Apple (AAPL) took the wraps off its new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops on Tuesday, which also include the tech giant’s new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, amid a continued week of product unveilings.
On Monday, Apple unveiled the latest version of its low-end smartphone, the iPhone 17e, as well as an updated version of the iPad Air.
MacBook Air
The new MacBook Air starts with 512GB worth of storage and a faster SSD card and can be upgraded to 4TB worth of storage, Apple said. It also contains Apple’s N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity.
It also sports Apple’s 12MP Center Stage camera, has a battery life of up to 18 hours and contains two Thunderbolt 4 ports. It comes with macOS Tahoe and has support for Apple Intelligence.
The laptop comes in 13-inch and 15-inch models and is available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver colors. The 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $1,099 and $999 for education, while the 15-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $1,299 and $1,199 for education.
“The new MacBook Air with M5 brings incredible performance and even more capability to the world’s most popular laptop,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “With M5, MacBook Air powers through a wide range of tasks, from everyday productivity to creative workloads, and is even faster for AI. Now featuring double the starting storage, as well as Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, in a sleek and durable design with long battery life, MacBook Air is the perfect laptop for anyone who values the unrivaled combination of performance and portability.”
The MacBook Air with M5 is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, and is available on March 11.
MacBook Pro
Apple also unveiled its new MacBook Pro on Tuesday, which also has Apple’s new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.
The MacBook Pro starts at 1TB of storage for the M5 Pro and 2TB for the M5 Max. Like the MacbOok Air, it also has the N1 chip for wireless networking that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity. It is available in 14-inch and 16-inch models and comes in space black and silver.
It has up to 24 hours of battery life, Liquid Retina XDR display, various arrays of connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5, 12MP Center Stage camera, Apple Intelligence features, and runs macOS Tahoe.
The 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199 and $2,049 for education, while the M5 Pro version starts at $2,699 and $2,499, respectively. The 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max starts at $3,599 and $3,299 for education, while the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max starts at $3,899 and $3,599, respectively.
The MacBook Pro is available to pre-order starting tomorrow, and is available on March 11.
New chips
The new chips are built using Apple’s new Fusion Architecture, which brings together two dies into a system-on-a-chip. The M5 Pro and M5 Max have an 18-core CPU, an up to 40-core GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities.
“Collectively, the CPU significantly boosts performance by up to 30 percent for pro workloads,” Apple said in a statement. “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.2 The GPU substantially increases graphics capabilities — now up to 35 percent for apps using ray tracing than M4 Pro and M4 Max — enhancing advanced visual effects and 3D rendering.”
The M5 Pro and M5 Max are housed in Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops, which are available for pre-order starting tomorrow. They will be available on March 11.
Studio Display
In addition, Apple showed off two new Studio Displays on Tuesday: the Studio Display and the Studio Display XDR.
The new Studio Display starts at $1,599, while the Studio Display XDR starts at $3,299. Both are available for pre-order tomorrow and are available on March 11.