Apple just upgraded the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro with M5 silicon

Apple has announced a new model of the iPad Pro upgraded with the new M5 processor, alongside an M5 Vision Pro and a 14in MacBook Pro. Instead of holding an event to unveil its shiny new toys, though, the surprise announcements were made via press release. That suggests these upgrades represent more of a spec bump than a full-on overhaul.

Indeed, other than the M5 chip, the only differences between the M5 iPad Pro and the M4 model are the new Apple-developed C1X cellular chip and the N1 wireless networking chip, the latter adding Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread capabilities. Apple also says the new networking chip improves the performance of features such as AirDrop and Personal Hotspot, too.

The M5 MacBook Pro, too, is no different in design or features to its predecessor, although Apple only appears to be upgrading the 14in model.

So what does this latest M5 chip add over the M4? In the iPad Pro, it comes in two flavours with a 9- or 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and it has a beefier 16-core Neural Engine as well, to enhance the tablet’s AI capabilities. The M5 MacBook Pro comes with a 10-core CPU as standard.

Assuming you’re getting the top-spec M5 in whatever device you buy, you’re getting four performance cores and six efficiency cores here in what is according to Apple, the “world’s fastest CPU core”.

However, the main focus with M5 seems to be on graphics and AI performance and the the GPU in particular, which has been redesigned to incorporate dedicated AI “accelerators” in each of its ten cores.

The ugrades, Apple says, amount to improvements in performance across the board. 3D rendering is up to 1.5x faster than with the M4. Video transcode performance is up to 1.2x quicker. On-device AI image generation is up to 2x faster, while AI video upscaling is up to 2.3x faster than with the M4. Other improvements include an increase in memory bandwidth – a 30% bump over the M4 – and double the storage performance.

It all seems geared towards bringing the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro together as two equally qualified video-editing, AI creativity powerhouses. More than ever it seems Apple wants you to consider the iPad as a full-on alternative to the MacBook Pro, especially with the improvements to the device’s windowing system that were introduced with iOS 26.

With that in mind, it seems odd that the company remains insistent on not bundling the keyboard in the price, especially as this price is so high. The iPad Pro costs from £999 and the 13in from £1,199 (Wi-Fi, and tablet only) but the keyboard will add at least £299 to the price of the 11in tablet and £349 to the price of the 13in. The 14in M5 MacBook Pro, meanwhile, is on sale from £1,599.

If those prices don’t put you off, you can preorder and of the new products from today on the Apple website, or wait until Wednesday 22 October for them to hit the shops.

Written By

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

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