Apple used to save its hardware launches for a single, carefully choreographed keynote. Not anymore. The company has rolled out its biggest product blitz in recent memory across multiple days, beginning with the iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air on Monday 2 March, followed by the M5 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Pro and Max variants, and two new Studio Displays on Tuesday, with a press and creator event scheduled for Wednesday 4 March. Pre-orders open that same day, with retail availability set for 11 March across more than 30 countries.
MacBook Air: The Most Popular Laptop Gets Pricier, and Better
The headline number for most consumers will be the MacBook Air's return to a $1,099 starting price for the 13-inch model, up $100 after Apple briefly dropped it to $999 for the M4 generation. The 15-inch variant starts at $1,299. The Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at 512GB, with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB. Apple describes the M5 as offering a "big leap" in AI performance, with the MacBook Air delivering up to 4x faster performance for AI tasks than MacBook Air with M4, and up to 9.5x faster than MacBook Air with M1.
The M5 offers unified memory bandwidth of 153GB/s, a nearly 30 percent increase over M4 and more than double that of M1. Apple's N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity. The same chip appears across the entire new product line, including the iPad Air. Battery life is rated at up to 18 hours. The Air remains fanless, passive-cooled, and available in sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver.
MacBook Pro: Power at a Price
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199 with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, a $200 increase on the previous base M4 Pro system from late 2024, though Apple has doubled the base storage. The 16-inch model carries an M5 Pro with 18 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores as standard, starting at $2,699, also a $200 increase.
The M5 Pro and M5 Max are built using a new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture that connects two dies with advanced IP blocks into a single SoC, delivering significant performance increases. Apple claims the GPU substantially increases graphics capabilities, with up to 35 percent improvement in ray-tracing performance over M4 Pro and M4 Max. The chips also bring Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to the MacBook Pro line. Independent benchmarks of the base M5 chip from Macworld found single-core and multi-core results roughly 14 and 22 percent faster than the M4, respectively, giving a credible baseline for what to expect from the Pro and Max variants.
iPhone 17e: Affordable Gets a Meaningful Upgrade
The entry-level iPhone category has long been the proving ground for Apple's ability to hold price while improving value. Apple has kept the iPhone 17e's starting price at $599, while adding the A19 chip, MagSafe support, and double the base storage at 256GB. The A19 chip means Apple Intelligence AI features are fully supported. The device is splash-, water-, and dust-resistant with an IP68 rating under IEC standard 60529, tested to a maximum depth of 6 metres for up to 30 minutes. It also carries Apple's C1X cellular modem, which the company says is up to twice as fast as the C1 in the iPhone 16e.
iPad Air M4: Value Holds, Performance Climbs
Apple has bumped RAM in the new iPad Air from 8GB to 12GB. Given the sharp increase in RAM prices in recent months, it is slightly surprising that Apple held firm on pricing. The M4 iPad Air gains Wi-Fi 7 support via the N1 and C1X chips; previously, Wi-Fi 7 was exclusive to the iPad Pro M5, while the M3 iPad Air was limited to Wi-Fi 6E. The 11-inch model starts at $599; the 13-inch at $799. Design is unchanged, meaning existing cases and accessories remain compatible.
Studio Displays: An Unexpected Addition
Few analysts predicted Apple would refresh its monitor line this week, but the company announced two new displays. Tuesday's reveal included both a refreshed Studio Display and a brand-new 27-inch Studio Display XDR. The Studio Display XDR is a genuinely new product: a 5K Retina XDR panel with a mini-LED display, over 2,000 dimming zones, 120Hz refresh rate, and a tilt- and height-adjustable stand included as standard. It starts at $3,299. The standard Studio Display, refreshed with an upgraded 12MP Center Stage camera, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and a six-speaker system with Spatial Audio, starts at $1,599.
The Pricing Question
Strip away the spec improvements and a clear pattern emerges: Apple is raising prices across its Mac lineup. The Air is up $100, both MacBook Pro tiers are up $200 each. A global shortage has seen every major electronics manufacturer, including Apple, paying significantly more for RAM and flash storage than in previous years. Apple has absorbed some of that cost by doubling storage at the same tier rather than passing the full increase on in raw price terms, which is a defensible trade-off.
Critics from the left of the tech commentary spectrum will note that even doubling storage does not fully offset a $200 increase for professional buyers who were already paying a premium. There is a reasonable case that Apple's pricing power, while commercially justified, progressively narrows the addressable market for its higher-end machines and concentrates premium computing in fewer hands. The counterpoint is that the M5 Pro and Max performance gains are real and well-documented, and professionals who depend on sustained workloads are getting a measurably better product for that extra outlay.
The honest assessment is somewhere in between. Apple's AI hardware push, anchored in the Neural Accelerator architecture across every new chip this week, is substantive rather than cosmetic. Whether the price increases are proportionate depends heavily on what a buyer actually does with the machine. For casual users, the M5 MacBook Air at $1,099 remains one of the strongest consumer laptops available. For professionals, the M5 Pro MacBook Pro's $2,199 entry point is steep but defensible. For everyone watching from the sidelines, the arrival of the rumoured budget MacBook Neo, which Apple accidentally leaked ahead of Wednesday's event, may ultimately matter more than any of this week's announcements for broadening access to Apple silicon.
All new products are available for pre-order from Apple's online store from 4 March, with in-store availability beginning 11 March. Australian pricing had not been confirmed at the time of writing; local prices typically reflect exchange rate and GST adjustments above US figures. Consumers should also note that Australian Consumer Law statutory warranty provisions apply regardless of Apple's own warranty terms, providing additional protection for Australian buyers.