Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)

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MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) compared with MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)

	AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)	AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
Overview
Released
Released	June 2009	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	Glossy LED-backlit widescreen display with millions of colours. TN panel technology is identified by the exact-model Notebookcheck review; maker refresh rate and brightness are unpublished.	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 2 Duo 2.53 GHz (MacBook Pro Late 2008), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz (MacBook Pro Late 2008) or Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009)	Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max
CPU cores
CPU cores	2	18
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (256 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M or NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M	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 500 GB	1 TB to 8 TB (better)
CPU
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.53 or 2.66 GHz with 3 MB shared L2 cache, or 2.8 and optional 3.06 GHz with 6 MB; 1066 MHz frontside bus. The optional 3.06 GHz processor belongs to the upper discrete-graphics group. No unverified Intel SKU assumptions.	18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores
GPU
GPU	The 2.53 GHz model has GeForce 9400M integrated graphics only. The 2.66 GHz model also has GeForce 9600M GT with 256 MB GDDR3; 2.8 and 3.06 GHz have 512 MB. GeForce 9400M uses 256 MB shared system memory.	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	1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two SO-DIMM slots, supplied with 4 GB and 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	Base hard drives are 250 GB at 2.53 GHz, 320 GB at 2.66 GHz and 500 GB at 2.8 GHz, all 5400 rpm. Configurable 320 GB and 500 GB hard drives offer 5400 or 7200 rpm; 128 GB and 256 GB are SSD options. Higher processor groups omit an unconfirmed 250 GB choice. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing.	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	73 Wh	99.6 Wh (better)
Weight
Weight	2.49 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 lithium-polymer battery. Apple 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	60 W MagSafe Power Adapter for 2.53 GHz; 85 W for 2.66, 2.8 and 3.06 GHz configurations.	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, SD card slot, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe	3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	AirPort Extreme 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g	Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	6
Webcam
Webcam	Built-in iSight camera	12MP Center Stage
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	Two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, Mini DisplayPort, SD card slot, combined optical digital audio input/line input and combined optical digital audio output/headphone output. No ExpressCard slot.	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	Supports the built-in display and an external display up to 2560 × 1600 pixels simultaneously. Mini DisplayPort adapters for DVI, dual-link DVI or VGA are sold separately.	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	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 supporting two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures.	Force Touch trackpad
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in stereo speakers	High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Microphones
Microphones	Omnidirectional microphone beneath 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, 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.	16-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately