MacBook Buying Notes: Needs, Trade-offs, and Updates

Originally written on September 4, 2026. The prices, subsidies, and product information in the original discussion reflect that point in time. Purchase and price updates were added on November 5, 2026.

On October 4, 2026, I bought a MacBook Air M5 with 24GB RAM and a 1TB SSD for ¥10,999.

As of November 5, 2026, the listed price is ¥10,699, which is ¥300 below what I paid. These are two separate price records: the amount I paid on October 4 and the listed price observed on November 5.

On October 16, 2026, I also bought a 16-inch MacBook Pro with 48GB RAM and a 1TB SSD in Space Black for ¥22,876.51. However, I did not like the color and returned it shortly after paying.

I still have the MacBook Air M1: it has neither been sold nor repaired. I am still considering another MacBook, a Mac mini, or a Mac Studio as a future purchase.

What is settled for now is the purchase of the M5 Air with 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage; the family's next device changes remain undecided. The discussion below preserves my thinking before the purchase; its September reference prices have not been replaced with later prices.

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Lately, I have spent a lot of time researching MacBooks.

Interestingly, this was not because my main computer was too slow, or because I had already planned an upgrade. It started with something much smaller: the screen on a MacBook Air M1 at home suddenly broke.

It is a base model with 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD, and it has been in use for years. It is no longer my main computer; family members mostly use it as a spare. Despite the broken screen, the computer itself still works when connected to our Samsung monitor.

Strictly speaking, we had not suddenly lost a computer. It had simply gone from a portable laptop to a Mac that had to stay beside a monitor.

Yet this accident gradually turned a repair question worth a few hundred yuan into a buying discussion ranging from ¥3,909 to ¥30,599.