Apple MacBook Air (Late 2008) vs Apple MacBook Air 15″ (M5)

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MacBook Air (Late 2008) compared with MacBook Air 15″ (M5)

	AppleMacBook Air (Late 2008)	AppleMacBook Air 15″ (M5)
Overview
Released
Released	November 2008	March 2026
Display
Screen size
Screen size	13.3″	15.3″
Resolution
Resolution	1280 × 800	2880 × 1864 (better)
Panel
Panel	–	IPS LCD
Refresh rate
Refresh rate	–	60 Hz
Brightness
Brightness	–	500 nits
Touchscreen
Touchscreen	No	No
Display type
Display type	Glossy LED-backlit widescreen LCD, millions of colours; panel technology, refresh rate and brightness unpublished by Apple.	Liquid Retina display; LED-backlit with IPS technology
Pixel density
Pixel density	–	224 ppi
Colour range
Colour range	–	Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours
Display features
Display features	–	True Tone
Performance
Processor
Processor	Intel Core 2 Duo SL9300 or Intel Core 2 Duo SL9400	Apple M5
CPU cores
CPU cores	2	10
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 9400M	10-core GPU
Memory
Memory	2 GB	16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better)
Storage
Storage	120 GB to 128 GB	512 GB to 4 TB (better)
CPU
CPU	Dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo SL9300 at 1.6 GHz or SL9400 at 1.86 GHz, 6 MB shared L2 cache and 1066 MHz frontside bus. Exact identities confirmed by EveryMac.	10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores
GPU
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory	Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode
AI engine
AI engine	–	16-core Neural Engine
Memory type
Memory type	2 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 onboard memory, not upgradeable	Unified memory
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	–	153 GB/s
Storage type
Storage type	The 1.6 GHz base has a 120 GB 4200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; the 1.86 GHz base has a 128 GB solid-state drive. Configurations preserve these published combinations. Optional external USB MacBook Air SuperDrive; no built-in optical drive.	SSD, configurable up to 4 TB
Cooling
Cooling	–	Fanless
Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim)
Battery life (maker's claim)	–	Up to 18 hours
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	37 Wh	66.5 Wh (better)
Weight
Weight	1.36 kg (better)	1.51 kg
Thickness
Thickness	19.4 mm	11.5 mm (better)
Width × depth
Width × depth	325 × 227 mm	340.4 × 237.6 mm
Battery life detail
Battery life detail	Built-in 37 Wh lithium-polymer battery. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process; no runtime figure on the current maker technical sheet.	Up to 15 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery
Charger
Charger	45 W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management	Sold separately in the UK (35 W dual-port or 70 W Apple USB-C adapters offered); needs at least 35 W over USB PD
Fast charging
Fast charging	–	With a 70 W or higher USB PD power source
Materials
Materials	Aluminium enclosure; tapered thickness from 4 to 19.4 mm	100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 55% recycled content overall
Colours
Colours	Silver	Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight
Connections
Ports
Ports	USB-A, MagSafe, headphone jack	2 × Thunderbolt 4, MagSafe 3, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	802.11n draft; compatible with 802.11a/b/g	Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	6
Webcam
Webcam	Built-in iSight camera	12MP Center Stage
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	One USB 2.0 port up to 480 Mb/s, Mini DisplayPort video output, headphone jack and MagSafe. DVI, VGA and dual-link DVI adapters are sold separately; Ethernet requires an optional USB adapter.	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
External displays	Built-in screen plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both with millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring	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
Keyboard	Full-size backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor	Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys
Trackpad
Trackpad	Multi-Touch trackpad with two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger and four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag gestures	Force Touch trackpad
Speakers
Speakers	Mono speaker	Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Microphones
Microphones	Omnidirectional microphone	Three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes
Biometrics
Biometrics	–	Touch ID
In the box
In the box	MacBook Air, 45 W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, install/restore DVDs, display cleaning cloth and documentation; Mac OS X Leopard and iLife ’08	15-inch MacBook Air, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m); power adapter sold separately