Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 review: Predictably magnificent

The first Mac to receive Apple’s new M5 chip is the 14-inch MacBook Pro. This is a spec-bump update, so apart from the improved chip and faster storage, everything else is the same. If you got last year’s M4 model, there’s really no need to upgrade. But if you have an older model, you might be wondering if you should upgrade now or wait for the inevitable M5 MacBook Air or perhaps even MacBook Pros with more powerful versions of the M5 chip. Let’s try to answer that.

What’s new & what’s not

Not much, really. The chassis is still aluminium and it still comes in two finishes – Space Black and Silver. Physical dimensions are unchanged, and so is the weight. You still get three USB-C ports, all of which support Thunderbolt 4. There’s also a full-size HDMI 2.1 port and an SDXC card slot.

The big change on the inside is that it’s now powered by the new M5 chip. I’ve written about it in greater detail in my review of the new iPad Pro, so I won’t repeat myself here. But very briefly, it’s built using a third-generation 3nm process and has updated CPUs and GPUs. The GPUs have been improved with upgraded shader cores, and each core is now paired with a neural accelerator to speed up AI workloads.

Storage speed and quantity have been improved, too. Apple claims storage on this MacBook Pro is twice as fast as its predecessor. Unfortunately, I don’t have last year’s model to test, but I was able to get sequential read and write speeds of up to around 7,000MB/s, which is comparable to the fastest SSDs currently on the market.

One important thing to note is that this is the only Mac you can get with the M5 chip now. There’s no M5 Pro or M5 Max yet – presumably those will come sometime early next year. Also, the M5 chip in the 14-inch MacBook Pro only comes with 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, so there’s no worrying about getting a lesser variant.

The screen is the same 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display that uses mini-LED technology. It’s a mostly fantastic screen, but blooming can be an issue in certain situations where there’s a bright subject and a black background. But you won’t notice it unless you go looking for it. In this case, ignorance is bliss.

My unit came with the nano-texture display – a S$220 option – which does a decent job of reducing glare and reflection, but at the cost of some sharpness. Anyone who moves around a lot and wants a consistent viewing experience with their MacBook Pro should tick the option box for this.

One feature that I’m disappointed to see missing is support for Wi-Fi 7. Unlike the new iPad Pro, the MacBook Pro doesn’t get Apple’s N1 connectivity chip. This means this machine only supports Wi-Fi 6E, which has its limitations. It’s not a dealbreaker given that there’s plenty of great Wi-Fi 6 routers, but there’s no question that Wi-Fi 7 is the future of wireless connectivity and it should have been supported by what is ostensibly a high-end laptop.

Performance and user experience

If you’ve seen my M5 iPad Pro review, you’ll know the M5 chip is fast. Its single-core score on Geekbench 6 was the highest I’ve recorded, beating even last year’s M4 Max. Overall, it was about 25% faster than last year’s base M4 chip. And in the CPU-intensive video transcoding test, it took a little over 9 minutes to transcode an hour-long 1080p video. That’s nearly 30% faster than an M4 iMac. In fact, it’s half a minute faster than an M2 Max MacBook Pro. GPU performance was just as impressive. It was around 35% faster than the M4 in both Geekbench’s GPU benchmark and GFXbench.

While the M5’s performance is impressive, it’s unlikely that most users will notice the improvement because the performance limit of Apple Silicon is so high. However, given the release of triple-A titles, it looks like Macs could finally be a somewhat viable platform for gaming. And in that respect, the M5 delivers credible performance gains compared to the M4.

In both Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the new M5 MacBook Pro managed frame rates that were nearly twice that of an M4 MacBook Air. Granted, a MacBook Air doesn’t have active-cooling and isn’t the fairest comparison, but it’s the closest equivalent M4 MacBook I have on hand now. Crucially, it tells us that if you are into gaming, you’ll want to step up to a MacBook Pro – active cooling makes a difference.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about the M5 MacBook Pro is how long it can last on battery power. Battery capacity is unchanged at 72.4Wh, and even with the display’s brightness level set to around 65%, it lasted over 18 hours. During the time, I used it to browse the web, edit photos, stream videos, listen to music, answer emails, and write this review.

Final thoughts and buying advice

Another thing that hasn’t changed is its price. Prices start at S$2,199, and for that, you get a machine with the M5 chip, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. This is entirely reasonable and should suffice for most people. There are three off-the-shelf configurations in total, and they are as follows:

As you can see, storage and memory upgrades are pricey. And if you choose to upgrade, you’ll find yourself close to the starting price of an M4 Pro (S$2,749), at which point you’ll start to wonder if you should hold out for the M5 Pro. And speaking of holding out, should you wait for the inevitable M5 MacBook Air?

It goes without saying that if you need a laptop urgently, you shouldn’t wait. The 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is fantastic, and you will be satisfied with it. Word on the street is that the MacBook Air and more powerful variants of the MacBook Pro will not arrive until sometime early next year.

But if time is on your side, the question to ask is what you would achieve by waiting. If you need more performance than the M5, then obviously, you’ll need to wait for the M5 Pro or M5 Max versions. Things are trickier for those cross-shopping between this and a MacBook Air. A MacBook Air with similar specs will probably cost around S$400 less, and it’s slightly more portable. However, the MacBook Pro counters with a superior display, better performance, longer battery life, and more ports.

My recommendation to people has always been to get the MacBook Pro if your budget allows, because it’s a better machine, and also because the MacBook Air isn’t significantly more portable than the MacBook Pro. The Air is slimmer, but in terms of weight, the difference is less noticeable than you might think.

In short, my view of the entry-level MacBook Pro hasn’t changed. I think it’s the MacBook most people should buy if they can afford it. And this new M5 chip has made it even better.

Note: You can find the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.