As I mentioned earlier, I ended up ordering a new MacBook Pro. I got the 14″ model with the M5 Max, 64GB RAM, and 2TB storage. I’d have loved to go to 128GB and/or 4TB, but I just had to draw the line somewhere—this was $4300 as it was. But never mind that: This machine is a beast.
I previously had a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and, purely subjectively, this MacBook Pro beats it hands down. The only thing the Mac Studio did better was keep quiet—the fans on this one do spin up when I’m building and running the test suite on my app in Xcode. But remember how I said that the Xcode work was kicking my MacBook Air’s ass? Well, while the MBP does spin up its fans and get all of its cores going at 100%, it does so for just a few moments, whereas the MBA took minutes at 100%. The MBA is a great machine—more than enough for just about anything, really—but this machine trounces it when the going gets rough.
I just read Antonio G. Di Benedetto’s review of the MacBook Pro at The Verge, and came away a little confused. The report card is almost all “A”s, and the review itself is very positive, but the review score is an 8. Based on my week of owning it and putting it through its paces, I’d call it a 9. If they allowed fractional reviews, I’d probably even go to 9.5.
The new MacBook Pro is still fast as hell
How big of an upgrade is it for M1 Pro / M1 Max owners?
The only dings I’ve come up with are the cost, which is significant, especially once you really start to get to the top spec in RAM and storage. But this machine really is at the top of its class. And I don’t mean that just as a Mac, but compared to anything out there: there’s not a Windows- or Linux-based machine I’ve come across at any price that matches this quality of this thing physically, with its Retina display, its dare I say perfect rtrackpad, the excellent keyboard, and solid, tank-like aluminum unibody. And the performance is up there with the absolute best as well. So, of course it commands a premium. Still, I’d be willing to knock some tenths of a point off for its eyebrow-raising price tag.
The fan noise and heat are likewise worth a minor deduction, but the machine stays cool and quiet until you’re really pushing it to its limits, so I find it acceptable. The higher-end Windows machines I’ve used spin up their fans way more quickly and loudly than the MBP does, and they just don’t feel nearly as solid or premium.
I might argue, if I were picking nits, that the design is getting a little long in the tooth, and there’s a rumored redesign coming with the M6 generation, that might bring an OLED-based screen among other changes. That would be a welcome update, but this current form has been refined to near perfection, and I can’t bring myself to even consider deducting any credit due to it.
And that’s about it for the cons list. I don’t have a ten-point ratings scale, and I don’t give fractional stars, so I have to call it five stars. It’s truly the best Mac I’ve ever used (and I’ve used a lot of Macs), and there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s the best laptop ever made, period.