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M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro: What to Expect

carrrrrlos said:
Take my money, one more time. Coming from an M1 MBP. My laptop is closed 92% of the time w/ dual 5k monitors. I just picked up an 11” M5 iPro, so i’m good with the touchscreen.
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Why don't you get a more powerful Mac Studio for the 92% of the time? You're paying more for a laptop to use it as a desktop. The other 8% you could probably just use the iPad and not have a laptop at all.

Or just keep the M1 as your laptop for the 8% and get a Studio for the 92%.
 
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Buying the brand new 2016 MBP design on release day was a bad decision I still regret.

The regret is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Apple paid me $800 in class action settlements for my month+ of cumulative downtime and months of upset due to constant need of repair and ultimate premature failure of the machine.

Be careful overselling Apple's undertested new designs.
 
I think odds are low Apple puts the M6 Pro and Max chips in the initial run of the redesigned MBP, esp if smaller/lighter. So if you want/need one of these you’ll be waiting until likely this time next year. Meaning 2026 is not a bad time to buy one.
 
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mdcmdcmdc said:
Nothing to see here, just another "don't buy an M5 MacBook Pro" article by Juli Clover, two weeks after the last one.

Yeah, don't buy it. That is... unless you have work to do this year.

Or wait, and be the first to buy a newly redesigned machine with lots of gee-whiz technologies that have never been in a Mac before. What could possibly go wrong? Just think of the bragging rights you'll have in the forums!
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I agree with her. We should all stop buying apple products until Tim lowers the price and makes them not suck
 
wikiverse said:
Why don't you get a more powerful Mac Studio for the 92% of the time? You're paying more for a laptop to use it as a desktop. The other 8% you could probably just use the iPad and not have a laptop at all.

Or just keep the M1 as your laptop for the 8% and get a Studio for the 92%.
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I do something similar. Mac mini as my main desktop. I use the Jump app with my iPad Pro to remote into my Mac when needed. Works really well!
 
I’ve got two wild theories about the M5-M6 MacBook Pros. What if there is no more M5 Pro versus M5 Max and there will only be one M5 Max (or whatever they name it)? We’ve seen the ordering pages change to be more à la carte where you can order different CPU/GPU/RAM combinations. The only difference between the Pro and Max is the number of fixed minimum cores and amount of RAM. Given they are using a new packaging scheme that separates CPU and GPU cores, why do they need a Pro and a Max chip? That could also explain why only two new Macs appeared in macOS 26.3 with code names that match the Max and Ultra.

My second theory about why the M6 will come out so close to the M5 is because of a price increase. We saw the iPad Pros go up $200 because of the tandem OLED displays. With a complete redesign and a new screen, a price increase is almost guaranteed. I figure Apple is releasing them so close together because they want both M5 and M6 MBP’s to coexist. There’s no reason to release the M5’s and deprecate them 9 months later. I anticipate there will be two tiers of MBP’s after the M6’s come out. As many have said, some don’t want OLED due to pulse width modulation and others don’t want a touch screen. For those people, a cheaper M5 version will be available and still be competitive in performance with the M6, though the M6 will have a new 2nm chip architecture. The M6 will be available for those with bigger needs and bigger wallets.

What do you all think of these two theories?
 
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Happy for the folks who will like the refreshed M6 in the fall. I don't need a touchscreen or OLED this time around. I'm excited to see how good mini-LED is.

The 14" M5 Pro is my dream machine and I'm absolutely fine with nabbing one. Fingers crossed they don't edge us more with the coming presentation.
 
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tobybrut said:
What if there is no more M5 Pro versus M5 Max and there will only be one M5 Max (or whatever they name it)? We’ve seen the ordering pages change to be more à la carte where you can order different CPU/GPU/RAM combinations. The only difference between the Pro and Max is the number of fixed minimum cores and amount of RAM. Given they are using a new packaging scheme that separates CPU and GPU cores, why do they need a Pro and a Max chip? That could also explain why only two new Macs appeared in macOS 26.3 with code names that match the Max and Ultra.
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What you are calling “code names” are actually board identifiers — with SoC the Pro and the Max used different boards, but with SoIC they now will use the same board. Like you, I have no idea if they will change the naming scheme, but if they do I’ll bet Max is more likely to be dropped than Pro.
 
wikiverse said:
Why don't you get a more powerful Mac Studio for the 92% of the time? You're paying more for a laptop to use it as a desktop. The other 8% you could probably just use the iPad and not have a laptop at all.

Or just keep the M1 as your laptop for the 8% and get a Studio for the 92%.
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This is a great point, and one that I mulled over years ago, and actually recently. My last desktop was a PowerPC G5 Tower - at the time it was amazing. Then made the switch to laptops and really never looked back. Working remote and traveling really opened up a new world. Fast forward, I still travel and work remote - but as I mentioned mostly from the studio w/ visits to coffee shops and dragging the laptop to the sofa on occasion. The funny thing is, this new iPad Pro w/ the M5 is pretty impressive, but the shortcomings of the OS makes it a convenience rather than a dedicated work station - great 3rd party apps though. As practical as getting a dedicated work station may be, and keeping a laptop, the idea of 1. Being locked down (even for just 8%), and 2. having to manage another computer (sign in, mail, messages, photos, etc).

My only hesitation atm is if i’m buying into a deprecated architecture - will MacOS and iOS merge in the next few years and will this last gen MBP be obsolete sooner than later. I dunno? But I do know my M1 is getting slow and picking up it’s successor will make my life easier - at least in the near term.
 
OLED isn't an upgrade, it's a sidegrade with its own problems. "Thinner and Lighter" will most likely mean a downgrade to speakers and battery life and bring throttling problems. And who wants a touchscreen on a MacBook Pro? So the M5 Pro/Max will most likely be THE MacBook to get for several years.
 
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wikiverse said:
Why don't you get a more powerful Mac Studio for the 92% of the time? You're paying more for a laptop to use it as a desktop. The other 8% you could probably just use the iPad and not have a laptop at all.

Or just keep the M1 as your laptop for the 8% and get a Studio for the 92%.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much my plan this year if the M5 Max Studio makes an appearance. Owning an M1 Max MBP, 90% of the time I need it's full capabilities I am either at my desk at home, or somewhere where I could easily remote into it. Spending the money on a Max MBP again doesn't make sense for me when someone like MicroCenter regularly puts the base model Studio on sale for $1,799.
 
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Under reasons NOT to buy, ...it is doubtful the new revamped MacBook Pro's from later this year will be equipped with Pro or Max chips. They will undoubtedly only be the base MacBook Pro's, with the Max Versions available later next year.
 
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tobybrut said:
I’ve got two wild theories about the M5-M6 MacBook Pros. What if there is no more M5 Pro versus M5 Max and there will only be one M5 Max (or whatever they name it)? We’ve seen the ordering pages change to be more à la carte where you can order different CPU/GPU/RAM combinations. The only difference between the Pro and Max is the number of fixed minimum cores and amount of RAM. Given they are using a new packaging scheme that separates CPU and GPU cores, why do they need a Pro and a Max chip? That could also explain why only two new Macs appeared in macOS 26.3 with code names that match the Max and Ultra.
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That's not a wide theory, it's been looking pretty likely for weeks we're not getting specific Pro and Max versions of the M5. Just more configurable chip.
 
Expecting only a new chip in the MacBook Pro. Everything will be exactly the same. Think the M6 version will be at least $200 more.
 
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tenthousandthings said:
What you are calling “code names” are actually board identifiers — with SoC the Pro and the Max used different boards, but with SoIC they now will use the same board. Like you, I have no idea if they will change the naming scheme, but if they do I’ll bet Max is more likely to be dropped than Pro.
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"what do you mean by "boards"? Are you talking about the PCB i.e. the pin-outs and maybe also the physical package size of the M4 Pro and M4 Max were different so they needed different PCBs (motherboards)?

I've been wondering about pin compatibility across the various M4 & M5 variants specifically to try and determine my level of pessimism vs optimism about the rest of the M5 MacBook Pro range (the ones we hope are about to be announced) getting the new N1 chip.

My pessimism that we won't see the N1 in the rest of the M5 MacBook Pro range (and hence probably also not in an M5 MacBook Air if that is also released) is based on the fact that we didn't see the N1 chip in the baseline M5 MacBook Pro released last year and wondering whether that might have been because the baseline M5 chip is pin-compatible with the baseline M4 chip (I don't know if that's true, I'm just speculating) so by not making any other changes (in particular not changing the networking hardware) Apple could use the same baseline M4 MacBook Pro motherboard PCB for the M5 successor thus saving design and production line change costs.

In light of what you say though I'm now wondering about the wider pin-compatibility picture of M4 Pro/Max vs whatever the M5 equivalents end up being (maybe different core counts but all essentially M5 Max chips?). If the M4 Pro/Max to M5 (Pro?)/Max transition does break pin compatibility with the M4 predecessors thus needing a PCB redesign to accommodate a new SoIC unified PCB pin-out then that gives me some optimism that if the main PCB is having to be reworked anyway Apple might also redesign the networking section to accommodate the N1 chip.

If I'm reading your post correctly then I think you've just moved me at least slightly away from a pessimistic "we didn't see the N1 in the baseline M5 MacBook Pro last year so we probably won't see it in the rest of the line-up this year" towards being slightly more optimistic that we might actually see it in the rest of the M5 MacBook Pro models.
 
Shustr said:
I hate touchscreen for laptops. I hope I will be able to buy OLED MacBook Pro without touchscreen
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Or, maybe, you know... just don't use the touchscreen.
I promise not to come and put my greasy fingerprints on your Mac.

A capacitive touchscreen isn't rocket surgery these days and it's not going to significantly change the price of a high-margin product like a MacBook. It would probably cost Apple more to make two separate models because of the extra logistics.
 
I kind of think the M5 MBP might be a good one to get for the opposite reasons that the article noted, namely that they're a rock solid design that's been through several iterations and has been thoroughly vetted by the buying public. If you're doing some CPU/GPU heavy work and get yourself a M5 Max MBP, you can probably make it last for looooong time.
 
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