As is Apple’s custom, from the strange land of Cupertino, California, there will undoubtedly be three versions of the MacBook Pro M5. The regular, schmegular MacBook Pro M5 launched last month, and you can already take it home. So where the heck are the two higher-spec MacBook Pros?
Thanks to some good, old-fashioned internet-driven rumor-mongering and Apple-whispering, we have some idea. Just keep the salt shaker handy.
Apple
MacBook Pro M5 (opens in a new window)
Available at Apple
Buy Now (opens in a new window)
Available at Amazon
Buy Now (opens in a new window)
The three MacBook Pro levels:
I’ll cut to the chase: It’s unusual for Apple not to release all versions at once. Why this is happening, we can only guess, but we have a rough idea of when to expect the stragglers to launch.
Noted Apple whisperer and analyst, Bloomberg’s own Mark Gurman, has repeatedly referenced in his Power On newsletter lately an early 2026 release date for the pair of tardy MacBook Pros.
Because Apple just can’t stop falling in love with the word “Pro” and slapping it onto everything, sometimes even twice in one name, the whole MacBook Pro lineup has become quite possibly the most confusing in the tech space.
Somewhere in Cupertino, there are children swinging around on a merry-go-round, trying and probably failing to say “MacBook Pro M5 Pro” five times fast. So then, listen up:
There are three sub-levels of the MacBook Pro M5 available, each denoted by the version of the Apple-designed M5 chip packed within. There’s the standard, base-level MacBook Pro M5 that comes with the M5 chip, which is available to buy right now at a starting price of $1,599.
Then, as has been the custom for the past few generations of the MacBook Pro M4, there’s the mid-range MacBook Pro M5 Pro (ugh) that has the M5 Pro chip, an upgraded version of the M5 chip. If past convention holds, this is the version I’m most interested in, since it’d strike the right balance between an upgrade over the MacBook Air without costing you insane money.
At the top end, there’s the MacBook Pro M5 Max that comes with—you guessed it—the M5 Max chip. This is the one that all the professional video, photograph, and audio engineers will drool over.
It sucks that they’re late, but Apple is undoubtedly coming out with higher-spec versions of its MacBook Pro workhorse. It’ll just take a while. Now the tough part is deciding whether you should jump on the MacBook Pro M4 Pro or Max, which are fine laptops, or twiddle your thumbs for the next few months.
Apple
MacBook Pro M5 (opens in a new window)
Available at Apple
Buy Now (opens in a new window)
Available at Amazon
Buy Now (opens in a new window)
The post When Are the MacBook Pro M5 Pro and Max Coming? appeared first on VICE.
