Apple launches the M5 series of MacBooks.

Apple has launched a new line of MacBooks using the M5 chip. Photo: Apple .

Apple has just announced a new line of MacBooks equipped with the M5 chip, including 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, as well as 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models using the M5 chip. The company says the new products focus on improving artificial intelligence (AI) performance, enhancing storage speed, and expanding wireless connectivity. Pre-orders begin on March 4th, and shipping starts on March 11th.

With the MacBook Pro line, Apple introduced two chip options: the M5 Pro and M5 Max. According to the announcement, the new CPU has up to 18 cores, including 6 high-performance cores and 12 power-efficient cores, delivering up to 30% faster performance than the previous generation. The integrated GPU with neural accelerators in each core allows for processing large language models (LLM) up to four times faster than the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to eight times faster than the M1 models.

“The MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what is possible in a professional laptop,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Apple states that the M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of consolidated storage with a bandwidth of 307 GB/second. Meanwhile, the M5 Max chip can be upgraded to 128 GB, with a bandwidth of 614 GB/second. The company emphasizes that this helps to handle intensive AI projects, 4K and 8K video , and complex simulations more efficiently.

The SSDs in the new MacBook Pro achieve read/write speeds of up to 14.5 GB/second, more than double the speed of the previous generation. Starting capacities have increased to 1 TB for the M5 Pro and 2 TB for the M5 Max.

Meanwhile, the new MacBook Air is positioned as Apple's mainstream line. The new version uses the M5 chip with a 10-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU. AI performance on the MacBook Air M5 is 4 times faster than the M4 and up to 9.5 times faster than the M1.

"The M5 chip helps the MacBook Air handle a wide range of tasks smoothly, from everyday work to content creation," Ternus added.

The MacBook Air now comes with a standard 512GB SSD, double that of the previous generation, with configuration options up to 4TB. Apple also claims the new SSD offers twice the read/write speeds. Performance comparisons released by Apple show that AI-powered video enhancement on Topaz Video is up to 6.9 times faster than on the MacBook Air M1. 3D rendering with Blender is up to 6.5 times faster than on the M1.

In terms of design, the MacBook Air retains its slim, lightweight aluminum form factor and fanless design. It comes with two Liquid Retina display options: 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch, both with 500 nits of brightness and support for 1 billion colors. Additionally, the new generation MacBook Air is available in four colors: sky blue, dark blue, star blue, and silver.

Both the MacBook Pro and Air incorporate Apple's N1 wireless networking chip, supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. The MacBook Pro has three Thunderbolt 5 ports, an HDMI port supporting 8K resolution, an SDXC card slot, and MagSafe 3. The MacBook Air features two Thunderbolt 4 ports and supports up to two external displays.

Battery life continues to be a highlight of this product line. The MacBook Pro achieves up to 24 hours of use, while the MacBook Air achieves 18 hours.

The new devices all feature a 12MP Center Stage camera, high-quality microphones, and a speaker system supporting Spatial Audio. The iPhone manufacturer also emphasized that the combination of new hardware, macOS Tahoe, and Apple Intelligence helps to better utilize AI tasks on the devices.

Apple positions the MacBook Pro M5 for professional users working with AI, 3D graphics, video editing, and engineering simulation. Meanwhile, the MacBook Air is aimed at students, business users, and groups needing a mobile device that balances performance and portability.