Turning to the Mac, Apple on Tuesday updated the world’s most popular laptop, introducing the MacBook Air with an M5 chip. It also unveiled super-powered M5 Pro and M5 Max chips inside the MacBook Pro, a new Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR. The latest product introductions follow Monday’s announcement of a new M4-powered iPad Air and the all-new iPhone 17e , and we expect even more news during the rest of the week. The biggest highlight concerns the M5 chip used in these Macs. It promises superb performance and will only make Apple even more ascendant in terms of power and efficiency in its class. I’d argue these are now the best laptops money can buy. There are some slight price increases. For example, both the M5 Pro and M5 Max Macs cost roughly $200 more than their predecessors, while the M5 MacBook Air now starts at $1,099 rather than $999. That cost increase is balanced by the fact that you do get twice the storage as before in the basic models. Apple forges forward with M5 chips The M5 Pro and M5 Max are engineered for AI and built using the new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. The chip design combines two dies into a single system on a chip, promising tremendous performance boosts. M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new up-to-18-core CPU with 6 super cores, and 12 all-new performance cores, optimized for power-efficient, multithreaded pro workloads — altogether delivering up to 30% faster performance. The chip designs are remarkable in and of themselves, combining a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. Apple shared a few statistics to suggest what these chips deliver in performance terms: 30% increase in performance for pro tasks. 4X faster for AI operations. 35% increase in ray-tracing performance in contrast to the M4 Pro and M4 Max systems. Apple “M5 Pro and M5 Max are a monumental leap forward for Apple silicon, leveraging our new Fusion Architecture to scale the capabilities of Apple silicon while preserving its core tenets of performance, power efficiency, and unified memory architecture,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. “Both chips underscore our relentless pace of innovation.” Don’t let the dizzying array of data points confuse you. What they mean is that every single one of these Macs will deliver performance that’s considerably faster than the preceding models. The chips cement Apple’s growing reputation for offering the best and most performant systems in the world. Apple MacBook Air with M5 chip Apple seems to have impressed itself with the M5 MacBook Air, describing it as being up to 4x faster than the M4 model for AI functions and an astonishing 9.5x faster than the MacBook Air with an M1 chip. The move to M5 puts a huge amount of performance with the reach of most consumer users and will do nothing to dent growing demand for these Macs from among enterprise pros. “The new MacBook Air with M5 brings incredible performance and even more capability to the world’s most popular laptop,” said John Ternus, Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering. “With M5, MacBook Air powers through a wide range of tasks, from everyday productivity to creative workloads.” The M5 processor in the Air has a 10-core CPU. There’s an up-to-10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. Storage now starts with a 512GB SSD that promises about twice the read/write speeds of the last version of the Mac. The Macs are available with 13.6-in. or 15.3-in. Liquid Retina displays offering 500nits brightness and a 12MP camera. Connectivity includes an Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. You also get two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and MagSafe charging. They’re available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver and boast of up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge. Pre-orders begin March 4, with availability on March 11. As noted, prices start at $1,099. Apple MacBook Pro (M5 Pro and M5 Max) Aimed at professionals and capable of the heaviest tasks, the new MacBook Pro models are so highly specified they should munch through any task you throw at them.“MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what’s possible on a pro laptop, now up to 4x faster than the previous generation,” said Ternus. “With Neural Accelerators in the GPU, the new MacBook Pro enables professionals to run advanced LLMs on device and unlock capabilities that no other laptop can do — all while maintaining exceptional battery life,” he said. “Combined with even faster unified memory and storage, it empowers users to take their work even further, unleashing new possibilities and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.” You can also opt for the base 14-in. M5 MacBook Pro at prices from $1,699. The M5 processors are available with up to 18 CPU cores (6 super cores and 12 performance cores). There’s a next-gen GPU, each core with a Neural Accelerator for AI compute The new models are up to 4× faster with on-device AI vs. the previous gen and up to 8× faster than the M1 Pro/Max. Unified memory bandwidth is impressive — up to 64GB memory at 307 GBps on the M5 Pro, and up to 128GB memory at 614 GBps on the Mac Max. Storage starts at 1TB SSD for M5 Pro models, or 2TB SSD in the M5 Max machines. The SSD speeds are twice as fast as before. They feature a Liquid Retina XDR display with anano-texture option, a 12MP Center Stage camera, a studio-quality mic array and a 6-speaker system. Connectivity includes an Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and Thunderbolt 5 ports. Available in space black and silver, they deliver up to 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. Pre-orders begin March 4, with availability on March 11. The M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,699; M5 Pro models start at $2,199 and M5 Max costs from $2,699. Apple Apple’s new Studio Displays Of course, even if you use a notebook most of the time, there are times when it helps to do your computing on a larger screen — particularly when handling intensive professional tasks. That is what Apple’s two new displays are for, including a redesigned 27-in. Studio Display for everyday use, and a new 27-in. Studio Display XDR particularly targeted at pro workflows. The big changes in this generation include support for Thunderbolt 5 rather than the older Thunderbolt 3 Apple’s earlier displays supported. This lets you daisy-chain multiple displays and accessories and provides much higher bandwidth. The cameras are better, supporting features like Desk View, for instance. But the big leap in display tech is the move to Mini-LED with HDR. Use of this tech in the Studio Display XDR makes for dramatic improvements in contrast, black levels and HDR performance. It also means a bright display, which will be particularly useful for pro video editors, as will be the far faster and smoother 120Hz refresh in the high-end display. You also gain support for AdobeRGB, which these displays lacked until now. Eagle-eyed readers might note that the 5K LCD display in the standard model remains the same, but with much better tech. “Apple has led the industry in delivering the world’s most advanced displays for pros to do their life’s best work, and today we do that once again with the introduction of the new Studio Display family,” said Ternus, the man hotly-tipped to become the next Apple CEO . What are the specifications of the new displays? For the 27-in. Studio Display : A 5,120×2,880 5K Retina panel. 600 nits of brightness and P3 wide color. 12MP Center Stage camera and a studio-quality three-mic array. A six-speaker system with Spatial Audio designed for video calls, creative workflows, and immersive sound. Thunderbolt 5 with two downstream ports (to enable daisy-chaining), 2x USB-C ports, and up to 96W charging for notebooks via included cable. Tilt-adjustable stand standard, with tilt-and-height adjustable stand an optional extra. Nano-texture glass available for glare control . Price: $1,599, with pre-orders starting March 4 and availability on March 11. For the 27-in. Studio Display XDR (Pro Model) 5K Retina XDR with mini-LED backlight. 2,000 nits peak HDR brightness and 1,000 nits SDR. More than 2,000 local dimming zones for deep contrast. P3 + Adobe RGB wide color gamuts for professional workflows. 120Hz refresh rate with adaptive Sync for smoother motion and variable frame support. 12MP Center Stage camera, studio-quality three-mic array and a six-speaker system with Spatial Audio. DICOM medical imaging presets and optional Medical Imaging Calibrator (for diagnostic work, pending FDA clearance). Two Thunderbolt 5 ports, 2xUSB-C ports, and up to 140 W charging for larger notebooks. Tilt- and height-adjustable stand, with a VESA mount adapter available . Price: $3,299, with pre-orders starting March 4 and availability on March 11. Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe. Also, now on Mastodon .