Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5) vs Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5) | AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | October 2025 | October 2011 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 15.4″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 1440 × 900 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | – |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 1,000 nits | – |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display | 15.4-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440 × 900 native resolution and millions of colours. Optional 1680 × 1050 high-resolution glossy or antiglare display. Panel technologies, refresh rate and brightness unpublished by Apple; higher-resolution screens remain in details rather than unverified panel variants. |
| 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 | Apple M5 | Intel Core i7-2675QM, Intel Core i7-2760QM or Intel Core i7-2860QM |
| CPU cores | 10 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512 MB) or AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1 GB) |
| Memory | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) | 4 GB or 8 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB to 4 TB (better) | 128 GB to 750 GB |
| CPU | 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores | Quad-core Intel Core i7 at 2.2 GHz or 2.4 GHz with 6 MB L3 cache; optional 2.5 GHz with 8 MB L3 cache. Exact i7-2675QM and i7-2860QM identities confirmed by EveryMac; i7-2760QM by Notebookcheck’s tested upper model. Optional 2.5 GHz rows retain the upper AMD graphics combination; unproven lower-GPU pairings omitted. |
| GPU | Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode | Lower model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512 MB GDDR5. Upper model: AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1 GB GDDR5. Both also use Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB DDR3 shared memory and automatic graphics switching. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 4 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 in two SO-DIMM slots; configurable to 8 GB. |
| Memory bandwidth | 153 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB | Lower base: 500 GB 5400-rpm hard drive; upper base: 750 GB 5400-rpm hard drive. Maker CTO options: 750 GB at 5400 or 7200 rpm, or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. Configuration rows distinguish capacities and CPUs/GPUs; both 750 GB speeds share one capacity row. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive supports DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and CD-RW. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 24 hours | Up to 7 hours |
| Battery capacity | 72.4 Wh | 77.5 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.55 kg (better) | 2.54 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 24.1 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 364 × 249 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 16 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery | Built-in 77.5 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 7 hours wireless web in Apple’s test. Reference 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 60 W over USB PD | 85 W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management |
| Fast charging | With a 96 W or higher USB PD power source | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall | Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad |
| Colours | Space Black, Silver | Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 2 × USB-A, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet, Thunderbolt |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 | 2.1 + EDR |
| Webcam | 12MP Center Stage | FaceTime HD camera |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | 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 | One Thunderbolt port up to 10 Gb/s, two USB 2.0 ports up to 480 Mb/s, one FireWire 800 port up to 800 Mb/s, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, separate audio line-in and headphone/audio line-out ports, and Kensington lock slot. Thunderbolt provides native Mini DisplayPort output; DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI require separate adapters. |
| External displays | 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 | Built-in display plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both at millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring. |
| 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 and four arrow keys. |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Multi-Touch trackpad supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three- and four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag. |
| Speakers | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos | Stereo speakers with subwoofers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes | Omnidirectional microphone under the left speaker grille |
| 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, display cleaning cloth, 85 W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord and documentation; OS X Lion and iLife. |
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