Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) | AppleMacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | March 2026 | May 2015 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 15.4″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 2880 × 1800 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 1,000 nits (better) | 300 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display | Retina display; LED-backlit IPS; millions of colours |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | 220 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | Standard colour gamut (sRGB) |
| 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 | Apple specifies a 900:1 contrast ratio; scaled resolutions of 1920 × 1200, 1680 × 1050, 1280 × 800 or 1024 × 640 |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max | Intel Core i7-4770HQ, Intel Core i7-4870HQ or Intel Core i7-4980HQ |
| CPU cores | 15 or 18 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 16-core GPU, 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 or AMD Radeon R9 M370X (2 GB GDDR5) |
| Memory | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better) | 16 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB to 8 TB (better) | 256 GB to 1 TB |
| CPU | 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 | Quad-core Intel Core i7 at 2.2 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz, 2.5 GHz with up to 3.7 GHz, or 2.8 GHz with up to 4 GHz; all with 6 MB shared L3 cache. Exact i7-4770HQ and i7-4870HQ identifiers confirmed by Macworld, and i7-4980HQ by EveryMac. |
| GPU | 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 | Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics; discrete-graphics configurations add AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2 GB GDDR5 and automatic graphics switching. Upgrading the processor on the integrated-graphics base does not add the Radeon GPU. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 16 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3L onboard 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 | 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) | PCIe-based flash storage; 256 GB integrated-graphics base configurable to 512 GB or 1 TB, and 512 GB discrete-graphics base configurable to 1 TB |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 22 hours | Up to 9 hours |
| Battery capacity | 72.4 Wh | 99.5 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.6 kg (better) | 2.04 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 18 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 358.9 × 247.1 mm |
| Battery life detail | 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 | Lithium-polymer battery; up to 9 hours wireless web or iTunes movie playback and 30 days standby. Apple's battery tests used the 2.2 GHz Core i7, 16 GB memory and 256 GB storage. Weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | Sold separately in the UK (70 W or 96 W Apple USB-C adapters offered); needs at least 70 W over USB PD | 85 W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management system |
| Fast charging | With a 96 W or higher USB PD power source | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall | Aluminium enclosure |
| Colours | Space Black, Silver | – |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 2 × Thunderbolt 2, 2 × USB-A, HDMI, headphone jack, SD card slot, MagSafe 2 |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 7 | Wi-Fi 5 |
| Bluetooth | 6 | 4.2 |
| Webcam | 12MP Center Stage | 720p FaceTime HD |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | 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 | Two Thunderbolt 2 ports up to 20 Gb/s with native Mini DisplayPort video, two USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, HDMI, SDXC card slot, MagSafe 2 power and 3.5 mm headphone jack with digital/analogue line output and iPhone headset support; separate Thunderbolt Ethernet and FireWire adaptors available |
| External displays | 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 | Two external displays up to 3840 × 2160 alongside the built-in screen; HDMI supports 1080p at up to 60 Hz, 3840 × 2160 at 30 Hz or 4096 × 2160 at 24 Hz. Mini DisplayPort adaptors provide DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI. |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys | Full-size backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys, inverted-T arrow keys and ambient light sensor |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensing, Force clicks and Multi-Touch gestures |
| Speakers | High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos | Stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes | Dual microphones |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | – |
| In the box | 14-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately | MacBook Pro; MagSafe 2 Power Adapter; power cord; AC wall plug |
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