Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)

Every spec side by side, from each maker's published figures.

Only show differences

Better figure, where one is clearly better

Share comparison

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) compared with MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)

	AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)	AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Overview
Released
Released	February 2011	March 2026
Display
Screen size
Screen size	15.4″	16.2″
Resolution
Resolution	1440 × 900	3456 × 2234 (better)
Panel
Panel	TN LCD	Mini-LED
Refresh rate
Refresh rate	–	120 Hz
Brightness
Brightness	–	1,000 nits
HDR peak brightness
HDR peak brightness	–	1,600 nits
Touchscreen
Touchscreen	No	No
Display type
Display type	LED-backlit glossy widescreen LCD, millions of colours; TN panel explicitly confirmed by Notebookcheck's exact Early 2011 2.0 GHz glossy review. Apple does not publish refresh rate or brightness.	Liquid Retina XDR display
Pixel density
Pixel density	–	254 ppi
Colour range
Colour range	–	Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours
Screen finish
Screen finish	Base glossy 1440 × 900; optional 1680 × 1050 high-resolution glossy or antiglare displays. Higher-resolution options are described here rather than assigned an unverified panel type in the configuration rows.	Standard, or nano-texture as an option
Display features
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
Processor	Intel Core i7-2635QM, Intel Core i7-2720QM or Intel Core i7-2820QM	Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max
CPU cores
CPU cores	4	18
CPU threads
CPU threads	8	–
Graphics
Graphics	AMD Radeon HD 6490M or AMD Radeon HD 6750M	20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU
Memory
Memory	4 GB or 8 GB	24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better)
Storage
Storage	128 GB to 750 GB	1 TB to 8 TB (better)
CPU
CPU	Quad-core Intel Core i7-2635QM at 2.0 GHz or Core i7-2720QM at 2.2 GHz, with 6 MB shared L3 cache. The 2.2 GHz base is configurable to Core i7-2820QM at 2.3 GHz with 8 MB cache. Exact identities are confirmed by Notebookcheck; Macworld confirms the faster processor is an upgrade of the higher base.	18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores
GPU
GPU	Automatic switching between Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB shared main memory and AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256 MB GDDR5 on the 2.0 GHz base, or Radeon HD 6750M with 1 GB GDDR5 on the 2.2 GHz base and its 2.3 GHz upgrade	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
AI engine	–	16-core Neural Engine
Memory type
Memory type	4 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3, two 2 GB SO-DIMMs; two slots support up to 8 GB	Unified memory
Memory bandwidth
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
Storage type	Core i7-2635QM base has a 500 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; Core i7-2720QM base has a 750 GB 5400-rpm drive. Both bases support 750 GB 5400-rpm or 500 GB 7200-rpm hard drive, or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. The 500 GB row on the lower base includes its standard 5400-rpm and optional 7200-rpm drives; on the higher base and its processor upgrade it represents the 7200-rpm option. Memory and storage upgrades apply to either base. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive supports DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and CD-RW.	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)
Battery life (maker's claim)	Up to 7 hours	Up to 24 hours
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	77.5 Wh	99.6 Wh (better)
Weight
Weight	2.54 kg	2.14 kg (better)
Thickness
Thickness	24.1 mm	16.8 mm (better)
Width × depth
Width × depth	364 × 249 mm	355.7 × 248.1 mm
Battery life detail
Battery life detail	Built-in 77.5 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 7 hours wireless web under Apple's test conditions. Reference 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
Charger	85 W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management	Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD
Fast charging
Fast charging	–	With a 140 W or higher USB PD power source
Materials
Materials	Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad	100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall
Colours
Colours	Silver	Space Black, Silver
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × USB-A, Thunderbolt, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet	3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g	Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	6
Webcam
Webcam	720p FaceTime HD (Macworld)	12MP Center Stage
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	Two USB 2.0 ports up to 480 Mb/s, Thunderbolt up to 10 Gb/s, FireWire 800 up to 800 Mb/s, 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, separate digital/analogue audio line input and line output/headphone minijacks, and Kensington lock slot. Native Mini DisplayPort output; DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI audio/video through separate adapters.	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
External displays	Built-in screen plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both with millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring	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
Keyboard	Full-size backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four arrow keys	Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys
Trackpad
Trackpad	Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag	Force Touch trackpad
Speakers
Speakers	Stereo speakers with subwoofers	High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Microphones
Microphones	Omnidirectional microphone under the left speaker grille	Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes
Biometrics
Biometrics	–	Touch ID
In the box
In the box	MacBook Pro, display cleaning cloth, power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, software DVDs and documentation; Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife ’11	16-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately