Apple on Tuesday unveiled updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops powered by its latest M5-series chips, while boosting base storage across the lineup as it looks to attract buyers in a softening personal computer market.

The new 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099 and now includes 512GB of storage as standard, double the base capacity offered in the previous generation.

Under the earlier lineup, customers paid $1,199 to get a 512GB configuration, effectively making the new starting price a reduction for the same storage tier.

Apple also introduced updated 14-inch MacBook Pro models powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, which the company said deliver improved performance and enhanced on-device artificial intelligence capabilities.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro chip starts at $2,199 and now includes 1TB of storage as standard, up from 512GB in many previous base models.

Apple has increasingly emphasised performance gains and battery efficiency since shifting from Intel processors to its in-house M-series chips in 2020, a move that has helped differentiate its laptops from Windows-based rivals.

The broader PC market has faced uneven demand in recent years as consumers and businesses delay upgrades following a pandemic-era surge in laptop purchases.

At the same time, prices for memory components such as DRAM and NAND flash have risen as chipmakers prioritise manufacturing capacity for artificial intelligence hardware.

Separately, Apple on Monday launched the iPhone 17e, a lower-priced smartphone starting at $599 with 256GB of base storage.