M5 Chip Rumored to Debut in These Five Apple Products Later This Year

[tenthousandthings]

It’s a stretch to think J833ct could be an iMac. The iMac identifiers have been straightforward, two numbers in succession, no letters:

J456 = M1 iMac (Two ports)
J457 = M1 iMac (Four ports)

J433 = Mac15,4 :: M3 iMac (Two ports)
J434 = Mac15,5 :: M3 iMac (Four ports)

J623 = Mac16,2 :: M4 iMac (Two ports)
J624 = Mac16,3 :: M4 iMac (Four ports)

 

[drrich2]

To sum this up, anyone who has a M4 device right now can ignore the small M5 update, and anyone who doesn't have a M4 yet can grab one now and make use of sales and doesn't need to wait for M5 either.

If the M4 series Macs have Wifi 7, it might matter to some people.

 

[Nick_P]

The frequency that we are getting new models since Apple Silicon was introduced is simply amazing. Blowing past both the PPC and the Intel days. Well done, Apple!

 

[G5isAlive]

I have the M4 iPad Pro and M4 MacBook Air. They are both MASSIVELY overpowered for most mainstream usage, especially on the iPad Pro.

And your point is? That you don’t use adobe products? Because I too own the m4 iPad Air and MBA and MBP and mini for that matter and adobe lightroom and photoshop take advantage of the m4 over the m1. Not sure why people seem to equate good enough for most with good enough for everyone.

I was originally talking about the AVP and that it too will benefit from a processor bump.

 

[EugW]

And your point is? That you don’t use adobe products? Because I too own the m4 iPad Air and MBA and MBP and mini for that matter and adobe lightroom and photoshop take advantage of the m4 over the m1. Not sure why people seem to equate good enough for most with good enough for everyone.

There is no such thing as an M4 iPad Air, but I'll assume you mean iPad Pro.

I don't use Adobe Photoshop anymore but I do sometimes use Affinity Photo 2. I purchased the entire Affinity Suite (cross platform on macOS, Windows, iPadOS) but I don't do this professionally. However, if I did do this professionally, I wouldn't be doing it on a MacBook Air as my primary machine. I'd do it on a MacBook Pro, which has a significantly better screen and the Pro chips usually have better handling of stuff like non-integer scaled resolutions on external monitors. The MacBook Air is the "good enough for most people" laptop. The MacBook Pro is the better laptop for creative professionals.

What would make the most sense to me would be to have much of the MacBook Air line spec'ing A series chips at a lower price, but with Mx non-Pro chips at the high end, whereas the MacBook Pro line would use only M series chips, including everything from Mx non-Pro to Mx Max. That way you can buy your M4/M5 in a MacBook Air as your backup Mac laptop (since you already own a MacBook Pro), while much of the mainstream non-creative-pro crowd can be happy using cheaper A series MacBooks that cost less.

 

[l0ken]

Absolutely going to buy the Mac mini with M5 Pro this year. I love my base Mac mini M4 but i do need more ram and storage space.

 

[Homme]

This is too soon to say, but I would like to know the trade-in value for upgrading the M2 Vision Pro to the M5 Vision Pro.

Well think of it this way, like upgrading from the “A15X to the “A19X”. Massive upgrade hope the non Pro Mac Mini gets the M5 besides M5 Pro version though the technology to seperate CPU and GPU thing which is actually great

 

[Abazigal]

That should go .... very very poorly, as it addresses not a single one of the many issues the AVP has.

I don't expect to see any significant changes to the Vision Pro, besides processor refreshes and new software features (like the many missing apps) that come with each OS update. One year is simply too short for Apple to course-correct, and that is even assuming they think that these are design flaws to begin with.

 

[Homme]

I don't expect to see any significant changes to the Vision Pro, besides processor refreshes and new software features (like the many missing apps) that come with each OS update. One year is simply too short for Apple to course-correct, and that is even assuming they think that these are design flaws to begin with.

The M5 and perhaps a new R2 series chip is more than enough for a second gen Vision Pro. Who knows what else but it’s a niche market at this stage

 

[iHorseHead]

I'd like to see iPad Pros starting at 16GB RAM this year to mirror the Macs. I also hope us iPad Pro users get M5 first, like the M4 series.

You can always buy other brands. Huawei has tablets with 24GB of RAM.

 

[GioGiusi]

And poor Mac Studio gets left to languish.

 

[JCCL]

To sum this up, anyone who has a M4 device right now can ignore the small M5 update, and anyone who doesn't have a M4 yet can grab one now and make use of sales and doesn't need to wait for M5 either. And whoever wants a Macbook with Tandem OLED can expect it in the M6 models next year at the earliest.

iPad Pro base models are very likely to get more RAM given that the iPhone is rumored to do so. For that very reason you may want to wait instead of getting the M4 models.

 

[Hajj.david]

That should go .... very very poorly, as it addresses not a single one of the many issues the AVP has.



Wow. That's a long ways away.

I disagree strongly. I felt that the weak M2 contributed to several key problems with the AVP:

1. Heat: Its not a very effiecent chip and that thing gets hot. Especially if you live in the south like me and/or you go outside with it, it cooks you quickly.
2. The pass through was/is not very good. You need very strong light and even then it completely breaks the magic of the product because its grainy and you have poor fidelity (reading something via passthrough is like 50 year old simulator telescoping it back and forth to find the best distance). What does this have to do with the chip? Simple, Apple had to downscale/compress the cameras outputs since the M2 could not handle that much video bandwidth coming in at the same time. Similarly they had issues porting apple intelligence since the M2 chips are running at nearly max power (especially GPU wise) the entire time its running.
3. Due to both issues, the battery life (despite such a big and heavy battery) is abysmal. 2 hours if you are lucky. The M5 is rumored to be the third iteration of the 3nm processor and it is significantly more efficient which should boost battery life a bit. Even if its just to 3-4 hours at least you can watch a full lord of the rings without plugging in.
4. Maybe apple will lower the price now that the M series chip is mainstream and being pumped to all of their devices at one time. The M2 chip was expensive to make and Apple didn't keep production up for very long.

I don't think performance would be a reason to upgrade for me. What will they do with that extra performance? Will Safari seem snappier? It's hard to imagine they would upgrade the chip and nothing else. I'd expect a few other tweaks. An Apple Vision Pro S. Maybe better cameras, so AVP could be better used for content creation.

I agree, its very rare that apple will do a chip only change, they usually throw a few small bones in, maybe lighter material, improved cameras, better pass through as a result of the better chip being able to handle it. Data passthrough the USB for a direct tether mode, etc.

 

[Hajj.david]

And poor Mac Studio gets left to languish.

It just got updated a few months ago and typically Apple does not release the max at the same time of the base chips.

 

[bluecoast]

Could it be called the M26?

 

[okkibs]

iPad Pro base models are very likely to get more RAM given that the iPhone is rumored to do so. For that very reason you may want to wait instead of getting the M4 models.

I suppose that's fair enough but I still think getting the M4 iPad Pro at a discount could be worth the savings to make do with less memory. There aren't really many complaints about running out of memory on the iPad Pros. And if you get the 1TB version you get the 16GiB RAM today already anyways.

But: If you aren't in a rush to buy you can of course simply wait until the M5 iPad Pro is here and then decide between that and the M4 model.

 

[tenthousandthings]

And poor Mac Studio gets left to languish.

This article is about products “this year” (2025), so no Mac Studio, but the good news is the leaked identifier numbers include both M5 Mac Studios, so we should expect both Max and Ultra in March 2026.

 

[Corpuscle]

And poor Mac Studio gets left to languish.

Are you seriously saying an M4 Max or M3 Ultra Studio is inadequate?

 

[Sippincider]

And poor Mac Studio gets left to languish.

If you think the Studio has it bad, try the $7000+ M2 Mac "Pro".

 

[UltimaKilo]

I'm so glad they brought the AVP to market when they did, so I didn't have to wait five more years for it! Imagine if they had held back on television until HDTV and flat panels and stereo sound were ready. Apple brought out the iPhone without key features, but it was still useful.

My AVP is still useful to me, and gets more useful with each update of VisionOS

Except the headset has poisoned the market be releasing a half-baked product using gimmicky solutions like camera-based AR because pass-through is still years away and a hockey puck, which even with it, leaves the Vision Pro significantly underpowered for what true AR will require. Making matters worse, it's big, bulky and heavy with a lackluster refresh rate and an abysmal FOV.

So while you have found a use for it, you are in an incredibly small minority, which is reflected in the piss poor sales.

All the reports are that Apple Engineers argued against releasing this product because they felt it was half-baked, but Tim Cook wanted to push it through because of his ego: he wanted to ensure such a device would release under his tenure.

Had they waited, at this price point, they could have released an M7 AVP with 144hz refresh, 140+ degrees of FOV, pass-through AR at under 400 grams (somewhere around 300 grams is what is needed for "all day" comfort, the AVP is more than double that).

 

[Abazigal]

Had they waited, at this price point, they could have released an M7 AVP with 144hz refresh, 140+ degrees of FOV, pass-through AR at under 400 grams (somewhere around 300 grams is what is needed for "all day" comfort, the AVP is more than double that).

I have a heard of a saying that a product is perfect just as it is about to be obsoleted. Technology is always improving. Bu the time the AVP has improved to the stage that you described, who knows where VR headsets would be by then. At a certain point, I feel that Apple just needed to get the product out the door once they believed they had enough of a minimum viable product, and in that regard, I feel like I can't really find any fault with the AVP barring its price and the lack of suitable lenses for me (and I have no desire to wear contacts or go for lasik).

Apple knew the experience they wanted users to have with the Vision Pro (eg: extremely lifelike spatial video), and the issues that people have reported are the tradeoffs that were made in order to enable said experience.

 

[dumastudetto]

You can always buy other brands. Huawei has tablets with 24GB of RAM.

I’m suddenly tempted to switch to the Huawei ecosystem of products.

 

[EugW]

I’m suddenly tempted to switch to the Huawei ecosystem of products.

Does Huawei even sell stuff in the US these days?

 

[ph0b14_phk]

This is too soon to say, but I would like to know the trade-in value for upgrading the M2 Vision Pro to the M5 Vision Pro.

I paid nearly $6,000 (AUD) for my M2 Max about 1 year and 11 months ago, now Apple is offering $1,460 (AUD) for trade-in. So, can't expect too much.

 

[CWatts]

I see no one is talking about the iMac, and that's because the only update people are waiting for to make that product attractive is a larger screen size. When will we get 32 or 27 inches at the very least?