Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors, Slashdot):
With M5, the 14-inch MacBook Pro gets even faster, more capable, and delivers a huge leap in AI performance.
[…]
Additionally, it offers phenomenal battery life of up to 24 hours, so users can take their pro workflows anywhere. With the latest storage technology, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 brings faster SSD performance than the previous generation for tasks like importing RAW image files or exporting large videos.
[…]
Altogether, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 delivers an industry-leading combination of capabilities for the same starting price of $1,599 — making it an even better value and upgrade for current and new Mac users.
[…]
Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with M1, and up to 1.2x faster than the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4.
Andrew Cunningham:
But unlike the last couple MacBook Pro refreshes, Apple isn’t ready with Pro and Max versions of the M5 for higher-end 14-inch MacBook Pros and 16-inch MacBook Pros. Those models will continue to use the M4 Pro and M4 Max for now, and we probably shouldn’t expect an update for them until sometime next year.
[…]
Aside from the M5, the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro has essentially identical specs to the outgoing M4 version. It has a notched 14-inch screen with ProMotion support and a 3024×1964 resolution, three USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a 12 MP Center Stage webcam. It still weighs 3.4 pounds, and Apple still estimates the battery should last for “up to 16 hours” of wireless web browsing and up to 24 hours of video streaming. The main internal difference is an option for a 4TB storage upgrade, which will run you $1,200 if you’re upgrading from the base 512GB SSD.
John Voorhees:
Although I’m impatient to see what an M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro are capable of, and I’m dying to see a Mac Studio configured with the M5 generation of chips, I’m glad Apple didn’t wait to release the M5 in the 14” MacBook Pro. If the chip is ready, why not?
Marcin Krzyzanowski:
MacBook Pro M5 comes without a charger in the Europe (not eu), and with a charger in the US. for the same base price 🤡
Tobi:
EU requires that buyers have the option to buy products without a charging brick. Apple just decided to remove it entirely to fulfill that requirement.
Rosyna Keller:
The new iPad gets the N1 but the MBP is stuck with Bluetooth 5.x?!
Previously:
Update (2025-10-16): John Gruber (Mastodon):
The base 14-inch model, with the no-adjective M-series chip, is for people who probably would be better served with a MacBook Air but who wrongly believe they “need” a laptop with “Pro” in its name.
These days, I think the base MacBook Pro seems less like an odd duck and more like a natural fit between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with the Pro processor. Compared with the MacBook Air, you get a larger and better display, longer battery life, more ports, an SD card slot, better sound, HDMI. If you need one or more of these things, but don’t need more RAM or CPU cores, you can save $400.
Here’s a timeline of no-adjective M-series chips and when they appeared in the 14-inch MacBook Pro[…]
Update (2025-10-17): Nick Heer:
In Ireland, the MacBook Pro used to start at €1,949; it now starts at €1,849; in France, it was €1,899, and it is now €1,799. As mentioned, the adapter is €65, making these new Macs €35 less with a comparable configuration. The same is true in each Euro-currency country I checked: Germany, Italy, and Spain all received a €100 price cut if you do not want an A.C. adapter, and a €35 price cut if you do.
[…]
Countries with a charger in the box, on the other hand, see no such price adjustment, at least for the ones I have checked. The new M5 model starts at the same price as the M4 it replaces in Canada, Japan, Singapore, and the United States.
[…]
Maybe Apple was already planning a €100 price cut for these new models. The M4 was €100 less expensive than the M3 it replaced, for example, so it is plausible. That is something we simply cannot know. What we do know for certain is that these new MacBook Pros might not come with an A.C. adapter, but even if someone adds one at checkout, it still costs less in most places with this option.
Hartley Charlton:
Apple’s decision to remove the charger entirely from the EU boxes therefore goes beyond what the law requires. The company could, for example, offer customers the option to include a charger at checkout for no additional cost, as long as it also sells a version without one. The lack of charger in the UK is even more unnecessary, since it is not part of the European Union.
The move to charge separately for adapters is therefore a business choice by Apple, not a legal necessity. The company’s approach simplifies logistics and packaging, avoiding the need for separate SKUs in Europe, but it also shifts the cost to customers who do not already own a compatible charger.
Joe Rossignol:
Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that has ever been recorded in the Geekbench 6 database for any Mac or PC processor.
Update (2025-10-20): John Gruber (Mastodon):
In my defense, I did say “probably” in my post. My understanding is that the base MacBook Pro is a huge seller for Apple. So of course some very well-informed users are buying them for good reasons. But I really do think an awful lot of base MacBook Pro buyers are spending an extra $600 and carrying 0.7 pounds of extra weight for features they don’t actually notice or care about. They just think they need a “pro” laptop, and underestimate just how incredibly capable MacBook Airs are.
It probably goes the other way, too. Once you get all the advantages of the base MacBook Pro over the Air, how many people really need the Pro or Max processor? The regular M4/M5 is really good. Before Apple Silicon, I had typically bought the fastest or second-fastest processor, but since then I’ve been getting the Pro instead of the Max and haven’t regretted it.
Update (2025-10-21): John Gruber (Mastodon):
I wondered why the U.K. — which left the EU five years ago — was affected. DF reader C.A. wrote, via email[…] Something similar (the EEA) is the reason why the power adapter isn’t in the box for Norway, either — a country that has never been part of the EU.
John Gruber (Mastodon):
The fact that the new M5 MacBook Pro costs less than the M4 models, even when paying extra to include a new power adapter, leads me to suspect that Apple was planning price cuts in these countries regardless.
[…]
The problem I see with the MacBook power adapter situation in Europe is that while power users — like the sort of people who read Daring Fireball and Pixel Envy — will have no problem buying exactly the sort of power adapter they want, or simply re-using a good one they already own, normal users have no idea what makes a “good” power adapter. I suspect there are going to be a lot of Europeans who buy a new M5 MacBook Pro and wind up charging it with inexpensive low-watt power adapters meant for things like phones, and wind up with a shitty, slow charging experience.
Jason Snell:
The biggest disappointment is probably wireless connectivity. The MacBook Pro still doesn’t support Wi-Fi 7 or Bluetooth 6 (it’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3). We all know that Apple doesn’t always rush to support new connectivity standards, but in this case, Apple is supporting those standards—on the iPhone and iPad, but not the Mac. Apple is justifiably proud of its new N1 chip, which provides that connectivity to those other products—and yet it’s apparently going to be another product cycle where Macs are lagging behind.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention the fact that we’re now entering another Mac release cycle with no cellular option on Apple’s laptops. This has been a perplexing omission for years—tethering to a phone is not a cure-all, and Apple’s been offering cellular iPads since the very beginning. But it’s now officially extra baffling, because Apple is shipping its very own C1 and C1X chips in iPhones and iPads. Apple now makes its own cellular radios, but still refuses to put them in Macs. If not now, when?
Update (2025-10-22): Joe Rossignol:
The first reviews of the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 chip have been shared by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the device launching this Wednesday.
Max Weinbach:
With this generation and M5, I think it’s one of the larger changes in recent history for Apple Silicon! Let’s talk about it in 3 parts: CPU, GPU, and cache!
Juli Clover:
On Geekbench 6 tests, the M5 MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 4220 and a multi-core score of 16781, while the M4 MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 3834 and a multi-core score of 15453. Apple says that M5 CPU speeds are up to 15 percent faster than M4 speeds.
As for the GPU, the M5 earned an OpenCL score of 48101 and a Metal score of 75536, while the M4 earned a score of 38023 and a Metal Score of 57822. Apple says that GPU speeds are up to 30 percent faster.
SSD speeds have also improved, and Apple says it's up to 2x faster. That proved to be correct in our Blackmagic disk speed tests.
Update (2025-10-30): Carsten Frauenheim and Elizabeth Chamberlain:
An “important information” tooltip says, “The Top Case replacement part includes a battery. In the future, a battery replacement part will be available.” But for now, this tedious and insanely expensive process is the only offering they make for changing out a dead battery.
[…]
The good news? For the first time in a MacBook Pro, you don’t have to remove the trackpad to access the pull tabs that release the central battery cells. It’s a sign of some of the same sort of improvements we were excited to see in the iPhone 17 Air design, prioritizing access to components that will need to be replaced first.
Via Nick Heer:
I hate to be that guy, but the battery for a mid-2007 15-inch MacBook Pro used to cost around $150 (about $220 inflation-adjusted) and could be swapped with two fingers. The official DIY solution for replacing the one in my M1 MacBook Pro is over $700, though there is a $124 credit for returning the replaced part. The old battery was, of course, a little bit worse: 60 watt-hours compared to 70 watt-hours in the one I am writing this with. I do not even mind the built-in-ness of this battery. But it should not cost an extra $500 and require swapping the rest of the top case parts.
Apple Hardware Announcement Apple M5 Battery Replacement European Union Hardware Mac MacBook Pro macOS Tahoe 26 United Kingdom
Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors, MacStories):
M5 unlocks the most advanced iPad experience ever, packing an incredible amount of power and AI performance into the ultraportable design of iPad Pro.
[…]
N1, the new Apple-designed wireless networking chip, enables the latest generation of wireless technologies with support for Wi-Fi 7 on iPad Pro. The C1X modem comes to cellular models of iPad Pro, delivering up to 50 percent faster cellular data performance than its predecessor with even greater efficiency, allowing users to do more on the go. Available in space black and silver, iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, and features the Ultra Retina XDR display for an unparalleled viewing experience.
Dan Moren:
Other than the new processor and networking chips, the specs of the M5 iPad Pro remain largely identical to its predecessor, including its accessory support, physical dimensions and weight, color options (space black and silver, naturally), and 10-hour battery life for surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video. The M5 model, however, does support fast charging of up to 50 percent in 30 minutes with Apple’s 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max or other compatible adapter.
Ryan Christoffel:
This year, it’s a similar story in terms of differentiated models, but Apple is actually disclosing all the details of the M5 iPad Pro SKUs up front.
[…]
As you can see, the two lower-tier storage options include only 12GB of memory and 9-core CPUs.
But if you go with a 1TB model or higher, you get a full 16GB of memory and 10-core CPU.
One other detail worth noting: just like on the M4, you can only order a nano-texture M5 iPad Pro if you opt for a 1TB version or higher.
Matt Birchler:
I couldn’t help but be struck by the hero image Apple used in their M5 iPad Pro announcement. In several ways, it laughs in the face of core tenets of the traditional iPad experience.
- It’s explicitly sold as a device you will use in a laptop form factor.
- Touch input may be implied, but the use case they’re demonstrating is keyboard and mouse.
- There are many windows.
- Those windows are overlapping each other.
- Several windows clip off the screen.
BasicAppleGuy:
Looks like Apple has removed the “iPad Pro” branding from the back of the iPads which appeared in 2022 with the M2 iPad Pro.
Previously:
Update (2025-10-22): Joe Rossignol:
The first reviews of the iPad Pro with the M5 chip have been shared by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the device launching this Wednesday.
Jason Snell:
I did my testing across two days on AT&T’s 5G network, and while speeds were all over the place, on average, the M5 iPad Pro was a little slower at download and a whole lot faster at upload. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on your carrier and geography. It’s certainly a viable chip, and that 6.8× improvement in upstream speed was especially surprising.
I do have to commend the little guy for actually getting a single bar of Verizon, something that no plumber or HVAC installer has ever managed at my house. It managed to download data at 30Mbps, though it could barely upload anything. Still, the fact that it managed to connect at all is pretty inspiring.
Apple’s N1 chip offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, including Wi-Fi 7. I tested the M4 and M5 iPads on my local Wi-Fi 7 network, and it went pretty much as you might expect: the M4, which only supports Wi-Fi 6E, lagged behind the M5 with its pure Wi-Fi 7 power.
[…]
There’s certainly more work to be done on iPadOS. But when I take the M5 iPad Pro out for a spin, powered by iPadOS 26, I am reminded that all my angst about the iPad’s hardware outpacing its operating system is beginning to fade away. The hardware is still amazing, to be sure, but it does feel like the operating system loves it back. […] I don’t know where this is all headed, but between iPadOS 26 and the M5 iPad Pro, it feels like the iPad Pro has finally fulfilled the promise it showed a decade ago.
Federico Viticci:
How do you review an iPad Pro that’s visually identical to its predecessor and marginally improves upon its performance with a spec bump and some new wireless radios?
[…]
Unfortunately, while Apple’s claims sound enticing, and the Neural Accelerators should improve AI tasks on a variety of fronts, such as token generation per second and prefill time (for time-to-first-token evaluations), these improvements have little to no practical use on an iPad Pro compared to a Mac right now. And it all comes down to the fact that, despite better multitasking and other features in iPadOS 26, there isn’t a strong app ecosystem to take advantage of local LLMs on iPad, beginning with Apple’s own models.
[…]
Naturally, I wanted to test these models myself and see if I would have any practical use cases for them with my iPad Pro workflow. But I immediately ran into a series of problems, for which only Apple is to blame[…]
[…]
The multitasking and windowing experience of the M5 iPad Pro is essentially the same as the M4, despite the improvements to the new chip and faster memory. I’m not ready to say that Apple has hit a performance wall with their new iPadOS windowing engine already, but at the same time, I’m not sure why Macs with 16 GB of RAM and much older chipsets could keep a lot more windows open at once back in the day.
Nick Heer:
Viticci’s frustration with the state of A.I. models on the iPad Pro is palpable. Ideally and hopefully, it is a future-friendly system, but that is not usually the promise of Apple’s products. It usually likes to tell a complete story with the potential for sequels. To get even a glimpse of what that story looks like, Viticci had to go to great lengths, as documented in his review.
Apple C1X Apple Hardware Announcement Apple M5 Apple N1 Hardware iOS Multitasking iPad iPad Pro iPadOS iPadOS 26
Apple (Hacker News, MacStories):
Apple today introduced Apple Vision Pro with the powerful M5 chip that delivers a leap forward in performance, improved display rendering, faster AI-powered workflows, and extended battery life. The upgraded Vision Pro also comes with the soft, cushioned Dual Knit Band to help users achieve an even more comfortable fit, and visionOS 26, which unlocks innovative spatial experiences, including widgets, new Personas, an interactive Jupiter Environment, and new Apple Intelligence features with support for additional languages. There are over 1 million apps and thousands of games on the App Store, hundreds of 3D movies on the Apple TV app, and all-new series and films in Apple Immersive with a selection of live NBA games coming soon.
Victoria Song:
But aside from the chip upgrade, nothing about the Vision Pro’s design has changed. Instead, Apple’s press release claims that the M5 chip will bring faster processing and more detailed image rendering. Specifically, the M5 renders 10 percent more pixels on the OLED displays and can increase refresh rates up to 120Hz. Previously it maxed out at 100Hz. As for processing, AI-powered features like a Persona or spatial photos are up to 50 percent faster. Battery life is also improved by about 30 minutes, up to 2.5 hours of general use and three hours of video playback.
Dan Moren:
Those hoping for a price change will be disappointed: it still starts at $3,499 with storage tiers in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB at the same prices as before. In addition to the new Dual Knit Band, it includes the same Light Seal, pair of Light Seal Cushions, cover, polishing cloth, battery, and USB-C cable. However it also includes Apple’s recently announced 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max, though it seems like an expensive way to get that if you want it.
Joe Rossignol:
The new Dual Knit Band comes in small, medium, and large sizes. It is available to purchase separately for $99, and it is compatible with the previous-generation Vision Pro. You can find your preferred size by using the Apple Store app on the iPhone.
Apple says the Dual Knit Band features two straps knitted into a single piece. The upper strap goes across the top of the head, and the lower strap goes across the back of the head. The lower strap has tungsten inserts that provide a counterweight for additional comfort, balance, and stability. You can adjust the fit of both of the straps with the Fit Dial.
Another new accessory is the Logitech Muse spatial stylus, and Apple will begin selling the PlayStation VR2 Sense controller starting Tuesday, November 11.
Federico Viticci:
They literally did an official version of the custom "dual-knit" accessory for the Vision Pro from Etsy last year!
Mark Gurman:
The M5 Vision Pro is advertised as quite a bit heavier than the M2 Vision Pro -- Likely because of the new strap (which is clearly heavier but solves the comfort problem).
Jeff Johnson:
0.3% of Vision Pro apps are built for visionOS. And this is Apple’s own marketing!
Steve Troughton-Smith:
Vision Pro is rapidly coming on 2 years old now and Apple still hasn’t ported Pages or Numbers to it, and half the built-in apps on the OS are emulated iPad apps. It would be embarrassing if it weren’t so very desperately sad. They effectively halted all in-box-app progress the moment it was shown off at WWDC23 — nothing new has been announced since
Steve Troughton-Smith:
2 years on and Apple still hasn’t figured out a deal with Netflix for the Vision Pro?
Previously:
Update (2025-10-16): Matt Birchler:
Maybe I’m misunderstanding something here, but it seems like the original model was unable to take full advantage of the displays, otherwise how would we be getting better display “specs” with the same hardware?
John Gruber:
It’s a tacit acknowledgement that physical comfort has been a real problem for many people who’ve tried Vision Pro. (Me, personally, I find using it with the Solo Knit Band comfortable for as long as I care to use it — which is typically just 2–3 hours, tops.)
[…]
No price drop, no change to the form factor. But Apple’s interest in the platform is very much alive.
Update (2025-10-17): Juli Clover:
It appears M2 Vision Pro owners are eager for an accessory that makes the headset easier to wear, because the $99 Dual Knit Band is now backordered for at least a month. As of yesterday, new Dual Knit Band orders were delivering between November 7 and November 14, and wait times could get even longer.
Update (2025-10-22): Joe Rossignol:
The first reviews of the Vision Pro with the M5 chip have been shared by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the device launching this Wednesday.
Apple Hardware Announcement Apple M5 Apple R1 Apple Vision Pro Hardware visionOS visionOS 26
Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors):
Built using third-generation 3-nanometer technology, M5 introduces a next-generation 10-core GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling GPU-based AI workloads to run dramatically faster, with over 4x the peak GPU compute performance compared to M4. The GPU also offers enhanced graphics capabilities and third-generation ray tracing that combined deliver a graphics performance that is up to 45 percent higher than M4. M5 features the world’s fastest performance core, with up to a 10-core CPU made up of six efficiency cores and up to four performance cores. Together, they deliver up to 15 percent faster multithreaded performance over M4. M5 also features an improved 16-core Neural Engine, a powerful media engine, and a nearly 30 percent increase in unified memory bandwidth to 153GB/s.
Previously:
Update (2025-10-16): Dimitri Bouniol:
M5 seemingly only supporting Thunderbolt 4 ruins the hope I had that the base M5 Mac mini would support Thunderbolt 5 next year 😔
Update (2025-10-20): BasicAppleGuy:
Apple Silicon: M1 to M5
Update (2025-10-21): Hartley Charlton:
Compared to the M4 chip that Apple launched in May 2024, the M5 delivers[…]
Update (2025-10-22): Jason Snell:
It reminded me, though, that I have tried to build some charts to help visualize how Apple’s chip progress is going. I wrote about this for the A series of chips back in September. Here are the requisite M series charts[…]
[…]
So the very, very broad overview of what the M5 brings is a lot like the overview of the A19: In this generation, the CPU cores got a bit better, and the GPU cores took a much larger jump.
Federico Viticci:
Looking at Max’s benchmarks with Qwen3 8B and a ~20,000-token prompt, there is indeed a 3.65x speedup in tokens/sec in the prefill stage – jumping from 158.2 tok/s to a remarkable 578.7 tok/s. This is why I’m very excited about the future of MLX for local inference on M5, and why I’m also looking forward to M5 Pro/M5 Max chipsets in future Mac models.
Update (2025-10-31): Howard Oakley:
Thanks to your overwhelming response to my appeal for information about CPU core frequencies in M3 Ultra and M5 base chips, this article updates the data to cover those new models in addition to all previous M-series chips.
Apple Hardware Announcement Apple M5 Processors Thunderbolt
