Kept you waiting, huh? The M5 MacBook Pro’s larger, more powerful sibling has finally arrived several months after the 14-inch model first hit the scene. Hoping to excuse its tardiness, Apple is promising the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips available on yet another batch of 16-inch models will be its most powerful yet.
There’s a new M5 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro as well as a 16-inch model. Built with a “Fusion Architecture,” the M5 Pro chip comes with a base 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, and the M5 Max with a base 18-core CPU and 32-core GPU. The M5 Pro can be configured with a higher 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, and the M5 Max with an even more powerful 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU—these will cost $200 and $300 extra, respectively.
© Apple
The base unified memory starts at 24GB and can be configured with up to 128GB. MacBook Pros with the M5 Pro chip come with 1TB of storage and M5 Max models with 2TB.
Compared to the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, Apple says the new MacBook Pros are up to 4x faster. AI workloads will benefit the most. The new MacBook Pros also come with an N1 chip for faster Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip starts at $1,699 and the 16-inch model at $2,699. Preorders start on March 4 at 9:15 a.m. ET / 6:15 a.m. PT and they’ll be available on March 11.
These aren’t the OLED MacBooks you’ve been dreaming of. The M5 Pro and M5 Max models still sport the same Liquid Retina XDR display, which is Apple’s variety of mini LED technology. There’s still a notch cutout for the 12-megapixel Center Stage camera that also supports desk view, which will help you do some tutorials on video calls for your aging parents who still don’t know how to copy and paste (it’s CMD+C, CMD+V, Mom).
Want even more MacBooks? Just wait.
Last October’s 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 was a quick and contained package that offered the usual excellent battery life and performance in equal measure. It still manages to top our charts in some benchmark tests compared to Intel’s flagship Core Ultra Series 3 on Windows PCs. It’s easy to imagine the M5 Pro and M5 Max will claim the crown in terms of raw CPU performance once again.
However, there was one constraining factor with the base M5 chip. Last year’s 14-inch MacBook Pro proved to be constrained with thermal throttling. This means the Mac wasn’t pushing out enough heat, limiting the system’s top-end performance. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro models contain a single fan, whereas versions with a Pro or Max chip normally sport a dual-fan setup. Sure, Moore’s Law is certainly slowing down, but these laptops still need to accommodate ever-more-powerful chips if they want to compete.
Apple may have more MacBooks coming later this year. Multiple rumors from reliable sources claim the company could produce a cheaper MacBook with an iPhone chip and a revised MacBook Pro design with an OLED touchscreen. Organic light-emitting diode displays normally offer better color accuracy and contrast than mini-LED. Let’s hope Apple offers the same tandem OLED displays that have made Apple’s latest iPad Pro models so appealing.
