MacBook Air and Pro with M5: More performance, more storage, more cost
With more powerful variants of the M5 processor, Apple completes the MacBook Pro range and also updates the MacBook Air. All will become more expensive.
(Image: Apple)
On Monday new iPhones and iPads, on Tuesday then monitors and a refreshed laptop lineup: With M5 Pro and M5 Max, Apple has introduced more powerful variants of the M5 chip generation for the MacBook Pro. The basic version of the M5 has been on the market since October. New is the graphics architecture, in which each graphics core is specifically designed for local AI calculations by a "Neural Accelerator". This is now part of M5 Pro and M5 Max, which Apple equips with a GPU reaching up to 40 shader clusters.
New chip architecture for M5 Pro/Max
M5 Pro and M5 Max rely on a new "Fusion architecture" that combines two 3-nanometer dies into a System-on-Chip (SoC) with up to 18 CPU cores, as Apple explains. The processor then consists of six "Super Cores" and twelve Performance Cores. According to the manufacturer, the latter are also "completely new" and optimized for energy-efficient execution of multi-core optimized processes. For pro workflows, this should bring up to 30 percent more performance. The GPU can be ordered with up to 40 cores in the maximum configuration, as before. Apple speaks of up to 35 percent increased graphics performance compared to the M4 predecessors. The memory bandwidth reaches up to 614 GByte/s. The highest expansion stage is still reached here with a maximum of 128 GByte of RAM.
Apple's in-house N1 radio chip for WLAN and Bluetooth makes its debut in the Mac, providing support for Wi-Fi 7. As for battery life, the company continues to speak of up to 22 or up to 24 hours. The MacBook Pro is still available with a 14-inch or 16-inch display – in black or silver. In the basic configuration, Apple has doubled the storage space from 512 GByte to 1 TByte – for the MacBook Pro with M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max. The SSD is now said to be up to twice as fast with read and write speeds of up to 14.5 GByte/s. Conversely, this means the interface is switching from PCI Express 4.0 to PCI Express 5.0.
In terms of price, it's also going up by at least 100 Euros: The 14-inch base model with M5 (16 GByte RAM, 1 TByte storage) introduced in October will be sold by the manufacturer starting at 1900 Euros. The M5 Pro version starts at 2500 Euros (24 GByte RAM, 1 TByte SSD) and the variant with M5 Max starts at 4200 Euros (36 GByte RAM, 2 TByte SSD). Apple offers the 16-inch version with M5 Pro starting at 3000 Euros.
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MacBook Air also with M5 – and more expensive
Apple is also giving the MacBook Air a chip upgrade with the M5, and here too, the storage space in the basic configuration is doubling from the previous 256 GByte to 512 GByte. Likewise, an SSD with twice the read and write speed compared to the M4 predecessor is promised. Especially the small SSDs in the basic configurations of the MacBook Air were comparatively slow for a long time – a deficiency that is hopefully now remedied.
According to the data sheet, the M5 also delivers significantly higher memory bandwidth of a good 150 GByte/s. In the MacBook Air M5, the in-house N1 development also handles WLAN and Bluetooth connections, and also provides support for Wi-Fi 7 for the first time in this model series. In terms of price, it's also going up by 100 Euros; the new MacBook Air costs at least 1200 Euros in the 13-inch version. The manufacturer offers the 15-inch model starting at 1500 Euros. All new MacBooks are expected to be available in stores from March 11.
With the increase in performance, but also price, Apple is simultaneously making room for a new budget MacBook, which is expected on Wednesday. A "MacBook Neo" already briefly appeared on the company's website. Details should follow soon.
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