Apple MacBook Air 13″ (M5) vs Apple PowerBook G4 17-inch (Early 2003)

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MacBook Air 13″ (M5) compared with PowerBook G4 17-inch (Early 2003)

	AppleMacBook Air 13″ (M5)	ApplePowerBook G4 17-inch (Early 2003)
Overview
Released
Released	March 2026	March 2003
Display
Screen size
Screen size	13.6″	17″
Resolution
Resolution	2560 × 1664 (better)	1440 × 900
Panel
Panel	IPS LCD	–
Refresh rate
Refresh rate	60 Hz	–
Brightness
Brightness	500 nits	–
Touchscreen
Touchscreen	No	No
Display type
Display type	Liquid Retina display; LED-backlit with IPS technology	17-inch TFT widescreen; exact panel technology, brightness and built-in refresh unpublished.
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	Apple M5	PowerPC G4 1 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Early 2003)
CPU cores
CPU cores	10	1
Graphics
Graphics	8-core GPU or 10-core GPU	NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (64 MB DDR)
Memory
Memory	16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better)	512 MB or 1 GB
Storage
Storage	512 GB to 4 TB (better)	60 GB
CPU
CPU	10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores	1 GHz PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine, 1 MB DDR SRAM L3 cache and 167 MHz system bus. Exact silicon supplier/SKU omitted.
GPU
GPU	Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode	NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go, AGP 4 × with 64 MB DDR video memory.
AI engine
AI engine	16-core Neural Engine	–
Memory type
Memory type	Unified memory	512 MB PC2700 DDR333 standard; two SO-DIMM slots and maker-supported maximum 1 GB. Unofficial 2 GB in EveryMac is excluded from configurations.
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	153 GB/s	–
Storage type
Storage type	SSD, configurable up to 4 TB	60 GB 4200 rpm Ultra ATA/100 and slot-loading SuperDrive. Maker UK launch sheet specifies DVD-R 1 × write/8 × read, CD-R 8 × write, CD-RW 4 × write and CD 24 × read; later EveryMac 2 × DVD-R and Macworld 16 × CD-R figures differ, so launch maker specification retained.
Cooling
Cooling	Fanless	–
Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim)
Battery life (maker's claim)	Up to 18 hours	Up to 4.5 hours
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	53.8 Wh	55 Wh (better)
Weight
Weight	1.23 kg (better)	3.1 kg
Thickness
Thickness	11.3 mm (better)	26 mm
Width × depth
Width × depth	304.1 × 215 mm	392 × 259 mm
Battery life detail
Battery life detail	Up to 15 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery	55 Wh lithium-ion, up to 4.5 hours maker claim. Published 3.1 kg includes battery and optical drive and varies by configuration/manufacturing process; closed metric dimensions 39.2 × 25.9 × 2.6 cm.
Charger
Charger	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
Fast charging	With a 70 W or higher USB PD power source	–
Materials
Materials	100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 55% recycled content overall	Anodised aluminium enclosure
Colours
Colours	Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight	–
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × Thunderbolt 4, MagSafe 3, headphone jack	2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7	AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	6	1.1
Webcam
Webcam	12MP Center Stage	–
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	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	Two 12 Mbps USB 1.1 ports, one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K V.92 modem, Type I/II PC Card/CardBus, DVI, S-video, line input and headphone output. Support table mislabels FireWire MBps; UK sheet explicitly states Mbps.
External displays
External displays	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	Dual display or mirroring up to 2048 × 1536 externally; DVI and included VGA/composite adapters.
Keyboard
Keyboard	Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys	Full-size keyboard with fibre-optic backlighting and ambient light control; 79 ISO keys and embedded numeric keypad.
Trackpad
Trackpad	Force Touch trackpad	–
Speakers
Speakers	Four-speaker sound system; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos	Two built-in stereo speakers
Microphones
Microphones	Three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes	Internal omnidirectional microphone under left speaker grille
Biometrics
Biometrics	Touch ID	–
In the box
In the box	13-inch MacBook Air, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m); power adapter sold separately	65 W power adapter, cord, modem cable, DVI-to-VGA and S-video-to-composite adapters. January announcement expected February; Macworld reported actual customer arrivals in March 2003. Month retained without inventing first delivery day.