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Read Mashable’s full review of the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M5).
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The new 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is for deeper-pocketed shoppers and power users who want to make as few compromises as possible without going totally overboard. For an extra $400+ and a slightly bulkier design (though not by much), it gets you cooler multi-tasking performance, nicer speakers, a brighter, higher-res display with that coveted 120Hz refresh rate, a better mix of ports, and a longer battery life compared to the Air.
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The 14-inch base MacBook Pro has always been the most well-rounded laptop in Apple’s lineup. That continues to be the case with the new M5 model, even though it’s almost a carbon copy of the M4 version. The addition of an OLED display or touchscreen capabilities would’ve made for a more exciting refresh — watch out for the M6 version, says the rumor mill — but it’s a superb laptop nonetheless.
Performance and battery life are the most notable gen-to-gen changes, so let’s get right into it. The M5 chip is now optimized for running on-device AI models, and most professionals will have a hard time stressing it out. With a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 17,470, it’s 15 percent faster than its predecessor. That’s not a terribly exciting jump, but it’s a jump nonetheless, and one that continues the MacBook Pro’s reign as one of the fastest laptops out there. The only models in our database that outperform it are the 16-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro and a few gaming laptops that cost $2,000 or more. The base M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,599.
Even more impressively, the M5 MacBook Pro held out for 21 hours and 17 minutes in our battery life benchmark, lasting almost 30 percent longer than the M4 MacBook Pro. It’s our new battery life champ, surpassing the 16-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro by about 26 minutes.
The M5 MacBook Pro is slightly less portable compared to the Air, but not by much. (It’s less than 0.2 inches thicker than both sizes and 0.1 pounds heavier than the 15-inch model.) Still, this affords it enough room for extra fixings like an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a bonus Thunderbolt port, as well as an awesome hi-fi sound system with force-cancelling woofers.
The M5 MacBook Pro looks as spectacular as it sounds, as per tradition. (Apple hasn’t made any drastic design changes to it since 2021.) Its mini-LED “Liquid Retina XDR” display offers a resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels, a peak brightness of 1600 nits in HDR, and a 120Hz refresh rate. Compared to the M4 MacBook Air’s standard Liquid Retina screen, it’s crisper, brighter, and smoother when displaying visuals in motion — not necessary for all users, again, but nice to have if you can swing its price. It can hit the $2,000 mark pretty fast if you tack on more RAM, storage, and its nano-texture (matte) display option.
