Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5) vs Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M5) | AppleMacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | October 2025 | June 2009 |
| 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 widescreen display at 1920 × 1200, glossy or optional antiglare. Exact panel technology, brightness and refresh rate are unpublished in the maker sources read. |
| 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 2 Duo 2.8 GHz (MacBook Pro Late 2008) or Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009) |
| CPU cores | 10 | 2 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M |
| Memory | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) | 4 GB or 8 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB to 4 TB (better) | 128 GB to 500 GB |
| CPU | 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores | Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.8 GHz or optional 3.06 GHz, with 6 MB shared L2 cache and a 1066 MHz frontside bus. Maker-clock records avoid unverified Intel SKU assumptions. |
| GPU | Neural Accelerators; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode | NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512 MB GDDR3 plus GeForce 9400M with 256 MB shared system memory. Switching between integrated and discrete graphics requires logout, as described by Macworld. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 4 GB or 8 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two SO-DIMM slots. |
| Memory bandwidth | 153 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB | 500 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 500 GB 7200-rpm hard drive or 128 GB or 256 GB SSD with either processor. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 24 hours | Up to 8 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 lithium-polymer battery. Apple 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 |
| 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 | 3 × USB-A, 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 | Built-in iSight 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 | Three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, Mini DisplayPort, ExpressCard/34, separate combined optical digital audio input/line input and optical digital audio output/headphone output. No SD card 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 | Supports an external display up to 2560 × 1600 pixels alongside the built-in display. Mini DisplayPort to DVI, dual-link DVI or VGA adapters are sold separately. |
| 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 arrow keys. |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Glass Multi-Touch trackpad supporting two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures. |
| Speakers | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos | Built-in stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes | Omnidirectional microphone beneath 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, 85 W MagSafe Power Adapter with AC wall plug and power cord, display cleaning cloth, install/restore DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X Leopard and iLife ’09; Apple Remote and display adapters sold separately. |
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