Club Benefits
With all the talk about the rumored cheap MacBook with A18 Pro, fewer people considered that the price of the other MacBooks might go up. I know that thought never crossed my mind, which feels pretty naive in hindsight. Because that's right, the prices of all three newly announced MacBooks are going up.
That's right, if you aim to pick up a new MacBook Air M5, MacBook Pro M5 Pro or MacBook Pro M5 Max, you're going to have to pay more compared to picking up their M4-powered counterparts. But how much more are we talking? Here's how much Apple has raised prices compared to the previous model.
MacBook Air M5 vs MacBook Air M4
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Starting price |
MacBook Air M4 13-inch | $999 |
MacBook Air M5 13-inch | $1,099 |
MacBook Air M4 15-inch | $1,199 |
MacBook Air M5 15-inch | $1,299 |
As you can see in the table above, both MacBook Air M5 models have had their prices increased by $100. This means that the cheapest available model is $1,099 for a 13-inch screen, while a 15-inch screen will cost you $1,299. That's compared to $999 and $1,199 for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air M4s.
It is worth noting that both MacBook Air M4 sizes were actually $100 cheaper than the M3 model. So, in effect, we're seeing the price normalize after a single-generation dip. Apple has also doubled the base storage from 256GB to 512GB, which makes the rebounded price a little easier to swallow.
Other changes this year include the addition of Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, vs Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, and a slightly smaller frame. The MacBook Air M5 is 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, compared to the M4's 13.4 x 9.5 x 0.4 inches, and as such weighs 0.6 lbs less at 2.7 lbs.
Our benchmarking test also noticed a big jump in performance. The M5 MacBook Air rocked in with a single-core score of 4,288 and a multi-core score of 17,926. A marked improvement of the 3,751 and 14,947 we recorded on the M4 model.
MacBook Pro M5 Pro vs MacBook Pro M4 Pro
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Starting price |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro (14-inch) | $1,999 |
MacBook Pro M5 Pro (14-inch) | $2,199 |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro (16-inch) | $2,499 |
MacBook Pro M5 Pro (16-inch) | $2,699 |
The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip is a little less lucky than the MacBook Air, with both sizes being subject to a $200 price increase. This means that while a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro chip would have cost you $1,999, the M5 Pro-equipped model now starts at $2,199. Meanwhile, the 16-inch model with M4 Pro started at $2,499, while the M5 Pro chip bumps that price up to $2,699.
Like the MacBook Air, this price increase also gets you increased storage space — starting at 1TB. Apple also promises that the new chip will offer up to 30% increase in CPU performance and a neural processor in each GPU core. This allows the M5 Pro chip to process Lange Language Model prompts up to 4 times faster than before.
There's also a custom wireless chip (Apple N1) that's capable of using Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for the first time. Ports also feature Thunderbolt 5, which offers triple the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4.
MacBook Pro M5 Max vs MacBook Pro M4 Max
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Starting price |
MacBook Pro M4 Max (14-inch) | $3,199 |
MacBook Pro M5 Max (14-inch) | $3,599 |
MacBook Pro M4 Max (16-inch) | $3,499 |
MacBook Pro M5 Max (16-inch) | $3,899 |
The new MacBook Pros with M5 Max chips are coming off far worse in the grand scheme of things. The Max chips command the highest price tags of any MacBook model, and the M5 Max chips are no exception. Unfortunately, the starting prices have risen by a whopping $400 compared to the M4 max models.
This means that a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max will start at $3,599, compared to $3,199 for an M4 Max-equipped model. Meanwhile, the 16-inch model is now starting at $3,899, up from $3,499. Which is, honestly, rather an insane amount of money — even for a chip as powerful as the M5 Max promises to be.
The upgrades are much the same as the M5 Pro chip. Storage now starts at 2TB, and you're looking at a performance increase of around 30%. Plus, you get the same neural processor in each GPU core, plus the custom N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Not to mention an upgrade to Thunderbolt 5.
Bottom Line
With RAM costs through the roof, and other rising production costs to contend with, A price increase was inevitable at some point. So it's no huge surprise that Apple went and upped the prices across the board. I'm not sure anyone was expecting a $400 increase for the M5 Max chip, though.
Even with all the upgrades you get, like increased base storage, that's a heck of a lot of money. Even by Apple standards.
Here's hoping that the rumored cheap MacBook, powered by the A18 Pro chipset, doesn't fall victim to the same issues. Or, at the very least, that Apple has accounted for that when manufacturing the laptop.
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