Apple MacBook (13-inch, Late 2006) vs Apple MacBook Air 13″ (M5)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook (13-inch, Late 2006) | AppleMacBook Air 13″ (M5) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | November 2006 | March 2026 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 13.3″ | 13.6″ |
| Resolution | 1280 × 800 | 2560 × 1664 (better) |
| Panel | – | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | – | 60 Hz |
| Brightness | 250 nits | 500 nits (better) |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Glossy TFT widescreen display with millions of colours; exact panel technology and refresh rate unpublished by Apple. | Liquid Retina display; LED-backlit with IPS technology |
| Pixel density | – | 224 ppi |
| Colour range | – | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| Display features | – | True Tone |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz (MacBook Late 2006) or Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 | Apple M5 |
| CPU cores | 2 | 10 |
| Graphics | Intel GMA 950 (64 MB shared DDR2) | 8-core GPU or 10-core GPU |
| Memory | 512 MB, 1 GB or 2 GB | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) |
| Storage | 60 GB to 200 GB | 512 GB to 4 TB (better) |
| CPU | 1.83 GHz or 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2 MB L2 cache for 1.83 GHz and 4 MB for 2.0 GHz, with a 667 MHz front-side bus. Notebookcheck identifies the 2.0 GHz processor as T7200; the lower-clocked processor is kept as a maker-described record without an unverified Intel SKU. | 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores |
| GPU | Intel GMA 950 (64 MB shared DDR2) | Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode |
| AI engine | – | 16-core Neural Engine |
| Memory type | Two SO-DIMM slots for 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300); 512 MB standard at 1.83 GHz, 1 GB at 2.0 GHz, and up to 2 GB maker-supported. | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | – | 153 GB/s |
| Storage type | White 1.83 GHz starts at 60 GB with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive; white 2.0 GHz starts at 80 GB and black 2.0 GHz at 120 GB, with a 6x DVD-writing SuperDrive. Build-to-order hard drives are 80 GB, 120 GB or 160 GB at 5400 rpm, or 200 GB at 4200 rpm. | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB |
| Cooling | – | Fanless |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 6 hours | Up to 18 hours |
| Battery capacity | 55 Wh (better) | 53.8 Wh |
| Weight | 2.36 kg | 1.23 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 27.5 mm | 11.3 mm (better) |
| Width × depth | 325 × 227 mm | 304.1 × 215 mm |
| Battery life detail | Removable 55 Wh lithium-polymer battery. Maker reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. Up to 6 hours under Apple’s test conditions. | Up to 15 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 60 W MagSafe Power Adapter | Sold separately in the UK (30 W, 35 W dual-port or 70 W Apple USB-C adapters offered); needs at least 30 W over USB PD |
| Fast charging | – | With a 70 W or higher USB PD power source |
| Materials | Polycarbonate enclosure | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 55% recycled content overall |
| Colours | White and black; base storage and optical drive vary by colour as described above. The configurations table combines colour variants with matching processor, memory and storage. | Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe | 2 × Thunderbolt 4, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | AirPort Extreme 802.11g; draft 802.11n requires the optional software enabler | Wi-Fi 7 |
| Bluetooth | 2.0 + EDR | 6 |
| Webcam | iSight camera | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, Mini-DVI, separate combined optical digital audio input/line input and combined optical digital audio output/headphone output. Display adapters sold separately. | 2 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s); MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support |
| External displays | One external display up to 1920 × 1200 alongside the built-in screen; Mini-DVI adapters support DVI, VGA, S-video and composite video. | Up to two at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or one at up to 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz, alongside the built-in display |
| Keyboard | Full-size keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys, four arrow keys and an embedded numeric keypad | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Scrolling trackpad with a separate button; supports two-finger scrolling, tap, double-tap and drag. | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Built-in stereo speakers | Four-speaker sound system; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Built-in omnidirectional microphone | Three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes |
| Biometrics | – | Touch ID |
| In the box | MacBook, removable battery, 60 W MagSafe Power Adapter with AC wall plug and power cord, install/restore DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X 10.4.8 Tiger and iLife ’06. | 13-inch MacBook Air, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m); power adapter sold separately |
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