If you’re in the market for one of Apple’s best MacBooks, the MacBook Pro should be top of your list. The latest M4 MacBook Pro brought some significant improvements to the range, and with the M4 MacBook Air just around the corner, you might be wondering what Apple has up its sleeve for the next MacBook Pro in the pipeline.
That model — complete with Apple’s upcoming M5 chip — is an intriguing prospect. Will Apple offer a total revamp, or will it be a more modest upgrade? What can we expect from the M5 chip? And will Apple finally launch its first OLED MacBook Pro when the M5 chip makes its debut?
We’ve examined these ideas and many more to bring you everything we know about the M5 MacBook Pro. Read on to find out what could be on the way.
When might we see it?
Apple typically introduces new MacBook Pro models in October, and that’s been the case for the M1, M3 and M4 models, which arrived in 2021, 2023 and 2024, respectively. And while the M2 MacBook Pro launched in January 2023, it was widely rumored that this was a delay from an originally planned release date of October 2022.
This time, there’s no reason to believe that Apple will pick anything other than October 2025 for its M5 MacBook Pro. Mark your diaries for that timeframe.
That would make it the first Apple product to launch with the M5 chip, as the M5 iPad Pro is now expected to hit store shelves in the first half of 2026. That’s a reversal of the pattern with the M4 chip, which made its way into the iPad Pro before the MacBook Pro.
There’s no word on pricing yet, but given the M5 MacBook Pro is expected to be a small update (more on that later), keeping the same $1,599 starting price as the current model would make sense. There’s a chance that US government tariffs could affect the price, but by how much (and if at all) is anyone’s guess.
Design: A familiar look and feel
Put simply, a major redesign of the MacBook Pro is unlikely this year. We’ve heard plenty of rumors that the M6 MacBook Pro due out in 2026 could be a “true overhaul,” with a thinner chassis and an OLED display, and that seems to preclude anything significant happening this year.
Apple tends to space out its major design revamps. For instance, the last big MacBook Pro overhaul was in 2021, while the M4 model released last year came with lots of feature changes, including an improved webcam, more memory, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.
Given Apple’s tendency to wait a few years between design changes — and with the aforementioned overhaul expected in 2026 — serious updates to the outward appearance of the laptop don’t seem to be in the cards for the M5 model.
Performance and features
Without much in the way of design alterations, the main improvement we’re anticipating in this year’s MacBook Pro is the arrival of the M5 chip. This will probably be a fairly incremental upgrade of around 15%-25% over the M4. Given past patterns, the MacBook Pro will almost certainly also get the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the M5 series will be made using manufacturer TSMC’s N3P method. This is a 3nm process (like that used to make the M4 chip series), albeit with TSMC’s System on Integrated Chip (SoIC) tech that allows chip components to be stacked in 3D space and results in improved thermal management. But if you’re waiting for a 2nm process and the performance increase it will bring, you probably won’t find that in the M5 chip.
You also shouldn’t hold your breath for an OLED display, as the OLED MacBook Pro isn’t anticipated to launch before 2026. That’s also the case with Apple’s in-house 5G modem that appeared in the recent iPhone 16e. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman believes Apple is considering adding a modem to its MacBooks, but it seems like that’s still several years away from coming to fruition.
In more positive news, there’s a good chance that the entry-level M5 MacBook Pro will be outfitted with Thunderbolt 5 ports for improved data transfer speeds. You can get that tech in the current MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, but it’s missing from the base-level M4 version.
We’ve also heard that future MacBook Pro models could get Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, but that doesn’t seem to be something we’ll see in the M5 MacBook Pro. The technology is very new and adoption has been slow, and while it’s present in the iPhone 16 range, Apple doesn’t appear to be in any rush to add it to the MacBook Pro. Given the lack of solid rumors that are saying it will happen imminently, we feel we can rule this one out for now.
