Last October, Apple updated the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 chip, making this Mac the first Mac to feature the next generation of Apple Silicon. Today, both the MacBook Air and the higher-end MacBook Pro followed suit: the M5 chip for the MacBook Air and the M5 Pro and the M5 Max chips for the higher-end MacBook Pro. You would think that the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 is a nice step-up from the 15-inch MacBook Air with M5 in terms of pricing, right?
That’s when things start to look odd. You see, Apple introduced its own N1 wireless networking chip on the iPhone 17 lineup and the iPad Air, and that chip later made its way to the iPad Pro (M5), the just-announced iPad Air (M4), and now the MacBook Air with M5 and the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max. However, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, even though it has the latest M5 chip, lacks the N1 chip. This means if you’re going to opt for the base 14-inch MacBook Pro instead of the 15-inch MacBook Air, you would lose out on the newer Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support that the N1 chip provides. If you really want that mini-LED display without sacrificing the modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards, then you would have to step up to the higher-end 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro. This makes the base 14-inch MacBook Pro the “odd middle child” all over again.
For years, Apple has had a “skimped-down” version of the smaller MacBook Pro. We’ve seen this kind of similar situation before. When Apple redesigned the MacBook Air to have a more modern design and a Retina display for the first time back in October 2018, it featured the T2 security chip that enabled Touch ID. Back then, the higher-end 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models had the same T2 security chip and Touch ID, but only the base 13-inch MacBook Pro, which had function keys instead of the controversial Touch Bar, lacked the T2 security chip and Touch ID.
For what it’s worth, the omission of the N1 chip is something to consider if you’re looking at the base 14-inch MacBook Pro. If you want to future-proof yourself by having the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards, you may need to look at the other models previously mentioned.
