Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5) vs Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5) | AppleMacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | October 2025 | October 2011 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 17″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 1920 × 1200 |
| 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 | 17-inch LED-backlit glossy or optional antiglare widescreen display. Apple does not specify panel technology, brightness or refresh rate on this exact UK sheet. |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | – |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | – |
| Screen finish | Standard, or nano-texture as an option | Glossy as standard; optional antiglare display |
| 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 i7-2760QM |
| CPU cores | 10 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1 GB GDDR5) + Intel HD Graphics 3000 |
| Memory | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) | 4 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB to 4 TB (better) | 750 GB |
| CPU | 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores | 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 6 MB shared L3 cache, or optional 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 8 MB cache. Notebookcheck identifies the standard processor as i7-2760QM. The maker does not identify the optional processor by part number, so it is not assigned a chip record. |
| GPU | Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode | AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1 GB GDDR5 and Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB shared DDR3; automatic graphics switching. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 4 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 in two 2 GB SO-DIMMs; two slots support up to 8 GB in Apple’s specification. |
| Memory bandwidth | 153 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB | 750 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive standard; optional 750 GB 7200-rpm drive or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive with dual-layer DVD writing. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 24 hours | Up to 7 hours |
| Battery capacity | 72.4 Wh | 95 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.55 kg (better) | 2.99 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 25 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 393 × 267 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 16 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery | Built-in 95 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to seven hours wireless web browsing in Apple’s October 2011 test. Reference weight varies with 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 |
| Fast charging | With a 96 W or higher USB PD power source | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall | Precision aluminium unibody with glass trackpad |
| Colours | Space Black, Silver | Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 3 × USB-A, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | AirPort Extreme 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 Gbps, one FireWire 800 port, three USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, ExpressCard/34, separate digital/analogue audio input and headphone output, plus Kensington lock slot. |
| 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 screen plus an external display up to 2560 × 1600. Thunderbolt carries native Mini DisplayPort; optional DVI, VGA and dual-link DVI adaptors and a third-party HDMI adaptor support other outputs. |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys | Backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four inverted-T arrow keys |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures |
| 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 below the left speaker grille; supports an iPhone headset microphone |
| 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 with wall plug and power cord, printed and electronic documentation; OS X Lion and iLife included. Apple’s environmental report identifies 24 October 2011 as introduction; Engadget reported the refreshed range available for immediate shipping from the US store that day. |
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