Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)

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MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) compared with MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)

	AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)	AppleMacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)
Overview
Released
Released	March 2026	February 2008
Display
Screen size
Screen size	16.2″	17″
Resolution
Resolution	3456 × 2234 (better)	1680 × 1050
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	Liquid Retina XDR display	17-inch TFT widescreen display at 1680 × 1050, matte or glossy. Optional 1920 × 1200 LED-backlit display; exact panel technology and refresh rate unpublished.
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	Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz (MacBook Pro Early 2008) or Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz (MacBook Pro Early 2008)
CPU cores
CPU cores	18	2
Graphics
Graphics	20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU	NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (512 MB GDDR3)
Memory
Memory	24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better)	2 GB or 4 GB
Storage
Storage	1 TB to 8 TB (better)	200 GB to 300 GB
CPU
CPU	18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores	Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.5 GHz or optional 2.6 GHz, with 6 MB shared L2 cache and an 800 MHz frontside bus.
GPU
GPU	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	NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512 MB GDDR3 video memory
AI engine
AI engine	16-core Neural Engine	–
Memory type
Memory type	Unified memory	2 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, configurable to 4 GB, in two SO-DIMM slots.
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	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)	250 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 200 GB 7200-rpm or 300 GB 4200-rpm drive with either processor. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing.
Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim)
Battery life (maker's claim)	Up to 24 hours	–
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	99.6 Wh	–
Weight
Weight	2.14 kg	–
Thickness
Thickness	16.8 mm	–
Width × depth
Width × depth	355.7 × 248.1 mm	–
Battery life detail
Battery life detail	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	Removable lithium-polymer battery. Capacity, life, metric weight and dimensions are omitted because the surviving maker launch notice and exact manual do not publish them. Macworld describes the model as 6.6 lb; this original unit is retained without conversion.
Charger
Charger	Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD	85 W MagSafe Power Adapter
Fast charging
Fast charging	With a 140 W or higher USB PD power source	–
Materials
Materials	100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall	Aluminium enclosure
Colours
Colours	Space Black, Silver	Silver
Connections
Ports
Ports	3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack	3 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7	AirPort Extreme 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	6	2.1 + EDR
Webcam
Webcam	12MP Center Stage	Built-in iSight camera
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	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	Three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, dual-link DVI, ExpressCard/34, separate combined optical digital audio input/line input and optical digital audio output/headphone output.
External displays
External displays	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	Supports an external display up to 2560 × 1600 pixels alongside the built-in display. DVI-to-VGA adapter included; other display adapters optional.
Keyboard
Keyboard	Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys	Backlit keyboard with ambient light sensors and revised function keys; the previous embedded numeric keypad is removed.
Trackpad
Trackpad	Force Touch trackpad	Multi-Touch trackpad supports two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate and three-finger swipe.
Speakers
Speakers	High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos	Built-in stereo speakers
Microphones
Microphones	Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes	Omnidirectional microphone beneath the left speaker grille.
Biometrics
Biometrics	Touch ID	–
In the box
In the box	16-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately	MacBook Pro, removable battery, 85 W MagSafe Power Adapter with AC wall plug and power cord, DVI-to-VGA adapter, install/restore DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X Leopard and iLife ’08; Apple Remote sold separately. The retired SP4 spec sheet is unavailable, so maker launch notice and exact early-2008 user guide supply core specifications.