Alongside its price-friendly iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air yesterday, Apple just announced a few updates to the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and its rarely-refreshed desktop display line.
The MacBook Air has now been updated to the latest M5 chip. It’s a fairly modest upgrade, but it brings it up to speed with Apple’s latest processor that debuted in the MacBook Pro last fall. There are no other major hardware changes—it now comes with 512 GB of starting storage with “faster SSD technology”—but you can still get the Air in either a 13- or 15-inch screen size.
This laptop also features Apple’s N1 wireless chip, which includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for the latest connectivity standards. It still comes with the standard 16 GB of RAM, and sadly, there’s a $100 price bump to account for the extra storage. It now starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch model and $1,299 for the 15-inch model. Apple says you can preorder it tomorrow, with sales kicking off on March 11.
More interestingly, Apple is expanding the M5 chip series with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, now available in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Like previous generations of Apple silicon, the “Pro” and “Max” configurations add significantly improved multi-core CPU and graphics performance.
The M5 Pro and M5 Max can be configured with up to 18 CPU cores (12 performance cores and 6 “super” cores), up from 16 on the M4 Max. The M5 Pro can scale up to 20 GPU cores, while the M5 Max extends up to 40 GPU cores. Thanks to higher memory bandwidth, more efficient Neural Engine, and improved GPU architecture, Apple says the M5 Pro and M5 Max have “over 4X the peak CPU compute for AI” compared to the last generation and offer 20 percent better GPU performance.
The new MacBook Pros don’t include any other hardware changes; things have stayed largely the same since 2021—same port selection, Mini-LED display, speakers, and webcam. Even the claimed 24-hour battery life hasn’t changed from the M4 models, which came out in late 2024. Interestingly, as recently as last week, Bloomberg reported that Apple plans to launch a more significant update to the MacBook Pro later this fall, which will reportedly debut the M6 chip, an OLED touchscreen, and a thinner chassis.
Like the MacBook Air, all versions of the M5 Pro or M5 Max MacBook Pros come with twice the storage and a slightly higher starting price. Coming with 1 TB, the 14-inch M5 Pro now starts at $2,199, and the 16-inch model at $2,699. That’s $200 more than last year’s machines. Meanwhile, M5 Max prices start at $3,599.
Apple began rolling out its M5 chip in October 2025, but it was limited to just the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro. Other Macs still awaiting an M5 update include the iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Mini.
The Return of the Studio Display
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Lastly, Apple also introduced two new versions of the Studio Display computer monitor, both still coming in at 27 inches. It has been four years since Apple updated the original Studio Display. It’s still a 27-inch, 5K screen with standard LED backlighting. The main change is the improved 12-megapixel camera and two Thunderbolt 5 ports in the back.
The higher-end Studio Display XDR replaces the Pro Display XDR, despite being smaller and lower resolution. Like the standard model, it has a 5K resolution, but it now comes with a 120-Hz refresh rate and mini-LED backlighting. That gets it up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness and improved contrast and color performance over the standard model.
The 27-inch Studio Display still costs $1,599, while the Studio Display XDR is $3,299. Like the laptops, the new monitors are up for preorder starting on March 4 and available in-person at Apple Stores starting on March 11.
This is a developing story.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: wired.com
