While they've been overshadowed in the press by the introduction of the new, entry level MacBook Neo, Apple introduced new MacBook Pros as well. Dan Moren covers the basics well over at Six Colors:
Apple debuts MacBook Pros with M5 Pro, M5 Max chips
Day two of March’s Apple product extravaganza, uh, marches on with the announcement of MacBook Pro models bearing new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, updated wireless capabilities, and both more and…
While these could be dismissed as just the same thing with new processors, there are a few other upgrades worth taking note of. First, the storage speeds are just bonkers: these new MBPs have double the already blazing speeds of the SSDs in the previous generation M4-based MBPs. They also have faster memory bandwidth, and the new N1 chip, which adds WiFi 7.
A personal detour
I've been a long-time laptop-as-main-computer guy, way before it was cool—or wise: my first go at the portable main computer was the PowerBook 1400cs. Of course, PowerBooks and then MacBook Pros have been the form factor for many years.
However, when the Mac Studio debuted, I thought I might give a real desktop a spin. Since COVID, I'm mostly working from home, after all. I bought a Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra, and it was certainly a worthwhile machine. But I did get a bit frustrated with having my portable machine, whether an iPad Pro or a MacBook Air, not have my stuff on it, especially my dev environment. Last year, I sold my Mac Studio in favor of another experiment: I started maining a 13" M4 MacBook Air, maxxed out with 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD. It's a great computer, and the portability/form factor is awesome.
But: you know how I've mentioned a couple of times that I've been working on a new tool for maintaining this website? That tool I've been making is a Mac-native app (with accompanying iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS counterparts). And you know what takes a crap-ton of horsepower? Native app development. Here's how it's been going:
Full circle
If you read my last article on the XDR, you'll see a parallel: my computing life has been a bit of an experiment the past 3 or so years. (And I haven't even gone into the experiment with a Framework Desktop running Omarchy Linux, with a side of Windows 11!) With my monitor sorted—and being almost happy with my journey away from MacBook Pros—I've decided I want the horsepower, so it's time to stop screwing around and come home.
Sold: the Framework machine. For sale: the M4 MBA. Incoming: a 14" MacBook Pro with the M5 Max. I'm sure I'll have more to say once I spend some time compiling and running test suites on it.