Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) | AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | February 2011 | October 2025 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 13.3″ | 14.2″ |
| Resolution | 1280 × 800 | 3024 × 1964 (better) |
| Panel | TN LCD | Mini-LED |
| Refresh rate | – | 120 Hz |
| Brightness | – | 1,000 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | – | 1,600 nits |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | LED-backlit glossy widescreen LCD, millions of colours; TN panel explicitly confirmed by Notebookcheck's exact Early 2011 2.7 GHz review. No antiglare or higher-resolution option. Apple does not publish refresh rate or brightness. | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Pixel density | – | 254 ppi |
| Colour range | – | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| Screen finish | – | Standard, or nano-texture as an option |
| Display features | – | 1,000,000:1 contrast; 1,000 nits sustained full-screen XDR brightness; ProMotion up to 120 Hz, with fixed 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz rates; True Tone |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2415M or Intel Core i7-2620M | Apple M5 |
| CPU cores | 2 | 10 |
| CPU threads | 4 | – |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 3000 | 10-core GPU |
| Memory | 4 GB or 8 GB | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) |
| Storage | 128 GB to 750 GB | 1 TB to 4 TB (better) |
| CPU | Dual-core Intel Core i5-2415M at 2.3 GHz with 3 MB shared L3 cache or Core i7-2620M at 2.7 GHz with 4 MB cache. Exact identities confirmed by Notebookcheck's respective 2.3 GHz and 2.7 GHz reviews. | 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores |
| GPU | Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory | Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode |
| AI engine | – | 16-core Neural Engine |
| Memory type | 4 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3, two 2 GB SO-DIMMs; two slots support up to 8 GB | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | – | 153 GB/s |
| Storage type | Core i5 base has 320 GB and Core i7 base has 500 GB, both 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drives. Configurable 500 GB or 750 GB 5400-rpm hard drive, or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. Storage capacity rows use HDD for 320/500/750 GB and SSD for 128/256/512 GB; memory upgrades apply to either processor. Macworld confirms 750 GB upgrades on both bases; Apple's configure-to-order list includes it despite the shorter Storage subsection omitting it. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive supports DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and CD-RW. | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 7 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Battery capacity | 63.5 Wh | 72.4 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 2.04 kg | 1.55 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 24.1 mm | 15.5 mm (better) |
| Width × depth | 325 × 227 mm | 312.6 × 221.2 mm |
| Battery life detail | Built-in 63.5 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 7 hours wireless web under Apple's test conditions. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. | Up to 16 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 60 W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management | Sold separately in the UK (70 W or 96 W Apple USB-C adapters offered); needs at least 60 W over USB PD |
| Fast charging | – | With a 96 W or higher USB PD power source |
| Materials | Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall |
| Colours | Silver | Space Black, Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × USB-A, Thunderbolt, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g | Wi-Fi 6E |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 5.3 |
| Webcam | 720p FaceTime HD (Macworld) | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Two USB 2.0 ports up to 480 Mb/s, Thunderbolt up to 10 Gb/s, FireWire 800 up to 800 Mb/s, 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, combined headphone/line input with digital output, and Kensington lock slot. Native Mini DisplayPort output; DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI audio/video through separate adapters. | 3 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s); HDMI with multichannel audio output; SDXC card slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support |
| External displays | Built-in screen plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both with millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring | Up to two over any mix of Thunderbolt and HDMI at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or one at up to 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz, alongside the built-in display |
| Keyboard | Full-size backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four arrow keys | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Stereo speakers with subwoofer | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Omnidirectional microphone | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes |
| Biometrics | – | Touch ID |
| In the box | MacBook Pro, display cleaning cloth, power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, software DVDs and documentation; Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife ’11 | 14-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately |
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