Pros & Cons
-
- "Super core" architecture delivers incredible performance
- Massive battery lasted 27-plus hours in our testing
- 40-core GPU is a beast
- Nano-texture glass enhances an already great display
-
- Base price is up by $100 to $200 versus the M4 generation, and scales even higher
- Some Apple loyalists may be bored by a five-year-old design
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2026, M5 Max) Specs
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 4 |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Class | Desktop Replacement |
| Class | Workstation |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 0.66 by 14 by 9.8 inches |
| Graphics Processor | Apple M5 Max (40-core) |
| Native Display Resolution | 3456 by 2234 |
| Operating System | Apple macOS Tahoe |
| Panel Technology | Mini LED |
| Processor | Apple M5 Max (18-core) |
| RAM (as Tested) | 128 |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 120 |
| Screen Size | 16.2 |
| Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) | 27:18 |
| Variable Refresh Support | ProMotion |
| Weight | 4.7 |
| Wireless Networking | Bluetooth 6 |
| Wireless Networking | Wi-Fi 7 |
As "sleeper" laptops go, the 2026 Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with M5 Max is the ultimate camouflaged monster: a radical architectural update in the same MacBook chassis we've seen for years. By pushing the limits of Apple Silicon in the M5 with a new Fusion interconnect and a tweak to the processor dubbed "super cores," Apple has refreshed the MacBook Pro into an even more formidable workstation laptop. It puts the power right where it counts most for professional users—with high-powered processing and blistering graphics capability. Yes, the price is steep, especially in its upper-echelon configurations. (M5 Pro-based units start at $2,699, and M5 Max ones at $3,899; our Max model is a beefy $6,149 as tested.) But the MacBook Pro packages that rocket-fuel hardware with 27 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi 7, and Thunderbolt 5 futureproofing. That's a major overhaul for a design that, outwardly, looks unchanged since 2021, and enough to earn the 16-incher a repeat Editors' Choice award.
Specs and Configuration Options: Build Your Beast
The 16-inch MacBook Pro isn't even offered with a standard M5 chip, so today's middle- and top-tier M5 Pro and M5 Max are your only options. (The 14-incher does have a straight-M5 option.) The base configuration, with the M5 Pro chip, 24GB of Unified Memory, 1TB of ostensibly speedier-than-before SSD storage, and a standard display, starts at $2,699. Every model we looked at came bundled with a 140-watt (140W) USB-C power adapter and a color-matched 2-meter USB-C-to-MagSafe 3 cable.
(Credit: Brian Westover)If you want to add a nano-texture display ($150), increase the memory to 48GB ($400) or 64GB ($600), or pump up the storage to 2TB ($400) or 4TB ($1,000), tack on those amounts. And if you want to step up to an Apple M5 Max processor, the base price bumps up to $3,899 before any other upgrades.
Opting for the M5 Max unlocks even more memory and storage options. The base storage with the M5 Max model is 2TB, and you can choose between an 18-core CPU with a 32-core GPU (the default choice), or get a more upscale variant with a 40-core GPU for an extra $300. Memory goes as high as 128GB with this CPU option ($1,000), and storage scales up to 8TB ($1,800).
A fully loaded MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M5 Max processor with 40-core GPU, 128GB of memory, 8TB of storage, and nano-textured glass rings up at $7,349. Our review unit of the 16-inch MacBook Pro is equipped with the M5 Max 18-core processor and the 40-core GPU option. This is paired with 128GB of unified memory and 4TB of storage. Choosing the Space Black chassis doesn't cost extra, but the nano-textured glass on the display does. Our review unit, as tested, tots up to $6,149.
(Credit: Brian Westover)The MacBook Pro comes with a one-year warranty, but if you want to further protect this investment, you'll pay even more. (With a configuration like our test model, I imagine you would.) AppleCare has two options for additional coverage: AppleCare+ is $14.99 per month or $149.99 for a year, and gives you unlimited repairs, even for accidents like spills and drops, along with 24/7 Apple support and certified repairs with certified Apple parts.
AppleCare One is more expensive ($19.99 per month until cancelled), but it covers up to three Apple devices (such as iPhones or Apple Watches), including the MacBook. The One plan adds theft and loss coverage for smaller items, and it lets you tack on additional products beyond the first three for $5.99 per month.
Processors: With M5 Pro and Max, Welcome to the 'Super Core' Era
When it comes to the 2026 model of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the tiny chips inside have the biggest changes.
For starters, in the case of the M5 Max, the CPU offers more cores, increasing from 15 cores in the M4 Max to 18 in the M5 Max, effectively giving the MacBook Pro a bigger engine for multitasking. This is in addition to the dedicated 16-core Neural Engine and increased memory bandwidth, which is boosted to 614GBps, up from the 546GBps of the M4 Max.
(Credit: Apple)The cores themselves are also upgraded, with Apple introducing a new category of core with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, dubbed the "super core." This new third kind of core is optimized for single-threaded performance, offering the fastest single-core speeds of any Apple Silicon chip. Also, for the higher-powered M5 Pro and Max chips, Apple has dropped the lowest-power "efficiency" cores and designed the CPU solely around super cores and traditional performance cores. (Meanwhile, the vanilla M5 uses just super cores and efficiency cores.) In a sense, with M5 Pro and Max, Apple is taking its usual "big.LITTLE" core hierarchy and, in these chips, adopting something you might call "bigger.BIG," with traditional performance cores as the lower-tier cores. These performance cores are the multithread workhorses, offering better efficiency and dynamic range than the super cores, but without the limitations that sometimes made efficiency cores (the third tier of chip core) into a bottleneck.
New cores are just part of the puzzle, though. Apple has made great strides in combining the CPU with high-performance GPU cores, often going toe-to-toe with Nvidia in laptop graphics performance while maintaining a unified design that shares memory and resources for speedy work. But as the GPU half of that chip grows, it becomes that much harder to make. So the M5 Pro and M5 Max are actually getting a pair of chip dies, unified by Apple's new Fusion interconnect, to function as one.
This approach lets Apple produce smaller, specialized dies for the CPU and GPU, improving the yield of usable chips. The company can then mix and match dies to package only the good ones. The Fusion technology has its roots in the UltraFusion interconnect used to fuse two full CPU chips in the M-series Ultra lineup, but the purpose here is probably to make the chip fabrication process a bit more flexible.
The M5 Max's 40 GPUs also get an upgrade with a Neural Accelerator added to each graphics core. This change was introduced on the base M5 chip, and uses technology from the AI-focused Neural Engine, adding it to each GPU core to boost both graphics rendering and AI performance for machine learning and other AI workloads. It was impressive enough with just 10 GPU cores on the M5, but it's a dramatic improvement with 40 GPU cores on the M5 Max.
Storage: Doubling Down on Disk Speed
Another change coming with this round of M5-centered updates is around the storage. This first change is a step up in the minimum storage capacity, with the 512GB SSD doubled to 1TB in the base M5 Pro-based model of the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The maximum storage capacity has also increased: M5 Pro models can reach 4TB, while M5 Max configurations can be purchased with up to 8TB.
The drives also deliver faster performance. Apple isn't specifying what changes were made—likely a combination of a wider-bandwidth controller, faster NAND flash for lower latency, and platform-level improvements introduced with the M5-series chips—but the company does claim up to two-times-faster SSD performance. If you're moving huge files on and off the machine, you'll appreciate that extra speed, whether it's massive 8K video files or giant open-source AI models. (For smaller file transfers, I'm not sure there will be a big difference between "instant" and "more instant.")
(Credit: Brian Westover)Design: The Stealth Workstation
Of all the things going on with the new MacBook Pro, it's the design changes that are few and far between. On the outside, the 2026 M5's chassis is identical to that of the 2024 16-inch M4 model. The shift to M5 may bring some new performance and software features, but the rest of the design is a perfect example of why Apple is so conservative about updating the industrial design of its products.
It's not just that the MacBook Pro's design is both attractive and functional; it's that this is, without a doubt, the standard by which every other laptop is judged. That year-to-year consistency means many of the features we loved on the 2025 14-inch and 2024 16-inch MacBook Pros are still present in the 2026 models.
(Credit: Brian Westover)The aluminum chassis is just as slim, sturdy, and stylish as ever, available in both silver and Space Black finishes, complete with color-matched MagSafe charging cables. Measuring 0.66 by 14 by 9.8 inches, it weighs 4.7 pounds—actually making it one of the lighter 16-inch systems with workstation-grade performance. And that all-aluminum is both durable and sustainable, with Apple claiming 45% recycled material by weight.
Display: Studio-Grade Media With XDR and Nano-Texture
The 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display isn't just sharp and bright; those vivid colors are also extremely accurate, making this a professional-grade display for color-critical work. The 3,456-by-2,234-pixel resolution and 120Hz ProMotion variable refresh rate keep everything sharp and smooth, whether I was watching the Lanterns trailer on YouTube or playing Cyberpunk 2077. Apple's Extreme Dynamic Range (XDR) can hit 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness, and the mini-LED backlit display provides superb, near-OLED levels of contrast.
(Credit: Brian Westover)The optional nano-textured glass is also a winning feature. The laser-etched microfacets eliminate screen glare and reflections without compromising readability, making it a great choice even for precision visual work. Really, my only complaint is that it requires a special cloth to keep it clean, but that's a hassle many people will happily choose over the irritation of overhead lights or nearby windows making their screens harder to read.
Alongside the display is Apple's six-speaker audio system, with four woofers and two tweeters. The real winning feature of the speaker system is the use of four force‑cancelling woofers, which pair the slim speakers back-to-back to boost the sound output and deliver a more spacious sound from a slimmer physical profile. As a result, this 0.66-inch-thick chassis can deliver clear sound even at higher volumes. Plus, it supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos for a more immersive listening experience.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Another returning feature is Apple's 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, which goes beyond full HD resolution with an ultra-wide image sensor. Apple augments the camera's operation with machine learning that can keep your person tracked and centered in the frame even as you move and gesture. The end result is still a 1080p image, but it stays centered and properly framed, even if you're off-center or the laptop display is set at an angle. The webcam also supports the funky Desk View feature, which gives you a top-down vantage point, similar to a document camera, but without having to adjust the camera position or plug in anything extra.
In actual use, the camera offers great image clarity and good color, but I was most impressed by how normal things looked. Most webcams skew skin tones or struggle under different lighting conditions, but the MacBook Pro's camera just looked right, with less fuss. It will look great in Zoom calls and other video chats.
Keyboard and Trackpad: Totally Tactile Tools
Whether you find the Mac Magic Keyboard pleasingly comfortable and precise or a tad mushy, it'll be the same on this new MacBook Pro, because the keyboard and its typing feel are unaltered. Overall, I think the keys offer a nice balance of comfort, responsiveness, and stable support for speedy typing, but opinions vary. If in doubt, go try it in the store to see what your fingers think.
(Credit: Brian Westover)Apple's Force Touch trackpad is just as large and precise as ever, with excellent haptic feedback for clicking and interacting with menus and controls, complete with some pressure-sensitive contextual menus at your literal fingertips.
For when you need logins to stay secure, TouchID is built right into the power button, letting you fingerprint-unlock the Mac when you turn it on or whenever you need to sign into an app or open a protected file. That sort of thing has become standard on premium laptops, but Apple's implementation of the tech remains one of the most intuitive.
Ports and Connections: Future-Proofing With Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7
At first glance, the physical port selection on the MacBook Pro is unchanged, with three Thunderbolt USB‑C ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and MagSafe 3 for charging. If you're coming from a 2024 or 2025 Mac, you won't need to adjust your muscle memory at all, because all the things are in the very same spots.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
(Credit: Brian Westover)The port selection does get one big upgrade, however, with the three Thunderbolt USB-C ports now supporting Thunderbolt 5. The Thunderbolt 5 spec means transfer speeds up to 120Gbps, native DisplayPort 2.1 support, and compatibility with USB4. Each port has its own controller (rather than a single shared controller), preventing bandwidth saturation when one port consumes more data than another at any given time. That's especially handy for connecting a RAID storage array, taking advantage of the higher bandwidth while still allowing for features like driving up to four external displays at up to 6K/60Hz or combinations including 8K/60Hz and 4K/240Hz. You can even daisy-chain up to four external displays from a single Thunderbolt port, a substantial increase in display support.
Similar Products
Our Current Picks for The Best Laptops for Video Editing in 2026
While the physical port selection is consistent with previous MacBook Pro models, the wireless connectivity has been updated. Incorporating the Apple N1 chip, the MacBook Pro 16-Inch now has a wireless radio that supports both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
Performance Testing: Can Anything Stop the Monster M5 Max?
When you’re looking at a machine with the M5 Max (and a "Max" price tag to match), you aren't just looking for a laptop; you're looking for a mobile powerhouse. To see where the M5 Max truly stands, we’ve pitted it against a formidable bunch of 2025 and 2026 workstations. Our comparisons include the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus, a massive 18-inch workstation, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2025), a high-TGP beast that represents the upper range for Windows gaming performance.
For those who prioritize aesthetics as much as raw throughput, we’ve included the Razer Blade 16 (2025). This AMD-powered rival targets the exact same professional-creator niche as Apple, pairing a high-end Ryzen AI 9 processor with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU, letting us really see how far Apple's GPU technology has come.
Naturally, we have to look within the family to measure Apple’s year-over-year progress. We brought in the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2024, M4 Pro) to quantify exactly what the super core architecture and the jump to M5 bring to the same chassis. We also included the 14-inch MacBook Pro (2025, M5); by using the base M5 chip as a control, we can isolate how much of the performance gain comes from the new architectural super cores versus the sheer brute force of the Max’s higher core count.
And, while we didn't include it in our laptop benchmark comparisons, we also did some comparisons to the Apple Mac Studio (2025, M4 Max) desktop to see what has truly improved in terms of "Max"-level performance year-over-year.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Since macOS doesn't support our usual PCMark tests, we'll dive right into our CPU-centric benchmarks. First, Maxon's Cinebench 2024 renders a complex scene using the company's Cinema 4D engine. Next, Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute 4K clip to 1080p.
To measure a laptop's mainstream content-creation chops, we use Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators to gauge its image-editing prowess through automated operations in the seminal photo editor Adobe Photoshop 2024.
Even before we dig into the specifics, a cursory glance at the test results will show how well the M5 Max handles day-to-day tasks. In a word, it dominates.
Cinebench is the best example, with multicore performance rocketing past all competitors, and single-core performance looking almost identical to what we saw in the 14-inch MacBook Pro with base M5. That makes sense, since they use the same super core hardware for single-threaded performance, but the M5 Max has nearly double the core count, leading to double the multicore score.
In Handbrake, where faster times are better, the MacBook Pro came in a few seconds faster than even the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus workstation. And compared with something more basic, like the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro, it nearly halves the transcoding time, showing the sheer might of all that CPU muscle.
Geekbench and Photoshop scores are similarly far ahead of the pack. In fact, it actually tops even the M4 Max-powered Mac Studio, which was previously our highest-scoring Mac on those same tests.
Graphics Tests
Our graphics performance testing starts with four of UL's macOS-ready 3DMark benchmarks, run via Steam, which must be active in the background. The Steel Nomad Light 1440p test is a ray-tracing-free test focused on raw rasterization, while the non-“Light” test is more demanding. Solar Bay is where ray-tracing testing comes into play, and the Wild Life Extreme test pushes machines to their limits at 4K resolution.
We also measure gaming performance using the 2022 strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3 via Steam, which we run exclusively on Macs. In the game's Battle benchmark, we run the test at Ultra and Low settings at 1080p resolution, recording the average frames per second (fps).
Finally, we’ve adopted our Cyberpunk 2077 test, which we run on Windows-based gaming PCs, for Macs since they now support the game on Steam. Our Cyberpunk 2077 test settings aim to push systems to the limit, so we run it on the Ultra graphics preset and again on the all-out Ray Tracing Overdrive preset, without frame generation or resolution upscaling. We run the test one last time at the Mac system’s recommended settings using the game's automated adjustment tools.
With a massive 40-core GPU, each one packing added Neural Acceleration, it's no surprise that the M5 Max MacBook Pro did more than just put up great numbers. In 3DMark, it easily surpassed both the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro we tested in 2024, and not by a small margin. Just as important, it holds a solid margin over the Mac Studio with M4 Max, showing a huge uplift in graphics power thanks to the upgraded silicon. Our numbers make it clear: This is the most performant GPU we've seen to date in a Mac.
But that doesn't mean it's the top performer across the board. When stacked against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 or the workstation Nvidia RTX Pro 5000, our 3DMark tests show that the MacBook Pro with M5 Max can put up competitive scores, but it doesn't overtake top performers.
The same was true in gaming tests. In Warhammer 3 (which we run only on Macs), the M5 Max beats every other MacBook and was neck-and-neck with the Mac Studio (M4 Max). But if you want the best gaming performance, Windows machines like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2025) and the Razer Blade 16 (2025) deliver better results.
Workstation-Specific Tests
Some of our standard Windows workstation performance tests (such as SPECviewperf 2020) don't have a Mac equivalent. Others, like Adobe Premiere Pro (tested with an automated PugetBench extension) and Blender 4.2 didn't return a usable result due to unexpected errors.
That left us using PugetBench for Creators to test DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 video editor performance, using real-world video editing tasks such as live playback, file export, and high-res encoding, as well as processing and decoding different types of source media, and applying GPU-accelerated special effects. These tasks and features push the CPU and GPU, letting us gauge real-world media creation speeds.
Just like in gaming, we saw superb scores from the MacBook Pro with M5 Max… well, in the tests that would run. Adobe Premiere Pro errored out, and our trio of Blender tests wouldn't run either, leaving only Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve tested with PugetBench for Creators. But in that video editing test, the performance was starkly different.
Where the 2024 MacBook Pro with M4 Pro put up 7,615 points, and even the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus delivered an impressive 10,540 points (right in line with the Mac Studio, with M4 Max, at 10,916 points), the new M5 Max-equipped MacBook Pro scored an impressive 12,509 points. That's a giant leap forward, showing that the MacBook Pro can definitely compete with workstation laptops—even if the test-stopping errors show the value of proper ISV-certified machines.
Battery Life and Display Tests
We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness set to 50% and audio volume set to 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 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).
Apple estimates that the M5 Max-equipped MacBook Pro 16 will last for 22 hours in video playback. But in our own video playback test, it actually lasted just over 27 hours, an undeniably impressive time. Now, it's worth noting that more demanding tasks, like gaming or video editing, will drain the battery much faster due to a higher power draw than simple video playback. But the comparative endurance means you'll still get more work out of your machine before you ever have to reach for that color-matched power adapter.
Looking at other high-powered systems, both workstations and gaming machines, we see that this kind of extended battery life is an extreme outlier. Even the system most similar to the 16-inch MacBook, the Razer Blade, barely topped 10 hours.
One additional detail on the MacBook Pro stayed the same for this M5 Max-equipped model: The display. Despite Apple’s lofty Liquid Retina XDR branding, we've consistently seen the MacBook Pro displays fall short of 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, even as competitors like the Razer Blade 16 hit that mark.
The 2026 model, with the M5 Max and Liquid Retina XDR display, hit 96% of the DCI-P3 color space and a respectable 86% of Adobe RGB. That's almost exactly what we saw on the 14-inch M5-based MacBook Pro last year, and it is consistent with what MacBook Pro displays have tested at for several years. And, just like those past models, the numbers are secondary to the actual experience, which we've consistently called "stunning" and in line with other top competitors.
While we are still waiting for the day Apple finally makes the jump to OLED, this refined mini-LED panel is impressive, and one of the most color-accurate screens we’ve seen on a MacBook to date.