Apple launches new 14-inch Macbook Pro with powerful M5 chip for faster AI performance

The announcements come roughly a month after Apple’s big iPhone 17 launch event, where it unveiled the long-rumored iPhone Air alongside the redesigned iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The MacBook Pro unveiled on Wednesday is the new baseline edition in the Pro range, with the rest of the M5 chip family possibly being unveiled at a later date. It comes in space black and silver. The laptop is priced at Rs 1,69,000 and Rs 1,59,900 for students (Education pricing). It is expected to go on sale from October 22, with pre-orders starting today.

Apple’s Macbook Pro is popular among college students, content creators, and even corporate workers. It comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display, a 12MP Center Stage camera, a six-speaker sound system, and a wide array of ports.

The company claims it has a battery life of up to 24 hours. Additionally, the M5 Macbook Pro brings faster SSD performance than the previous generation for tasks like importing RAW image files or exporting large videos, with users being able to choose up to 4TB of storage.

macOS Tahoe, Apple Intelligence features

The M5 chip also includes a faster and more efficient CPU, an enhanced Neural Engine, and higher memory bandwidth that not only speeds up launching apps but also makes it possible to run large language models (LLMs) on-device. M1 Macbook Air and Pro users are most likely to benefit from upgrading as the M5 promises six times faster performance.

“The M5 chip also speeds up a wide variety of pro workflows, like deep learning, data modelling, and AI video enhancement. Users will experience faster text-to-image generation when running diffusion models in apps like Draw Things, and LLMs will run even faster in popular apps like LM Studio,” Apple said.

Apple Intelligence has been integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, with the Live Translation feature that helps users communicate across languages.

It comes with macOS Tahoe out-of-the-box, meaning that the UI is Liquid Glass. In its WWDC event earlier this year, Apple announced that it is offering users more ways to personalise their Mac with an updated Control Center and new colour options for folders, app icons, and widgets. The menu bar has also been made completely transparent as part of Liquid Glass.

The M5 Macbook Pro is made up of 45 per cent recycled content by weight, including 100 per cent recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100 per cent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 per cent recycled cobalt in the battery. In line with its carbon footprint pledge, Apple said that the M5 Macbook Pro is manufactured using 55 per cent renewable electricity, like wind and solar energy, across the supply chain.