Apple has refreshed its popular laptop line-up with the new MacBook Air with M5 and the MacBook Pro with new M5 Pro and M5 Max silicon to deliver next-level performance and on-device AI.
All these new Apple products go on sale on March 11.
MACBOOK AIR WITH M5
Apple’s most popular laptop, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air have been updated with M5 to offer vastly improved performance and enhanced AI capabilities.
The M5 chip has a faster CPU and an upgraded GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core.
This makes it possible for the MacBook Air with M5 to power through a range of workflows and complex AI tasks.
The MacBook Air with M5 includes a 10-core CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core for responsiveness and is up to four times faster for AI tasks than the MacBook Air with M4 and up to 9.5 times faster than MacBook Air with M1.
Not only has AI performance improved but the M5 chip has also supercharged gaming and 3D rendering thanks to the faster unified memory with 153GB/s of bandwidth.
The MacBook Air with M5 is:
– Up to 6.9x faster AI video enhancement performance in Topaz Video when compared to MacBook Air with M1, and up to 1.9x faster than MacBook Air with M4.
– Up to 6.5x faster 3D rendering with ray-tracing performance in Blender when compared to MacBook Air with M1, and up to 1.5x faster than MacBook Air with M4.
– Up to 2.7x faster image processing performance in Affinity when compared to MacBook Air with M1, and up to 1.5x faster than MacBook Air with M4.
– Web browsing is up to 50 per cent faster when compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra X7 processor, and more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance.
MacBook Air with M5 comes with double the standard storage at 512GB and can handle up to 4TB for the first time.
The new SSD offers two times faster read/write speeds than the previous model.
The MacBook Air will be available in 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch with Liquid Retina displays with up to 500 nits of brightness and the ability to display a billion colours.
Battery life has also been improved to up to 18 hours – that’s six hours longer than the Intel-based MacBook Air.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $1,799 and the 15-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $2,199.
They are available in sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver.
MACBOOK PRO WITH M5 PRO AND M5 MAX
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro have been supercharged with all new M5 Pro and M5 Max silicon to take performance and AI capabilities to an all-new level.
“MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what’s possible on a pro laptop, now up to 4x faster than the previous generation,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
“With Neural Accelerators in the GPU, the new MacBook Pro enables professionals to run advanced LLMs on device and unlock capabilities that no other laptop can do — all while maintaining exceptional battery life.
“Combined with even faster unified memory and storage, it empowers users to take their work even further, unleashing new possibilities and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.”
The M5 Pro and M5 Max have been created with Apple-designed Fusion Architecture and engineered for AI.
M5 Pro and M5 Max include up to 18-core CPU with six super core, the world’s fastest CPU core and 12 new performance cores. And they have all been optimised for power efficient and multi-threaded pro workloads.
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro delivers:
– Up to 7.8x faster AI image generation performance when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 3.7x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
– Up to 6.9x faster LLM prompt processing when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 3.9x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
– Up to 5.2x faster 3D rendering in Maxon Redshift when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 1.4x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
– Up to 1.6x faster gaming performance with ray tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition when compared to MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max delivers:
– Up to 8x faster AI image generation performance when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Max, and up to 3.8x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Max.
– Up to 6.7x faster LLM prompt processing when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Max, and up to 4x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Max.
– Up to 5.4x faster video effects rendering performance in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Max, and up to 3x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Max.
– Up to 3.5x faster AI video-enhancing performance in Topaz Video when compared to MacBook Pro with M4 Max.
The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro now comes standard with 1TB of storage with the MacBook Pro with M5 Max coming standard with 2TB.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 now comes standard with 1TB storage.
The improvement in performance of the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max is remarkable up to 24 hours of battery life.
Users will be able to fast charge up to 50 per cent in 30 minutes with a 96W charger or higher.
Also onboard is Apple’s 14-inch or 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 1600 nits peak HDR brightness and 1000 nits for SDR content.
The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $3,499 (14-inch) and $4,299 (16-inch)
The MacBook Pro with M5 Max starts at $5,799 (14-inch) and $6,299 (16-inch)
They are available in space black and silver.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 and 1TB storage starts at $2,699. Available in space black and silver.
