Apple MacBook Pro 13″ (M2) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 13″ (M2) | AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | June 2022 | March 2026 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 13.3″ | 16.2″ |
| Resolution | 2560 × 1600 | 3456 × 2234 (better) |
| Panel | IPS LCD | Mini-LED |
| Refresh rate | 60 Hz | 120 Hz (better) |
| Brightness | 500 nits | 1,000 nits (better) |
| HDR peak brightness | – | 1,600 nits |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Retina display; LED-backlit with IPS technology | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Pixel density | 227 ppi | 254 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); millions of colours | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| Screen finish | – | Standard, or nano-texture as an option |
| Display features | True Tone; 60 Hz refresh rate (Notebookcheck) | 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 | Apple M2 | Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max |
| CPU cores | 8 | 18 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU |
| Memory | 8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better) |
| Storage | 256 GB to 2 TB | 1 TB to 8 TB (better) |
| CPU | 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores | 18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores |
| GPU | 10-core GPU | 20-core (M5 Pro), 32-core or 40-core (M5 Max) GPU with Neural Accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode, with two video encode and two ProRes engines on M5 Max |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | 16-core Neural Engine |
| Memory type | Unified memory; 8 GB, configurable to 16 GB or 24 GB | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | 100 GB/s | 307 GB/s (M5 Pro), 460 GB/s (M5 Max with 32-core GPU) or 614 GB/s (M5 Max with 40-core GPU) |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable to 512 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB (M5 Pro) or 8 TB (M5 Max); Apple quotes up to 14.5 GB/s read and write (tested with M5 Max and 8 TB) |
| Cooling | Active cooling | – |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 20 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Battery capacity | 58.2 Wh | 99.6 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.4 kg (better) | 2.14 kg |
| Thickness | 15.6 mm (better) | 16.8 mm |
| Width × depth | 304.1 × 212.4 mm | 355.7 × 248.1 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 17 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery | M5 Pro up to 24 hours video streaming and 17 hours wireless web; M5 Max up to 22 hours video streaming and 16 hours wireless web; 100-watt-hour (actual rating 99.6 Wh) lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 67 W USB-C Power Adapter | Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD |
| Fast charging | – | With a 140 W or higher USB PD power source |
| Materials | Low-carbon aluminium enclosure | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall |
| Colours | Silver, Space Grey | Space Black, Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × Thunderbolt 3, headphone jack | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6 | Wi-Fi 7 |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 6 |
| Webcam | 720p FaceTime HD | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports supporting charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 up to 40 Gb/s, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 up to 10 Gb/s; 3.5 mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones | 3 × Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 (up to 120 Gb/s); HDMI (up to 8K) with multichannel audio output; SDXC card slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support |
| External displays | One external display up to 6K 60 Hz alongside the built-in display | M5 Pro up to three at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or one at 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz plus one at 5K 120 Hz or 4K 200 Hz; M5 Max up to four at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or two at 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz; all alongside the built-in display |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard; 65 (US) or 66 (ISO) keys; Touch Bar; ambient light sensor | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Stereo speakers with high dynamic range; wide stereo sound; Dolby Atmos playback | High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | Touch ID |
| In the box | 13-inch MacBook Pro, 67 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C Charge Cable (2 m) | 16-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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