Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) | AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | May 2019 | March 2026 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 15.4″ | 16.2″ |
| Resolution | 2880 × 1800 | 3456 × 2234 (better) |
| Panel | IPS LCD | Mini-LED |
| Refresh rate | – | 120 Hz |
| Brightness | 500 nits | 1,000 nits (better) |
| HDR peak brightness | – | 1,600 nits |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Retina display; LED-backlit IPS; millions of colours | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Pixel density | 220 ppi | 254 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3) | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| Screen finish | – | Standard, or nano-texture as an option |
| Display features | True Tone; scaled resolutions of 1920 × 1200, 1680 × 1050, 1280 × 800 or 1024 × 640 | 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 i7-9750H, Intel Core i9-9880H or Intel Core i9-9980HK | Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max |
| CPU cores | 6 or 8 | 18 |
| CPU threads | 12 or 16 | – |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon Pro 555X, AMD Radeon Pro 560X, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 or AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 | 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU |
| Memory | 16 GB or 32 GB | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better) |
| Storage | 256 GB to 4 TB | 1 TB to 8 TB (better) |
| CPU | 2.6 GHz six-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.5 GHz, or 2.3 GHz eight-core Core i9 with up to 4.8 GHz. Configurable to 2.4 GHz eight-core Core i9 with up to 5.0 GHz. Exact i7-9750H, i9-9880H and i9-9980HK identifiers corroborated by Notebookcheck and TechRadar. | 18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores |
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 630 with automatic switching to discrete Radeon Pro graphics. The six-core base has Radeon Pro 555X with 4 GB GDDR5, configurable to 560X. The eight-core base has Radeon Pro 560X with 4 GB GDDR5, configurable to Vega 16 or Vega 20 with 4 GB HBM2. | 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 | 16 GB of 2400 MHz DDR4 onboard memory, configurable to 32 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 | PCIe-based onboard SSD; six-core model starts at 256 GB, eight-core at 512 GB. Configurable to 1 TB, 2 TB or 4 TB; the six-core model can also be configured to 512 GB. | 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 M5 Max and 8 TB) |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 10 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Battery capacity | 83.6 Wh | 99.6 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.83 kg (better) | 2.14 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 16.8 mm |
| Width × depth | 349.3 × 240.7 mm | 355.7 × 248.1 mm |
| Battery life detail | 83.6 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 10 hours wireless web or Apple TV app video playback and up to 30 days standby. Apple tested preproduction models in April 2019. Weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. | M5 Pro up to 24 hours video streaming and 17 hours wireless web; M5 Max up to 22 hours video streaming and 16 hours wireless web; 100-watt-hour (actual rating 99.6 Wh) lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 87 W USB-C Power Adapter | Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD |
| Fast charging | – | With a 140 W or higher USB PD power source |
| Materials | Aluminium enclosure | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall |
| Colours | Silver; Space Grey | Space Black, Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 4 × Thunderbolt 3, headphone jack | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 5 | Wi-Fi 7 |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 6 |
| Webcam | 720p FaceTime HD | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports support charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt up to 40 Gb/s and USB 3.1 Gen 2 up to 10 Gb/s; 3.5 mm headphone jack. VGA, HDMI, DVI and Thunderbolt 2 output require separate adaptors. | 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 screen plus two 5120 × 2880 displays at 60 Hz with over a billion colours, or four 4096 × 2304 displays at 60 Hz with over a billion colours | 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 64 US or 65 ISO keys, four arrow keys and Touch Bar | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensing, Force clicks and Multi-Touch gestures | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Stereo speakers with high dynamic range | High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Three microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes |
| Biometrics | Touch ID fingerprint sensor; Apple T2 Security Chip supports secure boot and encrypted storage | Touch ID |
| In the box | 15-inch MacBook Pro; 87 W USB-C Power Adapter; 2 m USB-C Charge Cable. Apple said the updated model was available on its UK website and app on 21 May 2019, with selected stores to follow later that week. | 16-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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