Apple unveils M5-powered upgrades for the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro

• M5 iPad Pro
• M5 MacBook Pro
• M5 Vision Pro

Just a little over a month since Apple announced the iPhone 17 series, the Cupertino-based company is back at it again with new products, this time announcing new iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro models.

All three of Apple’s new devices are powered by Apple’s latest M5 chipset, which the company says has “the world’s fastest CPU core” and offers performance gains across the board. Overall, the design of both the M5 iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro are nearly identical to their predecessors, and this is mainly just a chipset refresh. All of them are up for pre-order now, and launch on October 22.

The M5 iPad Pro is available in both 11-inch and 13-inch screen sizes, with the 11-inch model starting at $1,000 and the 13-inch model starting at $1,300, both with 256GB of storage. On the other hand, the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,600 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

This is the first time Apple has refreshed the Vision Pro since it launched in early 2024, and for the M5 model, the company has kept the price the same at $3,500 for the 256GB model.

M5 iPad Pro

Starting with the iPad Pro, Apple is touting that its new M5 chipset delivers “the most advanced iPad experience ever,” thanks to its performance enhancements, with a particular emphasis on a boost in AI workloads and graphics. Apple claims the M5 iPad Pro delivers 3.5x faster AI performance compared to the M4 chipset, and 5.6x faster than the M1. The M5 chipset in the iPad Pro has 10 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, and 16 Neural Engine Cores.

Aside from the M5 chip, Apple has upgraded the amount of RAM in the iPad Pro to 12GB of unified memory, a 50 percent increase from the M4 iPad Pro, which had 8GB. Apple is also touting that the M5 iPad Pro has twice as fast storage read and write speeds, and faster charging. When paired with Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Adapter with 60W Max, it can charge up to 50 percent in approximately 30 minutes. Looking at the design of the M5 iPad Pro, it’s identical to the M4 iPad Pro, and is available in the same colors: silver and space black.

M5 MacBook Pro

With the release of the M5 MacBook Pro, it seems Apple’s release strategy for the MacBook Pro is changing. Last year, when Apple dropped the M4 MacBook Pro lineup, it also announced an M4 Pro and M4 Max variant of the MacBook Pro, alongside an entry-level M4 model. This time around, Apple has only announced an M5 variant coming out on October 22, with the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro rumored to launch next year.

Looking at the new M5 MacBook Pro, it’s a similar tale to the M5 iPad Pro. The design of the MacBook Pro is identical to its M4 predecessor, with the only big overarching change being that it’s now powered by the M5 chipset.

“MacBook Pro continues to be the world’s best pro laptop, and today, the 14-inch MacBook Pro gets even better with the arrival of the M5 chip,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, in a press release. “M5 marks the next big leap in AI for the Mac and delivers a huge boost in graphics performance, accelerating demanding workflows for everyone from students to creatives, developers to business professionals, and more.”

M5 Vision Pro

Apple first launched its Vision Pro headset back in February 2024. If you were hoping for a refresh with a newer, lighter design or a cheaper price, unfortunately, that’s not the case with the new M5 Vision Pro. Like the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, the only big change here for the Vision Pro is the M5 chipset, which Apple claims will enhance the experience of using a Vision Pro, thanks to the faster performance and increased battery life it unlocks.

The M5 Vision Pro starts at $3,500, the same price as the first Vision Pro headset Apple released, which had an M2 chipset. While, thankfully, it hasn’t gone up in price, it still burns quite a huge hole in your wallet. Apple did also announce a new Dual Kit Band that comes with the M5 Vision Pro that will make it more comfortable to wear (which you can see in the image above).