What a huge week it has been! On Monday, Apple confirmed that Google Gemini would power the next-generation Siri in hopes of making Siri finally smarter, and on Tuesday, Apple introduced the newest subscription bundle of its pro creative apps: Apple Creator Studio. Now, we’re getting closer to the end of the week, so I don’t expect any more announcements for this week, but what if Apple is planning to release new MacBook Pros with the M5 Pro/Max chips later this month? If you think about it, it does seem plausible, and here’s why.
Last October, Apple introduced the next-generation M5 chip (just the base chip), and the 14-inch MacBook Pro was the first (and as of today, the only) Mac to feature the M5 chip. The M5 chip is arguably the best leap in Apple Silicon since the original M1 chip, as it features significant GPU performance gains over the M4. This is made possible thanks to having a redesigned GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in every GPU core. Combined with a faster CPU/Neural Engine and higher unified memory bandwidth, the M5 chip is just leaps ahead in both performance and efficiency.
Apple has yet to release the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips that will build upon the base M5’s architecture by having more CPU/GPU cores, and for both of those upcoming chips, it has been reported that they will take a more discrete approach by separating the CPU and GPU in an effort to boost production yields. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will certainly introduce the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and it would be perfect timing for Apple to update those machines to coincide with the launch of Apple Creator Studio, which will launch on Wednesday, January 28.
If you remember, Apple did update the MacBook Pro around this time before. Back in June 2022, Apple introduced the M2 chip, and that chip debuted on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Fast forward to 2023, Apple updated its higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with the introduction of the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.
This is just pure speculation, but other sources like 9to5Mac and MacRumors seem to have backed up their theories likewise.
Only time will tell whether we’ll see new MacBook Pros later this month, and I can also expect Apple to introduce a new Black Unity watch band sometime this month as well.
