Back in July, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple may move the ship date of the M5 MacBook Pro to 2026, a change from his previous reporting that the new laptops would appear before the end of this year. About two weeks ago, Gurman reported that the M5 MacBook Pro is “near mass production,” which suggests that we may see new laptops sooner rather than later.
However, a report by MaxTech’s Vadim Yuryev provides new insight as to why Gurman reported two different versions of the same story. It’s because, according to Yuryev, Apple is shipping only the base M5 MacBook Pro as soon as next week, along with an M5 iPad Pro and an M5 Vision Pro.
But, as you know, Apple offers the MacBook Pro with chip upgrades, the Max and Pro versions. What about those? According to Yuryev, Apple is introducing a new approach with those chips: the M5 Pro and M5 Max will feature separate CPU and GPU blocks, rather than the unified block found in previous M-series chips. This new design is the reason why the MacBook Pro equipped with these chips won’t be available until 2026. Apparantly, this new design requires a bit more time for Apple and TSMC (Apple’s chip maker) to produce.
The new chip design is an exciting development for the MacBook Pro. It would allow the customer more flexibility in configuring the CPU and GPU core setup. For example, you could decide to configure a MacBook Pro with a base CPU, but with a maxed-out GPU, and create a laptop that has a ton of graphics horsepower. It’s a boon for professionals who need as much GPU power as they can get. Also, AI developers will benefit too, since AI software often takes advantage of the GPU’s parallel processing.
If this is the case–the base M5 MacBook Pro will ship next week, while the more powerful versions will appear next year–it will certainly make the MacBook Pro a much more interesting laptop. Until the new laptop ships, check out our regularly updated M5 MacBook Pro superguide.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He's also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.