Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) vs Apple PowerBook G4 (17-inch, Double-Layer SD)

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MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) compared with PowerBook G4 (17-inch, Double-Layer SD)

	AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)	ApplePowerBook G4 (17-inch, Double-Layer SD)
Overview
Released
Released	March 2026	October 2005
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Display type	Liquid Retina XDR display	17-inch TFT widescreen; panel technology, absolute brightness and refresh rate unpublished on maker sheet
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	Millions of colours at native resolution; maker UK launch claims up to 46% brighter than preceding 17-inch model
Performance
Processor
Processor	Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max	PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Late 2005)
CPU cores
CPU cores	18	1
Graphics
Graphics	20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU	ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128 MB DDR)
Memory
Memory	24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better)	512 MB, 1 GB or 2 GB
Storage
Storage	1 TB to 8 TB (better)	100 GB to 120 GB
CPU
CPU	18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores	1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine, 512 KB on-chip L2 SRAM and 167 MHz system bus; exact silicon supplier/process omitted
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	ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with AGP 4× support, 128 MB DDR video memory and dual-link DVI
AI engine
AI engine	16-core Neural Engine	–
Memory type
Memory type	Unified memory	512 MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM running at 333 MHz standard in one SO-DIMM; two slots, maximum 2 GB, with 512 MB and 1 GB module options
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)	120 GB 5400 rpm Ultra ATA/100 standard or 100 GB 7200 rpm build-to-order, with Sudden Motion Sensor. Slot-loading 8× DVD±R SuperDrive supports 2.4× double-layer DVD+R, 4× DVD±RW, 24× CD-R and 16× CD-RW; optional DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive
Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim)
Battery life (maker's claim)	Up to 24 hours	Up to 5.5 hours
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	99.6 Wh (better)	58 Wh
Weight
Weight	2.14 kg (better)	3.1 kg
Thickness
Thickness	16.8 mm (better)	26 mm
Width × depth
Width × depth	355.7 × 248.1 mm	392 × 259 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	58 Wh lithium-ion with charge indicator LEDs; maker up to 5.5 hours depends on configuration and use. Maker reference 3.1 kg includes battery and optical drive and varies by configuration/manufacturing. Metric dimensions are maker centimetres expressed in millimetres
Charger
Charger	Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD	65 W power adapter with cable management system
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	–
Connections
Ports
Ports	3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack	2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7	AirPort Extreme 802.11g/b
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	6	2.0 + EDR
Webcam
Webcam	12MP Center Stage	–
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	Two USB 2.0 ports at up to 480 Mbps, FireWire 800 and 400, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K V.92 modem, DVI, S-video and Type I/II PC Card slot; combined optical-digital/analogue input and output minijacks; Kensington lock slot
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	Simultaneous native 1680 × 1050 internal and up to 2560 × 1600 external display with millions of colours; dual-link DVI, including 30-inch Cinema HD display; mirroring, VGA with included DVI adapter, composite with included S-video adapter
Keyboard
Keyboard	Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys	Full-size illuminated fibre-optic keyboard with ambient light sensor; 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys, inverted-T arrows and embedded keypad
Trackpad
Trackpad	Force Touch trackpad	Solid-state trackpad with tap, double-tap, drag and scrolling support
Speakers
Speakers	High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos	Two built-in stereo speakers
Microphones
Microphones	Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes	Internal omnidirectional microphone
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	Power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-ion battery, modem cable, DVI-to-VGA and S-video-to-composite adapters; Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and iLife ’05 supplied. Apple UK confirms immediate availability on 19 October 2005