The reason the MacBook Air doesn’t need a fan

Apple decided to ditch the MacBook Air’s fans several years ago. The company made this significant hardware change by replacing Intel processors with its own silicon, starting with the MacBook Air M1 in late 2020.

The biggest reason Apple was able to ditch active cooling from its thinnest portable Macs? This is because Apple’s M-series processors in recent models are much more energy efficient and higher performance than the Intel chips found in pre-2020 Air editions. Using a passive heat sink that dissipates heat through the case, the new MacBook Air models run quietly without the need for a fan. There are, however, some potential performance drawbacks to be aware of.

The last MacBook Air with a cooling fan was the early 2020 model with an Intel chipset. Since the MacBook Air M1 launched in November 2020, all subsequent models have been fanless. One of the main reasons Apple was able to remove the fans from the Air was the addition of its own silicon. The Apple M-series chips that the iconic Cupertino company now uses in its thinnest laptops are more energy efficient than the Intel processors in older models.

But how can the newer Air models regulate their temperature without active fan cooling? This is due to some clever engineering on Apple’s part. Newer editions, like the superb M5 MacBook Air, deploy a passive heat sink that transfers (and subsequently dissipates) heat through the aluminum casing. In turn, this allows the M5 Air (and all M-series MacBook Air models) to operate in complete silence for everyday computing tasks.

First, the benefits of removing MacBook Air fans. The biggest problem is obviously the complete lack of fan noise. If you’ve ever owned a powerful gaming laptop, you’ll know how constantly whirring fans can be extremely distracting. With the new MacBook Air models, you’re guaranteed a quiet experience, even when your computer is under heavy load.

The lack of a fan means the MacBook Air is also lighter. Just compare the latest Intel model with fan to the MacBook Air M2. The 2020 Air weighs 2.8 pounds, while the latter tips the scales at 2.7 pounds. With the fans now ditched, Apple was also able to increase the battery life of the latest iterations of the Air. Although laptop fans generally don’t consume much power, removing them slightly improves battery performance.

As for the disadvantages, the most significant disadvantage concerns thermal throttling. If you are a high-end laptop user, the MacBook Air is often not an ideal choice. This is partly due to thermal throttling, a process by which macOS slows down processor speed to keep temperatures at reasonable levels when the processor is under heavy load. By reducing the processor speed, performance subsequently decreases. In real terms, this will manifest as longer video exports or dropped frames when playing games. Without fans, the MacBook Air can also run noticeably hotter than older models, with models like the M5 Air often feeling particularly toasty on its underside during heavy loads.

For the vast majority of people, a MacBook Air will meet all of their computing needs in a sleek and quiet way. Perfectly balancing performance and price, the MacBook Air M5 is currently the best MacBook in our… er, book.

If you’re a professional video editor who regularly exports large 4K files, for example, you might want to consider a MacBook Pro. You’re more likely to avoid thermal throttling at 100% load with the Pro’s active cooling. It’s not just superior thermal performance where the Pro has a significant advantage over the fanless Air. Demanding creatives will appreciate its superior display: the M5 Air has a standard 60Hz Liquid Retina LCD, while the M5 Pro benefits from a brighter 120Hz Mini-LED panel. The Pro also has a better port selection than the Air, sporting a trio of Thunderbolt connections (the M5 Air has two), an HDMI port, and an SDXC card slot.

Of course, the base Macbook Pro M5 only makes more sense than the latest Air if you have a significant budget. Starting at $1.99 for the 14-inch model, you’ll have to shell out big changes to appreciate the improvements the Pro brings to the party. While the M5 Air is hardly cheap with a new starting price of $1,299 for the 13-inch version, that extra $700 for the MacBook Pro probably isn’t worth it if you’re an average daily user.