Apple on Wednesday announced a refresh of its MacBook Pro. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is now powered by the M5 chip, which is faster and delivers a “huge leap” in AI performance over the previous generation. The design of the new MacBook Pro remains the same as last year’s M4 model, as well as the pricing. Pricing starts at $1,599 for a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. Pre-orders are underway, with availability expected on Wednesday, October 22nd.
With its next-generation 10-core GPU, Apple says the M5 MacBook Pro delivers up to 3.5x faster AI performance over the previous generation, and up to 6x faster performance than the M1 chip. The SSD, which is now available up to 4TB of storage, is 2x faster than the previous generation and delivers faster performance for AI tasks.
With the new GPU, Apple says the M5-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro delivers “up to 1.6x faster graphics performance in pro apps and enables up to 1.6x higher frame rates in games compared to the M4 model.” The machine is also built for multitasking and for data analyst professionals who have to run through databases with Python, and product designers who multitask across several applications at the same time.
Battery life is improved. Apple says users upgrading from an Intel-powered MacBook will get an additional 14 hours of battery life. Users coming from the M1 MacBook Pro will see up to 4 more hours of battery life, which is up to 24 hours at a single charge.
Every other thing is the same as last year’s 14-inch model – the screen, webcam, speakers, and ports. There is no new colour, and Apple did not announce the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips yet.
Image: Apple
