M5 MacBook Pro review: A minor refresh that hides a massive graphics boost

Best Prices Today: Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)

Going into this review for the M5 MacBook Pro, I wasn’t expecting much. The laptop it replaced, the M4 MacBook Pro, is excellent. But more importantly, that M4 laptop addressed many issues with the M3, M2, and M1 MacBook Pros, including the webcam quality and starting memory. The experience with the M4 MacBook Pro was so satisfying that I was a bit blasé about the M5 MacBook Pro–the only thing that’s really new in the laptop is the M5. That’s it.

After spending time with the new M5 MacBook Pro, that indifference quickly evolved into being impressed. In all, the M5 MacBook Pro is an incremental update, but it does make some big performance leaps in graphics and SSD throughput that made me say, “Wow!”

M5 MacBook Pro: Our model’s specifications

M5 MacBook Pro: Performance

Since the new MacBook Pro is just a chip upgrade, performance is the main focus of this review. The M5 is the new chip, replacing the M4, and while both have the same number of CPU and CPU cores, the M5 has architectural improvements to boost performance.

Geekbench 6.3 gauges overall performance of the CPU, and the M5’s single-core and multi-core results were 14 and 22 percent faster than the M4, respectively. We’ve seen similar improvement in past iterations, so the results are what we expected.

What’s more interesting is how much the M-series chip has evolved. For example, the M5 offers an 84 boost over the M1 in single-core performance, and a 118 percent increase in multi-core performance. That’s enticing for someone who currently has an M1 MacBook Pro. Those are differences you will definitely notice in your everyday work.

Cinebench 2024 is a more strenuous and more specialized test that performs 3D rendering, which is always a very demanding task on a computer. The M5’s CPU scores show a small improvement: 14 percent in the Single CPU test, 11 percent in the Multi CPU test. It may not seem like much, but for people who do this kind of work, every little bit counts.

Where the M5 impresses is with the Cinebench GPU test. The M5’s performance is nearly 50 percent better than the M4, which is a fantastic feat. We’ll see a bit more about the M5’s GPU performance in other benchmarks.

HandBrake was used to convert the 4K Tears of Steel video to a 1080p H.265 file. The drastic improvement from the M1 to the M5 stands out here. The M5 basically cuts the M1’s time in half. It’s a remarkable example of the progress Apple Silicon has made in five years.

With the M2, Apple provided a major update to its ProRes encoder that drastically cut down rendering times. Since then, a combination of a faster CPU and encoder optimizations has made the processing times better.

After a few years of flat results, the SSD in the M5 MacBook Pro turns on the jets–the results made me rub my eyes in disbelief. The laptop certainly feels snappier when copying, opening, and moving files around. The read score is actually faster than the 5154 MBps of the M4 Max Mac Studio!

The Geekbench 6 Compute benchmark gauges the GPU performance using Apple’s Metal API and OpenCL. The 35 percent increase in Metal performance is a bigger jump than we’ve seen in the past. Apple touts the M5 as a better GPU performer, and it certainly is.

The M5 MacBook Pro offers really good improvements in videogame frame rates–in some instances, it’s as high as 122 percent. However, the total framerates themselves may not be satisfactory for the most serious gamers, the kind of people who have PCs and spend a ton of money on a GPU card. But for people who consider themselves a Mac user first and happen to take their games a little more seriously than others, the MacBook Pro should be good.

Apple says its Neural Engine is faster, but we’re still waiting for Apple to roll out macOS features that truly take advantage of AI. Apple Intelligence’s writing tools are nice, but they barely scratch the surface of AI’s potential. In the meantime, here’s a look at how the M5 compares to past base M-series chips.

M5 MacBook Pro: What hasn’t changed

The M5 MacBook Pro still has three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, and this laptop still implements the Thunderbolt 4 protocol, while the M4 Pro and Max versions have Thunderbolt 5. It seems like Apple is going to continue this pattern when the base M-series MacBook Pro will have a Thunderbolt version that’s one step below that of the higher-end laptops.

The external display support hasn’t changed, and the M5 MacBook Pro still has an HDMI port, a MagSafe connector, an SDXC Card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3, and a 12MP Center Stage camera. By default, the laptop has a glossy display, and you can opt for a nano-texture (matte) screen for an extra $150/£150 (also unchanged). If you’d like more details on these bits, you can check out our M4 MacBook Pro review.

M5 MacBook Pro: Battery life

Apple states the M5 MacBook Pro battery life as “up to 24 hours video streaming” and “up to 16 hours wireless web” access. Our battery life test involved running a 4K video saved to the Mac’s SSD. With the display set to 150 nits, the video played on a loop until the full battery was depleted, which is around the midpoint of the brightness scale.

Apple’s MacBook battery life has been great since the M1, and it keeps getting better. The M5 MacBook Pro lasted over 27 hours and 15 minutes in our test, which is hours beyond any estimate Apple provides. Granted, video playback on-device isn’t as demanding as, say, rendering a 3D animation, but even if you do need to do something like that while on battery, you can feel confident that you can execute a moderate task without sacrificing a lot.

In the U.S., Apple includes a 70W power adapter with the M5 MacBook Pro, but a 96W or higher adapter is required to perform fast charging. Apple offers its 96W power adapter for an extra $20 at the time of purchase (a good deal) or $79 when bought separately from Apple (a not-so good deal). Of course, you can use a third-party adapter too, and finding a comparable one for less than Apple’s $79 isn’t hard.

Overseas buyers take note: A power adapter is not included if you are shopping in the U.K. or the European Union. Apple says that it is to comply with EU regulations that go into effect in 2026, but several media outlets have pointed out that Apple isn’t prohibited from including a power adapter by EU law; rather, it only needs to offer the option. Plus, the rule doesn’t apply to the U.K. So, it’s either a case of Apple misinterpreting the law or getting ahead of any future changes. You can buy a 70W or 96W at the time of purchase if you buy directly from Apple.

Should you buy the M5 MacBook Pro?

In Apple’s current laptop lineup,  there’s now a greater distinction between the $1,199 13-inch M4 MacBook Air and the $1,599 M5 MacBook Pro. (At least until Apple upgrades the MacBook Air with an M5.) The major boosts in GPU and SSD performance give the M5 MacBook Pro more bang for your buck. If you work with big files, do a lot of file exporting, depend on the GPU, or anything else that puts pressure on the CPU, the M5 MacBook Pro offers a great combination of price and performance.

Best Prices Today: Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)