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

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

	AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)	AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Overview
Released
Released	October 2011	March 2026
Display
Screen size
Screen size	15.4″	16.2″
Resolution
Resolution	1440 × 900	3456 × 2234 (better)
Panel
Panel	–	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	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 Panel technologies, refresh rate and brightness unpublished by Apple; higher-resolution screens remain in details rather than unverified panel variants.	Liquid Retina XDR display
Pixel density
Pixel density	–	254 ppi
Colour range
Colour range	–	Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours
Screen finish
Screen finish	–	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 i7-2675QM, Intel Core i7-2760QM or Intel Core i7-2860QM	Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max
CPU cores
CPU cores	4	18
CPU threads
CPU threads	8	–
Graphics
Graphics	AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512 MB) or AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1 GB)	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 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.	18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores
GPU
GPU	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.	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 in two SO-DIMM slots; configurable 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	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.	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 in Apple’s test. 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, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet, Thunderbolt	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	FaceTime HD camera	12MP Center Stage
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	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.	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 display plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both at 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	Multi-Touch trackpad supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three- and 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, 85 W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord and documentation; OS X Lion and iLife.	16-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately