The M5 chip guarantees significant power gains, especially for “gaming”
Autonomy that lasts more than a day of work in intensive office use
The unaltered design and the always impeccable finish.
The screen is not OLED, but it is still excellent.
The keyboard is simply exceptional
Rich connectivity, but it should be perfect.
The price, always a little high at Apple
You don’t change a winning team, you improve it. In this month of October 2025, when introducing the M5 in its “basic” Macbook Pro, Apple does nothing else. It brings more power to your 14-inch ultraportable, but not only that. Because, since the transition to Apple Silicon chips, which began in November 2020, the issue is not so much raw power but performance per watt. That is, the ability to provide performance, sustained on a battery or device connected to the electrical grid, for a given electrical consumption, as low as possible. This is the real problem. This is also the strong point that has made Macs with M chip successful: power and autonomy, two contradictory issues combined.
With the M5, has Apple managed to do it too? To do better? This is what we are going to see.
M5, the power and versatility of an impregnable ultraportable
The star of this update, if not the only one, is the new M5 SoC. Like the A19 and 19 Pro chips in the iPhone 17, Air and Pro, of which it is the generational version for Mac, it incorporates neural accelerators in the graphics chip, allowing it to be ready to tackle intelligent tasks, particularly in running LLM, such as those running ChatGPT.
But on a day-to-day basis, it’s also good news for all the smart features, whether it’s enhanced dialogue in a program like Premiere Pro or “super-resolution” of a shot in Pixelmator Pro.
But the M5 is not only better at AI. Its processor and graphics processor part is much more solid, as demonstrated by a synthetic benchmarking tool like Geekbench, a benchmark in the industry.
If we play the little game of comparisons, we observe a constant progression. There is about 20% between the M4 and M5 for the computing and multicore part (mostly graphics). If we dig deeper into the Macbook Pro family tree, we see that the gains in CPU and graphics power increase considerably, with no less than 132% more graphics performance between the M1 and M5, a 2.32 multiplier for GPU power in the space of about five years…
More power, also for gaming
This increase in power is observed daily when we edit a video or even when we play games. The same export of a 4K project in iMovie is like this, almost twice as fast with the M5 (x1.86). In gaming, we see performance gains ranging from 54 to 80% between the M4 and M5 in benchmark games. Proof that the ten GPU cores are not just there for AI. Even if the AI is obviously at the service of your games with MetalFX. As proof we want the execution of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Macbook Pro M5.
With a definition of 1,800×1,125 pixels we obtain almost 38 images per second with ray tracing activated (Low preset). And if you’re willing to give up the lighting and transparency effects of this rendering technology, you’ll be able to play in high quality at almost 52 frames per second (fps or frames per second, fps). Better yet, if fluidity takes precedence over beauty for you, in low quality, nothing less than 81 fps awaits your eyes… The days when Macs couldn’t run games seem distant. Although, unfortunately, the titles are not yet legion.
The promises of the M5 seem to be fulfilled in any case, and the chip does not seem to overheat excessively, except when asked for tasks that are not those of an ultraportable. This generation marks the crossing of a new stage in terms of performance. Enough to consider taking the step if you are equipped with a Macbook Pro Intel or powered by an M1…
Stability and relative silence.
Finally, let’s note two points. On the one hand, the M5 guarantees approximately the same level of performance whether the Macbook Pro is connected to the mains or running on battery. This is a crucial point where competing SoCs from Intel and AMD had yet to make progress over the previous generation of chips. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that the Macbook Pro spends most of its time completely silent. However, it may start to ventilate if you use it for a long time, because unlike the Macbook Air, it does not rely solely on passive cooling and has fans. At full exercise, we measured its noise at around 46.7 dB. Therefore, it is audible without being annoying.
SSD: really faster storage…
SSD storage modules in Macbook Pros have not been a problem for a long time, although Apple, in recent years, has given an advantage in terms of performance to large storage capacities. Which may be justified, since when we need large storage, a priori we manage large or numerous files.
With this new generation M5, Apple announces that it has enhanced the performance of its ultraportable. And indeed, testing, as well as handling, confirms that the read and write speeds are impressive. We recorded speeds greater than 10 GB/s with the Aja System Test Lite program.
Clearly, Apple has optimized transfer speeds for large video files. With our base model, equipped with 512 GB, we achieved write speeds of 7.54 GB/s and read speeds of 9.74 GB/s for a 16 GB 5K file. This is not where we should look for a slowdown…
Autonomy, you will get tired before him.
Apple advertises up to 24 hours of battery life. In fact, for somewhat advanced office use, requiring many tabs and browser instances, a word processor, a photo editor and other productivity tools, we managed to have a good office day of around 14 hours. Obviously, if you add video edits, constantly force the brightness to maximum or increase access to the GPU, this autonomy should decrease more quickly.
However, if you use the Macbook Pro M5 as a 3.0 typewriter, you should get tired of working sooner…
The rest: Apple is still at the top…
Since its presentation in October 2021, the design of the Macbook Pro remains unchanged, or almost so. However, the score, without being perfect, flirts with excellence and, objectively, rarely has competitors who do equally well in all areas covered.
Case: quality above the rest
This means that we are entitled to this exceptional finish of the aluminum case, which will resist small everyday knocks and will allow you to have peace of mind in your uses.
Audio: always a reference
On each side of the keyboard are the speaker grills. There are six in total and they provide a powerful and detailed sound that is rarely found in this type of product. The bass is present and round without overwhelming the rest and the treble and midrange are precise and pleasant.
Connectivity: very good, but not always the best…
As in previous generations, connectivity is efficient – although in this model we only have the right to Thunderbolt 4 and not 5, as in the models equipped with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips – and almost complete. By this I mean that if you haven’t already, you really need to give up USB-A, the historical plugs. Here, the three USB sockets are in USB-C format (two on the left and one on the right). You have the right to Magsafe to recharge without the risk of having your mobile phone taken away when you trip over the power cable. On the right, HDMI and SDXC card reader are required. Note that the Macbook Pro M5 still manages two external displays, with definitions up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 240Hz, via HDMI.
As for the wireless part, if we do not shudder at the announcement of Bluetooth 5.3 compatibility, we will be much less happy to see that Apple offers us Wi-Fi 6E and not 7, the latest version, which is now present in all high-end products on the market. Except at Apple, then.
Keyboard and trackpad: the kings of the world?
The Magic keyboard of the MacBook Pro is one of the keyboards on the market; You have to look at the high end of certain Microsoft machines to find this good. The key course is short, stable and firm, perfect. The sound produced perfectly accompanies the kilometer-long blow.
The large and comfortable touchpad slides perfectly and allows multi-finger gestures to be performed without obstacles. We flirt with perfect and proven ergonomics.
Webcam and biometrics: without Face ID…
If you were hoping for a Face ID camera to unlock your M5 MacBook Pro, bad news. You’ll have to make do with the discreet but very effective Touch ID button, hidden under the on/off button.
However, the webcam (12 Mpx) benefits from the Centered Frame function, which allows you to move a little in front of the computer while still being in the frame. This is not new, but the feature is appreciable, especially since the video quality is quite good, with a well-controlled digital noise level even when there is a little lack of light.
Screen, the best waiting for the best
If the design remains unchanged, we also find the relatively criticized notch at the top and in the center of the screen. The miniLED panel, Liquid Retina XDR, is still excellently made, with a contrast ratio so high that it flirts with what OLED could offer. But there you have it, it’s not an OLED panel, you’ll still have to wait. However, color reproduction is excellent and faithful and if you don’t need perfect fidelity and calibration of the renderings, you can, of course, take advantage of TrueTone to adapt the heat of the panel illumination. While hoping for the best, it is not very difficult to settle for excellence…
Conclusion
Apple is not going to make big moves with the Macbook Pro M5, and why would the Cupertino company? Your “pro” ultraportable continues to define what a premium PC should be. If some of its PC competitors have become good, even very good (and sometimes even better, in autonomy, for example), none at the moment offer this overall, balanced experience, without any major flaws. More than enough power for most uses, both with mains and battery, appreciable silence, good autonomy, ergonomics that does not need lessons from anyone, a panel that is not OLED but that fulfills its function perfectly and, finally, an exceptional keyboard.
Waiting for the next revolution, the Macbook Pro M5 is an excellent candidate for the title of ideal companion for nomads who need a little more than a Macbook Air, although its price will make you shudder (1,799 euros, anyway), and even a little more, when you will also have to add a power adapter to the bill.
Source: BFM TV
