Apple has unveiled its latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, featuring its next-generation M5, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, delivering “blazing-fast” performance for the most demanding of music projects.
The new MacBook Pro comes in 14- and 16-inch configurations, with the former available with an M5, M5 Pro or M5 Max chip, and the latter with an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip. Meanwhile the fresh MacBook Air comes in 13- and 15-inch options, with the M5 chip as standard in both.
These machines – the new MacBook Pro, in particular – are squarely aimed at professionals seeking the most up-to-date and technologically capable laptop for their most demanding projects. So for musicians and music producers working with complex and CPU-intensive projects on the regular, they’ll come as a tantalising prospect.
Should you consider the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air as a music producer?
Any of us who work with modern music software are well aware of its CPU demands, particularly when you get into complex-project territory with lots of tracks and plugins all operating simultaneously.
You’ll also sympathise with the feeling that a machine that felt fast and capable when you bought it seems to grow slower over time as new software is released with greater and greater system requirements.
These new MacBook models and their respective M5 chips arrive as the most up-to-date and advanced of Apple’s current lineup, and promise to comfortably handle even the most demanding of DAW projects.
Generally, music production isn’t quite as taxing on a computer as other disciplines like video editing, with the latter placing relatively greater demands on the machine’s CPU and GPU. The case could be made therefore that for many producers, the latest MacBooks and their chips – particularly the M5 Pro and M5 Max – might be a little overkill. Unless you’re working with incredibly complex projects – with stacks of CPU-intensive plugins running in tandem – you’ll probably get by just fine with one of Apple’s older MacBooks.
Generally, as a minimum requirement for music production, you’ll want your machine to have a quad-core processor and at least 8GB RAM (16GB is generally recommended). The new MacBooks’ M5 chips feature up to 18 cores, with “unified memory” – meaning the CPU, GPU and RAM are all on a single chip – starting at 24GB or 36GB. So it’s more than enough, put it that way.
That said, you can never have too much processing power, so if you’ve got the cash to spend, nabbing a one of the new M5-equipped MacBooks could be a smart way to future-proof your workflow for years to come.
New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air – features at a glance
The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips found in the new MacBook Pro feature Apple-designed Fusion Architecture and are “engineered from the ground up for AI”, Apple says. They feature up to 18 cores, with six super cores (“the world’s fastest core”) and 12 new performance cores, optimised for “multithreaded pro workloads” and delivering up to 30% faster performance.
Elsewhere, the new MacBook Pro promises up to 2x faster read/write performance than the previous generation, with speeds up to 14.5GB/s.
In terms of storage, the M5 Pro-equipped MacBook Pro comes with 1TB of storage as standard, while the M5 Max-equipped MacBook Pro comes with 2TB. Meanwhile, the 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with 1TB storage.
It’s worth noting, too, that the previous generation M4 Pro-equipped MacBook Pro started with 512GB storage, so considering the ever-increasing size of music software libraries, the new generation MacBook Pro could be a solid future-proofing option.
Elsewhere, you get a best-in-class Liquid Retina XDR display and a host of connectivity including three Thunderbolt 5 ports, 8K compatible HDMI, an SDXC card slot for quick media import, and MagSafe 3 charger port for fast charging.
Meanwhile, the new MacBook Air comes with a 10-core M5 chip with a Neural Accelerator in each core for enhanced workflows, plus 512GB starting storage and a Liquid Retina display, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Both the new MacBook Pro and MacBook feature a wealth of specs geared towards AI and LLM processing in a range of disciplines from image generation and video editing to music production.
New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air – pricing and availability
- MacBook Pro 14-inch with M5 Pro – starts at $2,199 / $2,049 for education
- MacBook Pro 16-inch with M5 Pro – starts at $2,699 / $2,499 for education
- MacBook Pro 14-inch with M5 Max – starts at $3,599 / $3,299 for education
- MacBook Pro 16-inch with M5 Max – starts at $3,899 / $3,599 for education
- MacBook Air 13-inch with M5 – starts at $1,099 / $999 for education
- MacBook Air 15-inch with M5 – starts at $1,299 / $1,199 for education
All models are available for pre-order now, with Apple promising the first models to be delivered to customers and available in Apple Store locations and at Apple Authorized Resellers starting Wednesday, 11 March.
The MacBook Pro in all configurations comes in both space black and silver, while the MacBook Air comes in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver.
Learn more at the Apple Newsroom.
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