. The M5's refinements suggest that incremental hardware evolution now includes thoughtful resolution of prior compromises.