Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) | AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | June 2012 | March 2026 |
| 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 | 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy display, 1280 × 800 native resolution and millions of colours. TN panel identified by Notebookcheck’s exact-model review; brightness and refresh rate unpublished by Apple. | 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 i5-3210M or Intel Core i7-3520M | Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max |
| CPU cores | 2 | 15 or 18 |
| CPU threads | 4 | – |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 16-core GPU, 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU |
| Memory | 4 GB or 8 GB | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better) |
| Storage | 128 GB to 1 TB | 1 TB to 8 TB (better) |
| CPU | 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz and 3 MB L3 cache, or 2.9 GHz dual-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz and 4 MB L3 cache. i5-3210M identified by Notebookcheck; i7-3520M by EveryMac. | 15-core CPU with 5 super cores and 10 performance cores (entry M5 Pro), or 18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores |
| GPU | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 16-core or 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 |
| Memory type | 1600 MHz DDR3 in two SO-DIMM slots. Core i5 has 4 GB, configurable to 8 GB; Core i7 has 8 GB. | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | – | 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 | Core i5 has a 500 GB 5400-rpm hard drive, configurable to 750 GB or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. Core i7 has a 750 GB 5400-rpm hard drive, configurable to 1 TB or the same SSD capacities. Rows follow the CPU-specific maker storage sections. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive supports DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and CD-RW. | 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 a 16-inch M5 Max with 8 TB) |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 7 hours | Up to 22 hours |
| Battery capacity | 63.5 Wh | 72.4 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 2.06 kg | 1.6 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 in Apple’s test. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. | M5 Pro up to 22 hours video streaming and 14 hours wireless web; M5 Max up to 20 hours video streaming and 13 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 70 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, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet, Thunderbolt | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g | Wi-Fi 7 |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 | 6 |
| Webcam | 720p FaceTime HD camera | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | One Thunderbolt port up to 10 Gb/s, two USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, one FireWire 800 port up to 800 Mb/s, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, headphone port with digital/analogue audio line output and iPhone headset support and Kensington lock slot. Thunderbolt provides native Mini DisplayPort output; DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI require separate adapters. | 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 | Built-in display plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both at millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring. | 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 | Full-size backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor, 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 | Multi-Touch trackpad supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three- and four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag. | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Stereo speakers with subwoofer | High-fidelity 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, 60 W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord and documentation; OS X Lion and iLife. | 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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