Pros & Cons
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- M5 is a monster CPU and GPU upgrade
- AI boosted with GPU Neural Accelerators
- Same price as 2024 model
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- No changes to outer design
- Connectivity stuck at Wi-Fi 6E, Thunderbolt 4
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (2025, M5) Z1KK3LL/A Specs
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 1 |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Class | Desktop Replacement |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 0.61 by 12.3 by 8.7 inches |
| Graphics Processor | Apple M5 (10-core) |
| Native Display Resolution | 3024 by 1964 |
| Operating System | Apple macOS Tahoe |
| Panel Technology | Mini LED |
| Processor | Apple M5 (10-core) |
| RAM (as Tested) | 32 |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 120 |
| Screen Size | 14.2 |
| Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) | 24:06 |
| Variable Refresh Support | ProMotion |
| Weight | 3.4 |
| Wireless Networking | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Wireless Networking | Wi-Fi 6E |
With the new M5-powered MacBook Pro 14-inch, Apple's 2025 refresh has the same looks, the same features, and most of the same parts as last year's M4 version. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's not that different—but leave it to Apple to turn a minor update into a major leap forward.
New laptop models tend to fall into one of two categories: those with major redesigns (essentially making an all-new laptop that keeps the name of a successful model), and those with smaller internal hardware bumps, where the laptop stays much the same but gains a newer processor or other component. The 2025 MacBook Pro 14-Inch (which starts at $1,599; $2,349 as tested) looks exactly like the previous model. But those similarities don't tell the story at all.
Instead, the M5 chip turns Apple's floor-level pro-grade Mac laptop into a surprisingly powerful machine for pretty much anything, including gaming. With tuned-up processor cores, more memory bandwidth, and graphics silicon turbo-charged with AI acceleration, it's a step forward that's more than just incremental—it vaults past what we expected generation to generation, earning it our Editors' Choice award for compact content creation laptops.
Configurations: New Loadouts, Old Pricing
Since all that's new with this M5 MacBook Pro is the processor, it should come as no surprise that the base model sells for the same $1,599 as the previous M4's. For that price, you get the M5 processor, a 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD.
Apple offers a few preset configurations: for example, one with the same CPU, GPU, and 16GB of unified memory, but a 1TB SSD, for $1,799. Or you can step up to 24GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage for $1,999.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Our own review unit was outfitted with 32GB of memory (a $400 uptick), a 1TB SSD ($200), and Apple's nano-texture screen-glass option ($150) for a grand total of $2,349. If you really want to go wild, you can scale the storage up to 2TB or 4TB, with the top configuration selling for $3,349.
The M5 Chip: 2025's Been a Big Year for Apple Silicon
The engine for the hotrod. The rocket carrying the shuttle. The brains behind the operation. Whatever metaphor you want to use, the whole 2025 MacBook Pro upgrade is the move from M4 to M5, the fifth generation of Apple's M-series chips.
Apple isn't messing around with this update. The M5 hews pretty closely to the same template that the M4 chip did: a 10-core CPU (with four high-performance cores and six high-efficiency cores), a 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine to accelerate AI workloads, all sharing the same pool of Unified Memory. But that's where the similarities end.
(Credit: PCMag Composite/Apple)Those 10 CPU cores have grown more efficient and more capable, thanks to Apple's third-generation 3-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process. The GPU cores are enhanced with boosted shader cores, third-generation ray-tracing hardware, and dynamic on-chip caching for a general boost in performance.
But the most significant change of all is the Neural Accelerator added to each graphics core. This change uses the technology from the AI-focused Neural Engine, adding it to each of the 10 GPU cores, providing boosted AI capabilities and a significant acceleration of graphics performance. (Both delivered eye-popping results in our graphics and AI performance tests.)
(Credit: Brian Westover)macOS 'Tahoe': Liquid Glass and Smarter AI
The other major change is to the software, with the introduction of macOS 26, codenamed "Tahoe." The 2024 MacBook Pro came with macOS "Sequoia" 15. With Tahoe, Apple has switched from a sequential numbering scheme for each new version of macOS to numbering by the year of release. Sequoia introduced some usability enhancements, like iPhone mirroring, split-screen management, presenter tools for video calling, and dozens of improvements for native Mac apps. But the biggest enhancement Sequoia brought was Apple Intelligence, a new suite of AI-powered features and utilities.
Tahoe takes that AI ball and runs with it, adding on-device features like Live Translation in Messages, Phone, and FaceTime. Other features include Genmoji and Image Playground. Shortcuts are more potent with new intelligent actions, letting you automate actions and even string them together for automated workflows.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)It also looks a bit different, with the new Liquid Glass design, making elements like the Dock, menu bar, and app windows more vibrant. If you've seen the latest iPhones, this is the same visual makeover that iOS got earlier this year.
Features like Continuity and Spotlight also enjoy improvements, with new ways to work across devices, like menu bar notifications for your phone apps and the new Phone app for Mac, which lets you make calls on your iPhone from your Mac, going a step beyond the simple mirroring feature of Sequoia. And with the improved Spotlight Search, you can find apps, files, settings, and more from a single system-wide search, and even take actions right in that search, doing things like sending messages, creating an event, and running shortcuts.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Apple has also spruced up the Apple Games app, adding in-game events, a wider game library, and a new game overlay for settings adjustments without leaving the game. But the most considerable improvement might be the addition of MetalFX Frame Interpolation, which uses AI built into the GPU cores to generate new, additional frames between the originally rendered frames to boost the frame rate while you play, making for a faster, smoother experience. This feature directly rivals technologies like Nvidia’s Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR).
Design: A Classic, Unmodified
That's all stuff that changed, but let's be honest, if you were looking right at the new MacBook Pro, it has nothing to tell you that you're seeing a new model versus the older 2024 version. From the shiny Apple logo to the "MacBook Pro" written on the underside of the chassis, these aren't just similar-looking laptops; it's the same chassis. That aluminum chassis measures the same 0.61 by 12.3 by 8.7 inches, weighs the same 3.4 pounds, and is available in either Silver or Space Black finishes—exactly the same.
(Credit: Brian Westover)What else is the same? The keyboard and trackpad, to start. The backlit keyboard is (for better or worse, depending on preference) the same one used in the 2024 MacBook Pro 14-incher, right down to the Touch ID fingerprint reader in the power button. The touchpad is still big and smooth, and the haptic feedback still feels exquisite. If anyone remembers Force Touch (Apple's pressure-sensitive contextual controls), that's still part of the trackpad experience, as well.
Apple’s display is also the same, right down to the 3,024-by-1,964-pixel resolution, but with one minor tweak: The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display can now boost the mini LED backlight to provide brighter SDR performance in bright ambient light—up to 1,000 nits of brightness for SDR content—along with the vibrant color, crisp details, and superb HDR support. Apple’s ProMotion adjustable refresh rate keeps everything looking smooth, just like last year. Our review unit also came with the optional nano-textured glass, which eliminates screen reflections, but also makes the display more of a pain to keep clean.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Above the display (actually slightly set into the screen) is the 12-megapixel Center Stage camera. It sits in a notch at the top of the panel. Some folks find that inset intrusive, but after the screen notch debuted a few years ago, I genuinely don't notice it at all.
The audio that accompanies the display is also the same, but in this case, that means spatial audio and a surprising number of speakers crammed into the slim confines of a MacBook chassis. Apple's force-cancelling speakers provide a boost to sound quality, and the audio system supports Dolby Spatial Audio, which all means that the MacBook Pro still sounds excellent.
Ports: Where's Thunderbolt 5?
Apple has also left the port selection exactly the same as the 2024 model's. The rundown is identical, with HDMI output, a USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port, and an SDXC card slot on the right-hand side of the laptop, and two more Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left, along with a 3.5mm audio jack and a MagSafe 3 charging port. The MagSafe port has actually stayed the same since the M3 model, so if you have a two-year-old charger, it'll still work on the latest MacBook Pro. Wi-Fi is sadly still Wi-Fi 6E, and the Bluetooth remains 5.3.
(Credit: Brian Westover)The bigger disappointment is that Thunderbolt 4 wasn't bumped up to Thunderbolt 5. The M5 chip itself has higher memory bandwidth, but the ports are still limited to 40Gbps, with support for charging and DisplayPort. This is kind of a bummer since Thunderbolt 5 is three years old as a standard. It's possible Apple wants to keep some features in reserve for the Pro and Max chips.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Performance Testing: The M5 Vaults Ahead
With its size and price, the Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2025, M5) is positioned to take on some of the best laptops on the market, which is more crowded than ever. With brand loyalty being what it is, we know that the biggest comparison for some folks will be the M4-based 2024 MacBook Pro 14-Inch ($1,949 as tested), because the only question for some shoppers is whether you're due for an upgrade. But plenty of Apple-curious shoppers want to know how the new MacBook Pro stacks up to the current crop of Windows machines. For this review, we're also looking at the Intel-based Dell 14 Plus (DB14250) ($1,099.99 as tested) and Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 10 Aura Edition ($1,799.99 as tested), the AMD-powered Asus ProArt PX13 ($1,699.99), and the Microsoft Surface Laptop (2025, 13-inch) ($999.99 as tested), which uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus. Like we said, it's a crowded field in more ways than one.
Let's address the Apple-shaped elephant in the room: Is it time for a $1,500-plus upgrade already? The M4 MacBook Pro was launched only a year ago, and the two systems look downright identical. Is it really time to buy a new MacBook? Maybe not, but if the only difference between the two laptops is the Apple Silicon inside, then it's all about the M5 chip, so let's see what the performance scores say.
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Productivity, Content Creation, and AI Tests
Our Mac testing protocols aren't exact copies of our Windows testing protocols due to the differences in operating system, chip architecture, and software catalog. But there's some overlap, starting with our productivity tests.
We use several benchmarks that focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 6.3 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
We also run PugetBench for Photoshop, a test utility fashioned by workstation maker Puget Systems. It uses Adobe Photoshop 25 to test a PC's image-editing prowess with various automated operations, from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
For this review, we also included a limited comparison of AI test results, specifically comparing the 2024 and 2025 MacBook Pro laptops, so we can see what precisely the beefed-up M5 can handle in this new field. This is a trickier comparison since other systems use a variety of software frameworks and platform-specific tests. So we'll only look at these two Apples, since they're direct Apple-to-Apple comparisons. (I'm not apologizing for the pun. I only get one per MacBook review.)
The M5 chip delivered significant performance gains for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, consistently leading the pack in both single-core and multi-core workloads.
In Cinebench, the M5 MacBook Pro 14 led in both multi-core tests that use the whole chip for rendering tasks and by an impressive amount in single-core performance, highlighting Apple’s core-level improvements with its third-gen 3nm process. When looking at general compute, the Geekbench Pro results put the M5 at the head of the class, showing higher multi-core and single-core scores than anything we compared it against. The M5 showed a full 19% improvement over the 2024 M4 model and nearly double what the Dell 14 Plus (DB14250) could achieve with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor.
The Photoshop scores were just as stark, with the M5 MacBook Pro leading the pack by a solid 1,700 points, underscoring its power for demanding professional workflows. Finally, HandBrake showed a minor improvement over the 2024 MacBook with M4, but, more impressively, the M5 laptop beat all competitors except one, the AMD-powered Asus ProArt PX13, which packs some serious CPU power itself in the form of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.
While I expected to see the M5 deliver better AI performance than the M4, I wasn't prepared for the dramatic improvement that I saw in the GPU-focused tests. A boost in CPU and Neural Engine performance is par for the course, but thanks to Apple's surprise move of putting a Neural Accelerator into every one of the GPU's 10 cores, the GPU-based AI score more than doubled in the Half-Precision and Quantized versions of the test. Apple claims that the total AI performance of the MacBook Pro is four times better than the M4 model when looking at CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine combined, and these numbers bear that out. If you're looking to push the limits with on-device AI, the M5 chip represents a massive leap forward, one that will translate into better on-device model performance and in-app AI features across the board.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
We push Mac GPUs to their limits with three demanding 3DMark tests built for macOS. Wild Life Extreme (4K) runs on the Metal graphics API, measuring performance under intensive game-like workloads. Steel Nomad Light adds a broader perspective, gauging geometry, lighting, and particle effects through Metal’s native rendering pipeline for consistent cross-platform comparison. Rounding out the set, 3DMark’s Solar Bay examines ray-tracing performance at 1440p, using dynamic reflections and global illumination effects to push Apple’s GPU and Metal ray tracing capabilities to their limits.
Our real-world gaming testing comes from in-game benchmarks within Total War: Warhammer 3 (at 1080p only) and Cyberpunk 2077 (at 1200p and 1600p). Each game benchmark is conducted at its lowest and highest detail settings, measured in average frames per second (fps). (The M4 MacBook Pro could not complete the Cyberpunk 2077 test at maximum detail and 1600p resolution.)
These games represent huge improvements to gaming on Mac in recent years, as Apple has started supporting more AAA games… eventually. In any case, most of the mainstream systems we're comparing against haven't even been tested for their gaming performance, since they lack a discrete GPU. Apple meets this challenge by elevating the integrated graphics with full-fledged GPU cores baked into its expansive system-on-chip processor design. Apple Silicon even supports ray tracing, so we tested for that, too.
I can't stress enough how impressive the 3DMark results are—the only comparison system to pull ahead in our three tests is the Asus ProArt PX13, a creative workhorse of an ultraportable that has a full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU inside. As for the rest, the M5 MacBook Pro dusted them, showing the stark difference between Apple's approach to GPU cores on the chip die versus the weaker integrated GPU options its competitors use. Of course, it outperformed the 2024 M4 MacBook Pro, which already had this same approach (without the new, extra AI accelerators), showing how far Apple's graphics have come in just a year.
We also saw the same relentless progress in our Mac gaming tests, where the M5 MacBook Pro 14 pushed forward the performance in both Total War: Warhammer 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Now, I didn't expect playable scores at top detail settings in Cyberpunk—after all, the M5 is the base model of the soon-to-expand M5 series, and the Max and Pro versions of the chip will surely drive faster gaming performance. But at 1200p resolution and Ultra performance settings, the little MacBook managed to approach the 30fps mark that determines playability. In the ray-tracing tests, the M5 MacBook Pro produced just 6fps at either resolution. While you couldn’t play at these settings, the M4 model wouldn't even run the test. Color me impressed.
Two more interesting details in Cyberpunk 2077: Apple worked with CD Projekt Red and other game makers on a new "For This Mac" setting that adjusts various games’ settings to reach a playable 30fps standard while optimizing image quality. In the settings, when I applied For This Mac, I saw that it dropped the resolution below 1200p and tweaked many other settings. This is Apple's way of making sure you can play top-end games on its computers, and even running Cyberpunk at all means that M5 outclasses the built-in graphics of most competitors.
But separate from our reported test numbers, I decided to play with it a bit to see what you could do while staying at 1200p. With details set to low and FSR frame generation on, you'll get frame rates of more than 100fps, proving that the latest Macs have plenty of room for playable frame rates if you're willing to find your ideal balance of resolution, detail settings, and smoothness.
Workstation-Specific Tests
Now, let's get clear up front that the M5 MacBook Pro doesn’t house the same workstation-grade power that those MacBooks and Macs with Pro- and Max-tier chips do. It's a basic chip souped up a bit by a fan-cooled MacBook, but I wanted to really push it and see just how far the M5's graphics have come in a year.
Typically, our workstation tests include Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve, but the M5 choked on both, throwing errors instead of completing either test. Our last remaining test is Blender, an open-source 3D content creation suite for modeling, animation, simulation, and compositing. We record the time it takes for Blender 4.2 to render three distinct scenes to measure CPU and GPU rendering performance. And here, it not only completed the tests, but it also showed how thoroughly Apple has leveled up since 2024.
In the CPU-bound version of the tests, the M5 MacBook Pro edged ahead of the M4's CPU performance. In all three rendering tests, the M5 pushed the numbers higher, showing yet again that Apple hasn’t rested on its laurels, but instead pushed every aspect of Apple Silicon forward, including the performance and efficiency cores that are the heart of the M5 chip.
As expected, graphics rendering was a lot better: 60% to 70% better, when comparing tests directly. That's a crazy-big jump, given that the M4 chip already had 10 GPU cores, same as the M5. That means that Apple has managed to leverage a combination of manufacturing-process refinements, architecture improvements, and those Neural Accelerators to drive giant year-over-year improvements.
Battery Life and Display Tests
The one area where our Mac and Windows tests are the same is in battery and display testing. We test each laptop's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Mac or Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
Like last year, Apple promises that the MacBook Pro 14-inch will last a full 24 hours on a single charge in video playback testing, and our tests bear that out. The MacBook Pro lasted 24 hours and 6 minutes, just clearing the finish line for true all-day battery. That's an impressive result, given how much more performance the M5 can produce. However, last year's M4 MacBook Pro overshot that estimate to deliver 28 hours of battery life, so there is something of a trade-off for the increased power of M5—but it's a small one.
But battery life is one area where the competition has kept up. Both Dell and Lenovo hit the 20-hour mark, and the latest 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop lasted a stunning 30 hours and 56 minutes. All-day battery life is now the norm, but remember that Apple got here first.
I wasn't expecting much change on the display front, either, since the 2025 MacBook Pro uses the same Liquid XDR panel and mini LED backlight as the 2024 MacBook Pro. Despite the lack of change, the 2025 MacBook lost a percentage point or two of gamut reproduction and lower brightness. Nonetheless, these are differences that I registered with a specialized scope, not the naked eye—I'm hard-pressed to tell you that the display looks any different to a casual glance. And even at a lower 400 nits of brightness, the MacBook's display is still right in line with other top competitors.