It’s a busy week for Apple, what with a new iPhone in the iPhone 17e, new iPad Air generation, and new processors, as well. And now we’re also seeing new MacBook Pro models, too. As expected. Why launch new chips without new computers?
These are basically the models we expected at the end of last year, offering more grunt and power for folks who needed it.
We just needed Apple to announce the higher-grade chips.
Last year’s MacBook Pro with M5 was basically an ever slightly more grunty MacBook Air, upgrading the model to the M5 chip. It was a bit of a surprise, but the Pro and Max architecture was absent on the range.
This week, though, those chips exist, and now so do the laptops, as well.
The shiny new laptops include both the 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro models, and they don’t see any major design changes.
Rather, this is all about the hardware underneath, upgrading the processing architecture to M5 Pro and M5 Max models, which in turn are up to four times faster than the previous generation, and now support Thunderbolt 5.
While Apple’s hardware in the Apple Silicon-era have always been fast — and difficult to see major improvements year on year — the M5 Pro and M5 Max models appear focused on AI, a neural accelerator in each graphics core, able to improve prompt time for LLM by up to four times compared to the M4 versions, and up to eight times faster for AI image generation compared with the M1 models.
If you’re someone dabbling with MLX instructions on a Mac (like this guy!), these laptops could be some of the best examples of portable power to date.
Outside of AI, the new chips support CPUs that can go up to 18 cores, while graphics sees increases for animators, designers, and visual effects artists, as well.
There are also updates to the connections, supporting WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6, thanks to another Apple chip, the Apple N1 processor. Even the screen is a little brighter, too.
The problem could well be price, because just like the MacBook Air’s $100 increase, the Pro line is also seeing a price hike of sorts.
Back in 2024 when we reviewed the M4 Pro MacBook Pro, it was a $3999 laptop. When the 16 inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro model arrives from March 11, it will see a $4299 starting price, while its 14 inch M5 Pro model will start from $3599.
That is possibly about the closest to an acknowledgement of the effect of AI’s hardware price hikes we’re likely to see from Apple, with a $300 price increase in a time when gear should be lowering in price, or at least stabilising. You can thank AI data-centres for that one.
Upgrade to the M5 Max and your price gets a little more hefty, with the 14 inch M5 Max MacBook Pro starting from $5799 and the 16 inch from $6299. It is not a cheap time for laptop buyers, that much is for sure.
However, Apple has made an update to the 14 inch standard MacBook Pro with M5, coming standard with 1TB storage and priced from $2699.
Expect the range in stores from next week, with pre-orders in effect shortly. And possibly the prices of the current models to temporarily drop while stock disappears for them, too.
