Apple, via Newsroom, in the third of four announcements today, during its aptly named “big week”:

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world’s most popular laptop. M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks. MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at 512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB, so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go. […]

Available in 13- and 15-inch models in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver, the new MacBook Air with M5 is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099, the 15-inch starts at $1,299, and both are $100 less expensive with an education discount.

This is the laptop upgrade that most tempts me (at least, until we see what Wednesday brings). I’m writing this on a 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, which I bought refurbished some two years ago as a travel computer, and which has since become my daily driver. I love the thin, lightweight portability, and for writing, web browsing, light photo editing, and the occasional web development, it never feels like it’s lagging. (I am happy I splurged on the 16GB memory/1TB storage model though.) It remains a highly capable machine and deserves to continue its productive life—and I’m sure it will, in the hands of my wife after I buy this new M5 MacBook Air.