Apple on Wednesday announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world’s most popular laptop.
M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks. The new MacBook Air comes with 512GB, faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB.
Apple’s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go. MacBook Air features a beautifully thin, light and durable aluminium design, stunning Liquid Retina display, 12MP Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life, an immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two external displays.
Combined with the power of macOS Tahoe and Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is available in 13- and 15-inch models in sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver. The new MacBook Air with M5 will be available for pre-order soon.
MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max
The latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing game-changing performance and AI capabilities was also launched on Wednesday.
With M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Pro features the world’s fastest CPU core, a next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core and higher unified memory bandwidth, altogether delivering up to 4x AI performance and up to 8x AI performance compared to M1 models.
It comes with up to 2x faster SSD performance2 and starts at 1TB of storage for M5 Pro and 2TB for M5 Max. The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. It also offers up to 24 hours of battery life; a Liquid Retina XDR display with a nano-texture option; a wide array of connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5; a 12MP Center Stage camera; studio-quality mics; an immersive six-speaker sound system; Apple Intelligence features; and the power of macOS Tahoe.
The new MacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, and is available to pre-order soon.
Apple’s fastest, most advanced CPU cores
M5 Pro and M5 Max, the world’s most advanced chips for pro laptops, powering the new MacBook Pro was also debuted on Wednesday.
The chips are built using a new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. This innovative design combines two dies into a single system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities.
M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new 18-core CPU architecture. It includes six of the highest-performing core design, now called super cores, that are the world’s fastest CPU core. Alongside these cores are 12 all-new performance cores, optimised for power-efficient, multithreaded workloads. Collectively, the CPU significantly boosts performance by up to 30% for pro workloads.
The GPU scales up the next-generation architecture introduced in M5 to an up-to-40-core GPU. With a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core and higher unified memory bandwidth, M5 Pro and M5 Max are over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation.
The GPU substantially increases graphics capabilities — now up to 35% for apps using ray tracing than M4 Pro and M4 Max — enhancing advanced visual effects and 3D rendering.
The perfect companion to Mac
A new family of displays engineered to pair with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday users to the world’s top pros was also launched on Wednesday.
The new Studio Display features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio.
It also includes powerful Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays. The all-new Studio Display XDR takes the pro display experience to the next level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced mini-LED backlight with more than 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000 nits of SDR brightness and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness.
With its 120Hz refresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to content in motion and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame rates for content like video playback or graphically intense games. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and audio system, as well as Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to simplify pro workflow setups.
Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass options, and can be pre-ordered starting March 4.
