Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro (14”) vs Apple MacBook Air 13 M5 (2026)

Please select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
CPU
RAM
Storage

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro (14”) and Apple MacBook Air 13 M5 (2026) important characteristics
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Portability
Design, materials, durability and usability
Pick the usage scenario that best matches your needs
Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Please input up-to-date prices for the selected laptop configurations to get an accurate value-for-money index.
Currency
VS
44.5
(Average)
Value Index
90.8
(Very good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between the notebooks
Advantages of the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro (14”)
  • Higher screen refresh rate: 120 versus 60 Hz
  • Includes an old-school USB-A port
  • Features a bigger (~25%) battery – 67.2 against 53.8 watt-hours
  • Display has support for touch input
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Air 13 M5 (2026)
  • MacBook with the Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) chip maintains its performance even when running on battery power.
  • Around 19% better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench 2024 test

Tests and Specifications

Comparison table of test results and technical specs

Case

Weight 1.24 kg (2.73 lbs) 1.23 kg (2.71 lbs)
Dimensions 314.2 x 220.6 x 11.6 mm
12.37 x 8.69 x 0.46 inches
304.1 x 215 x 11.3 mm
11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches
Area 693 cm2 (107.5 inches2) 654 cm2 (101.3 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio ~82% ~82%
Side bezels 6.3 mm 5.6 mm
Colors Silver, Gray Black, Silver, Gold, Blue
Material Aluminum Aluminum
Transformer No No
Opening angle 135° 130°
Size comparison
Cooling solution
Cooling system Active Passive
Vapor chamber Yes No
Liquid metal No No
Number of fans 2 -
Noise level (max. load) 39 dB -

Display

Size 14 inches 13.6 inches
Type OLED IPS LCD
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (30-120 Hz) No
PPI 243 ppi 225 ppi
Aspect ratio 16:10 16:10
Resolution 2880 x 1800 pixels 2560 x 1664 pixels
HDR support Yes, HDR10 Yes, Dolby Vision
Sync technology No No
Touchscreen Yes No
Coating Glossy (Antireflective) Glossy (Antireflective)
Ambient light sensor Yes Yes
Screen space comparison
Galaxy Book 6 Pro (14”)
14″ (16:10 ratio) = 88.1 in2
MacBook Air 13 M5 (2026)
13.6″ (16:10 ratio) = 83.1 in2
~5% more screen space
Display tests
Contrast 1000000:1 1437:1
sRGB color space 100% 100%
Adobe RGB profile - 86.8%
DCI-P3 color gamut 100% 98.1%
Response time 1 ms 20 ms
Max. brightness

Battery

Capacity
Full charging time 2:35 hr -
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Fast charging Yes Yes
Charging via USB (Power Delivery) Yes, 65 W Yes
Charging port position Left Left
Charge power 65 W 35 / 40 / 70 W
Cable length - 2 meters
Weight of AC adapter 160 grams 116 / 80 / 167 grams

CPU

CPU name
Base frequency 1.9 GHz 4.61 GHz
Turbo frequency 4.6 GHz -
Cores 12 (4P + 8E) 10 (4P + 6E)
Threads 12 10
L3 Cache 18 MB -
Integrated GPU Intel Xe3 Graphics Apple M5 GPU (8-core)
Fabrication process 2 nm 3 nm

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

Graphics Card

GPU name
TGP 25 W -
Type Integrated Integrated
Fabrication process 3 nm 3 nm
GPU base clock 300 MHz -
GPU boost clock 2300 MHz 1620 MHz
FLOPS 2.4 TFLOPS 3.3 TFLOPS
Memory size System Shared System Shared
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory bus - 128 bit
Memory speed 8.53 Gbps 9.6 Gbps
Shading units (cores) 512 1024
Texture mapping units (TMUs) 32 64
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) 16 32
GPU performance 2.4 TFLOPS 3.3 TFLOPS
Blender GPU - 1744
Solar Bay - 17484

RAM

RAM size
Channels 2x8 GB 2x8 GB
Clock 8533 MHz 9600 MHz
Type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Upgradable No No

Storage

Storage size
Bus PCI-E Gen 4.0 (4x) Custom
Storage type SSD (M2) SSD (M2)
Channels 1x256 GB 2x256 GB
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 1 -
NVMe Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 2.0 2.2 (2 tweeters and 2 woofers)
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Loudness - ~82.1 dB
Microphones 2 3

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard v7 v7
Bluetooth v5.4 v6.0
Fingerprint Yes Yes
Infrared sensor No No
Optical drive No No
Webcam Above the display Above the display
Webcam resolution 1920 x 1080 1920 x 1080
Ports
USB-A 1x USB 3.2 No
USB Type-C 2x USB 4.0 2x USB 4.0
Thunderbolt Thunderbolt 4 Thunderbolt 4
HDMI 1x HDMI 2.1 No
DisplayPort No No
VGA No No
Audio jack (3.5 mm) Yes Yes
Ethernet (RJ45) No No
SD card reader No No
Proprietary charging port No Yes

Input

Keyboard
Keyboard type Island Island
Numpad No No
Backlight Yes Yes
Key travel - 1 mm
Touchpad
Surface Glass Glass
Windows Precision Yes No
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.

Cast your vote

So, which laptop would you choose?
9 (75%)
3 (25%)
Total votes: 12

Comments

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ComputerNerd March 4, 2026 at 02:49 PM
Even though the raw CPU performance is great with the M5 Air, the target audience are general users. Not professionals needing NASA level CPU performance. I do like the web camera on the M5 Air (far better AI light filtering) and the default price point for 16 GB RAM & 512 GB of SSD storage ($1,100 USD). The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro is great for those wanting to keep X86 compatibility for key work software, gaming, and to work with their Samsung smartphones. Also, I like that it has more ports and replaceable SSD storage. Priced $200 higher for the same 16 GB RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage.
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