Apple announces M5 MacBook Pro and iPad Pro with faster speeds and similar designs
The new models are available for preorder starting today
🍎 Apple has announced a new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro
💻 They’re both powered by the upgraded M5 chip, which promises faster performance
📐 The new MacBook and iPad look identical to the previous version
📅 Apple is putting up both new products for preorder starting today
Apple just announced a new chip. Today, the company unveiled its new M5 processor, a successor to last year’s M4, featuring enhanced performance in key areas such as graphics and AI processing. The chip is debuting first in three products: the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the iPad Pro, and an upgraded version of the Apple Vision Pro, which we covered separately. All three products are going up for preorder today and on sale on Wednesday, October 22.
🚀 Apple M5 lands. The new M5 chip takes the M4 and upgrades it in a number of key ways, all of which generally affect the GPU and AI performance. The chip was built using a new 3-nanometer process for improved efficiency in a smaller footprint, outfitted with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU architecture.
🏎️ Serious speed. Apple says it included a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core, which allows for 4x the peak GPU compute performance of M4 and 45% better graphics performance, both of which greatly help handle AI workloads with better performance. The increase in GPU performance will also translate to better gaming performance, which also benefits from rearchitected second-generation dynamic caching for smooth gameplay. The CPU is also 15% faster than the previous generation.
🤖 AI gets a boost. The M5’s 16-core Neural Engine makes the chip perfectly equipped for handling heavy AI workloads. Between Apple Intelligence, running local AI models, and using generative AI features in apps and services, Apple says you’ll see faster general performance with greater efficiency. The chip also gets a unified memory bandwidth of 153GB/s, which means things like AI models will have a larger single pool of memory to reference so nothing trips or hangs up for a long period of time. In short, there’s a lot more AI horsepower on this processor than any previous Apple M-series chip.
🍎 MacBook Pro and iPad Pro: what’s new?
💻 Same ol’ MacBook. The new 14-inch MacBook Pro isn’t very new beyond the M5 chip. It still starts at $1,599 and comes with a 14-inch Mini LED display, plenty of ports, Touch ID, and a notch at the top. Storage speeds are a little bit faster, but beyond that, this is the same laptop as before, just with an M5 chip.
👀 A few new iPad things. The M5 iPad Pro gets a few extra upgrades compared to the MacBook Pro. It ships with Apple’s N1 chip for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as the C1x chip for 5G. You can output to external displays with 120Hz refresh rates, and it ships with faster charging, going from zero to 50% in 30 minutes. The tablet still ships in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, has a single rear camera, and is just 5.1mm thin. It starts at $999 and $1,299, respectively.
MacBook Pro M5 release date
Apple currently has the new 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by M5 up for preorder on its website, alongside the new iPad Pro. Both products will begin shipping next Wednesday, October 22.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.