Apple MacBook Pro M5 review: New chip, same greatness

Last year’s entry-level MacBook Pro was an impressive return to form for Apple’s pro laptops. Between the M4 chip, increased RAM, better webcam, and third Thunderbolt 4 port, the most affordable MacBook Pro was also one of the best deals in Apple’s lineup.

The M5 sequel is mostly a copy-paste of the same machine-one-year-old Madden NFL Release in laptop form. But instead of a nice roster update, you get a slightly faster chip and much faster storage, which speeds things up when working on large project files and cuts down on time when viewing progress bars.

That’s mostly it. The screen, design, ports, speakers, webcam, and everything in between are unchanged from the M4 model. If you bought one of these, congratulations – keep living your life with your awesome laptop. There’s no reason for FOMO with the M5.

But if you’re using a very old laptop and are looking for a powerful new machine that doesn’t cost a fortune, the entry-level MacBook Pro continues to reign supreme. And this year’s model is better than ever.

The M5 MacBook Pro feels very similar to last year’s M4, with exact dimensions and weight. There’s not even a new color to mix things up. But unlike the last time Apple gave its base MacBook Pro a straight chip bump, it’s not a holdover from an outdated design. The M4 MacBook Pro had the same design, number of ports, and upgrade options as the higher-end M4 Pro and M4 Max models of the laptop. Each of these factors is still present with the M5 model, and still starts at $1,599.

Beyond the minor improvement in the M5 chip, the other speed upgrade that stands out here is in the laptop’s storage. Every SSD option on the M5 MacBook Pro, from 512GB to the overkill (and overly expensive) $1,200 4TB option, is faster than its corresponding tier on the M4. The 1TB drive in the M4 MacBook Pro had decent read/write speeds, but the 1TB version in the M5 more than doubles that. Now it can hang with the speedy 2TB and 4TB SSDs found in the M4 Pro and M4 Max models.

Our review unit came with a 1TB SSD upgrade and an optional anti-chiller display, bringing the total spec up to $1,949. Both are upgrades if you’re willing to spend extra, but don’t feel compelled to splurge for either. You’ll quickly find yourself spiraling down Apple’s pricing funnel, putting you just $50 shy of the 14-inch M4 Pro model, which is still faster than the M5 and has 24GB of RAM and more future-proof Thunderbolt 5 ports. The base model M5 should cover most needs with a glossy screen, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

Tests and synthetic benchmarks I ran on the M5 showed speed gains, especially in creative tools. Geekbench and Cinebench CPU tests ranged from 8 to 16 percent improvement. Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Daiichi solutions scored 17 to 33 percent higher on Puget Bench tests.

Do you really notice all these speed bumps in your daily life? Not really. The M4 MacBook Pro already felt very fast. You’ll need to use the right apps and AI workflows to see potentially big differences. The M5’s new neural accelerators on its 10 GPU cores are the biggest change in the chip’s architecture. They’re designed to give GPU-intensive apps a big performance boost, with Apple promising a 3.5x speed improvement over the M4 when it comes to Apple AI tasks. This is something you’ll see in specialized workflows, like the use of AI upscaling in Cook Video and speech enhancement in Premiere Pro.

Most people won’t come from the M4 though. The M5’s faster performance, especially in terms of real-world feel, if you’re coming from Intel-based Macs, now on their last big macOS updates, or early M-series processors, especially those with slower SSDs.

Apple continues to feature Mac gaming in its announcements and keynotes, so I decided to put it to the test on an M5 MacBook Pro. I booted an almost five-year-old Cyberpunk 2077which is now fully supported on Macs, and found that the default “for this Mac” graphical preset is back in some a lot Aggressive Constraints: Limiting games to 1080p-ish 1800 x 1125 resolution with dynamic scaling and locking frame rates at just 30fps. It is playable and stable, but Cyberpunk High-end graphics have become the industry standard showpiece for a reason—and it’s not meant to be played that way. Turning off V-Sync from this overprotective parent of a preset at least allows the frame rate to climb to a more respectable 48FPS average. It still looks great. It’s a small upgrade over the M4, though: the old machine averaged 40fps when turning off V-Sync.

I also ran away CyberpunkIn a couple of tests on the M5 and M4 we run on a typical Windows gaming laptop – at 2560 x 1600 and 1920 x 1200 using ultra settings without ray tracing or any resolution. AAA gaming is still the best on Windows. The MacBook Pro is capable of handling some fantastic and less demanding indie games, such as Hollow Knight : Slexong And Hades IIbut they play well on anything – even a Steam deck.

Despite my prodigious gamer woes, it doesn’t beat the entry-level MacBook Pro as the go-to option for students in creative fields, or for anyone doing light photo and video editing, if an M4 Pro or Max version is out of your price range. Like the previous generation, it’s also pro for the everyday Joe who wants to go beyond the performance offered by the MacBook Air. Or, at the very least, prefer a Mac with a better screen, louder speakers, and more ports on offer.

Battery life on the 14-inch Pro is even slightly better than the already great 13- and 15-inch Airs. The M5 easily got me through a full, nearly non-stop nine-hour workday with everyday productivity apps (Slack, Chrome, and Google Docs) plus some Lightroom classic photo editing and plenty of music listening thrown into the mix. And like last year, the machine doesn’t get too hot to the touch or particularly loud with fan noise — even when you’re really pushing it.

Rumors suggest a larger redesign of the MacBook Pro line is coming a year or so down the road, but the M5 14-inch is still a great upgrade. This sweet spot in Apple’s lineup is the mid-range option. And since it’s a chip refresh, there’s no denying that it’s one of the best laptops ever made. A little bit better

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedito / The Verge