Next up on Apple’s announcements: new internals of its laptops. More specifically, M5 chips for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. As with everything Apple announced this week, pre-orders begin tomorrow and will be available on March 11.
The MacBook Air gets the M5 chip treatment, which offers faster performance in pro-level gaming, media editing, multitasking, AI tasks, and overall improved battery efficiency. But the Air didn’t get a mere chip swap, as its base storage starts at 512GB and caps out at 4TB. It also adds support for Bluetooth 6 and Wi-Fi 7. However, this comes at a premium, as the MacBook Air is $100 more, now starting at $1,100 for the 13-inch model and $1,300 for the 15-inch.
Moving on to the new MacBook Pro laptops, which add two new M5 processor options with the M5 Pro and the M5 Max. Both chips feature an 18-core CPU that offers a 30% boost in CPU performance, along with a 20-core GPU in the M5 Pro and a 40-core GPU in the M5 Max. Thus, the M5 Pro is best for streamers, content creators, and gamers, as the M5 Max is ideal for 3D animators, app developers, and AI researchers.
Similar to the Air, all MacBook Pro models get a boost in storage—going from 512GB to 1TB of base storage—and a price increase. The base model 14-inch M5 starts at $1,700, the 14-inch M5 Pro at $2,200, and the 14-inch M5 Max at $3,500. The 16-inch M5 starts at $2,700, the 16-inch M5 Pro at $2,700, and the 16-inch M5 Max at $3,900.
