Apple’s new M5 processor has just been unveiled and it goes on sale in a matter of days in three different products: Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch, Apple iPad Pro and Apple Vision Pro — all available to pre-order now, going on sale on Wednesday, Oct. 22. Here are five cool details you might have missed.
1. It’s The World’s Fastest CPU
That’s what Apple says, though that doesn’t mean it’s a better buy than the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro, for some users. Apple says that the M4 Pro has more cores both in the CPU and GPU. To translate: the M5, M4 Pro and M4 Max all excel in different use cases. If users have especially demanding workloads, then the higher core counts and higher memory bandwidth mean that the M4 Pro and M4 Max are especially skilled for the kinds of tasks they were designed for.
What is certain is that the M5 chip is faster than the M4 processor it replaces. And since the fastest chip available in any iPad until this week was the M4 chip in the iPad Pro, the new iPad Pro with M5 is also definitely faster. Apple says the new iPad Pro is up to 3.5x faster than the last one for AI performance, for instance.
2. Chargergate
As you may have heard, if you are about to buy the new MacBook Pro in the EU or the U.K., there won’t be an adapter in the box any more. While it’s true that it’s not illegal to include such a charger, Apple has said that it’s made the change to get ahead of upcoming EU legislative changes.
The U.K. is not in the EU any more, of course, but as with some other changes, manufacturers find it more cost-effective to pair the U.K. with EU legislation, so it could be that which is driving the alignment here.
U.K. and EU users still get a two-meter USB-C to MagSafe cable in the box. U.S. users get the cable and a charging plug, as before.
3. iPad Pro Modem And Wi-Fi
One of the surprise announcements was the arrival of the Apple-designed C1X modem for cellular iPads Pro. The C1X was released last month for the iPhone Air. It promises 50% faster cellular data performance than the last iPad Pro with M4. It will also have 30% less power usage.
The iPad Pro introduces Wi-Fi 7, an upgrade the new MacBook Pro hasn’t seen.
The M5 chip also includes a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators and a faster 16-core Neural Engine which is designed to enhance AI tasks, whether that’s generative imagery or token generation for LLMs. Again, the translation is that AI tasks are promised to fly with the new processor.
4. iPad Pro: No, There’s Still Only One Front-Facing Camera
Several rumors claimed there would be two front-facing cameras on the new iPad Pro. There aren’t. Just one, in the landscape edge.
5. Extra RAM, Same Price
If you’re choosing an iPad Pro with 256GB or 312GB storage, the unified memory has now gone up from 8GB to 12GB. However, if you plump for the 1TB or 2TB storage, there’s 16GB of RAM. Plus, new storage technology promises faster read/write storage speeds.
Both these elements will complement the M5 processor.
