AppleIn short: if you're still on an Intel Mac or switching over from Windows, the M5 MacBook Pro is an excellent, extremely long-lasting laptop with one of the best screens around, especially with the optional matte nano-texture coating. If you already own an M3 or M4 MacBook Pro, every reviewer we've drawn on says the same thing — this generation isn't worth the money. The gains are real (roughly 10-20% faster, SSD speeds nearly doubled) but modest, and the design hasn't changed since 2021. Here's what independent testing found.
Buy it if…
- You're switching from an Intel Mac or from Windows and want the longest battery life and best build quality available in this class
- You do a lot of work in bright rooms or near windows and would benefit from the nano-texture matte display option
- You want the best all-round laptop speakers and microphones currently on the market
Skip it if…
- You already own an M3 or M4 MacBook Pro — every outlet we've drawn on says this generation isn't worth upgrading for
- You want an OLED display or a laptop with a design refresh
- You're on a tight budget — the Dell 14 Premium and similar rivals undercut it on price with comparable or better specs on paper
Price last checked: 28 July 2026
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What's good
- Class-leading, sustained battery life — 18 to 21+ hours depending on test, with no performance throttling on battery
- Optional nano-texture matte display coating is 'an absolute revelation' for reflection control, per Expert Reviews UK
- SSD speeds nearly doubled and CPU gains of roughly 10-20% over the M4 in independent benchmarks
- Outstanding six-speaker sound system — the loudest and cleanest Expert Reviews UK has measured on any laptop
- Beautifully solid, premium build with zero chassis flex
Worth knowing
- No external design changes since 2021 — base model is still limited to Thunderbolt 4, not the faster Thunderbolt 5 on pricier configurations
- No OLED display option, unlike some premium Windows rivals
- No webcam privacy shutter or quick on/off toggle
- No charger included in the UK/EU box — a 70W or 96W adapter costs an extra £59-£79
- Reviewers found the everyday, non-benchmark experience barely distinguishable from the M4 model
A closer look, category by category
Performance
Independent Geekbench 6 testing from Tom's Hardware put the M5 at roughly 10% faster single-core and 18% faster multi-core than the M4, with SSD speeds nearly doubling in a 25GB file-transfer test (1,917 vs 1,167 MBps). Expert Reviews UK's own media-conversion benchmark found a similar roughly 10% real-world uplift. But the consensus across TechRadar and Tom's Hardware is blunt: for everyday use — web browsing, documents, general responsiveness — 'it will probably be hard to notice any significant generational boost' over the M4. Both outlets explicitly advise M3 or M4 owners to skip this generation. Where the M5 does show a bigger jump is GPU-heavy work: Expert Reviews UK measured a 27% uplift in an OpenCL compute test.
Display
The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Mini-LED panel is largely unchanged in specification from recent generations, but the optional £150 nano-texture matte coating drew genuine praise from every outlet that tested it — Tom's Hardware called it 'worth the price of admission,' and Expert Reviews UK called it 'an absolute revelation' for cutting reflections, with only a small contrast trade-off in very bright light. Measured brightness varied significantly between outlets' own test methodologies (1,055 nits per Expert Reviews UK, 558 nits per Tom's Hardware), which is a reminder that lab figures depend heavily on how they're measured rather than a genuine discrepancy in the panel itself. The standing criticism, repeated by both Expert Reviews and TechRadar, is that there's still no OLED option, even as premium Windows rivals increasingly offer one.
Battery, keyboard and everyday use
This is where the M5 comfortably beats the field: Tom's Hardware measured 18 hours 14 minutes in its mixed-use test — 2.5 times the Dell 16 Premium's result despite that machine's larger battery — while TechRadar's video-loop test hit 21 hours 43 minutes with no throttling. Expert Reviews UK measured a marginally better result than the outgoing M4 in the same video test, effectively a wash generation to generation, but still class-leading versus Windows rivals either way. The keyboard and trackpad are unchanged and still rated among the best in the industry by Expert Reviews UK, and the six-speaker system was singled out by Tom's Hardware as 'one of the best you'll find on any laptop regardless of price.' The one real criticism: Expert Reviews UK flagged the lack of any physical webcam privacy shutter or quick disable toggle as 'far from ideal.'
AI features
Apple's headline pitch for the M5 is faster on-device AI processing via new 'Neural Accelerators' in each GPU core, with Apple claiming up to 4.6x faster LLM prompt processing than the M4 — a figure TechRadar notes Apple hasn't published clear testing methodology for. Consumer-facing AI tools like Genmoji and Image Playground were called 'inessential for most people' by TechRadar, though Live Translation was singled out as a genuinely useful, privacy-preserving exception. Expert Reviews UK frames the AI push differently — as infrastructure for professional local workloads like DaVinci Resolve's Magic Mask rather than consumer chatbot features — but even their own local AI benchmark found the M5 taking roughly twice as long as a Windows laptop with a dedicated Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU, concluding Apple 'still has some way to go, AI-wise.'
Price
The base M5 configuration (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) currently starts at £1,699 in the UK, up £100 on the original £1,599/512GB launch price, though storage doubled at the same time. Configuration upgrades add up quickly: +£200 for 24GB RAM, +£200 more for 32GB, and further storage jumps cost £200-£1,200 depending on tier. Expert Reviews UK found a base-spec unit selling for £1,396.98 on Amazon UK against its £1,599 RRP at the time of testing — worth checking live retailer pricing rather than assuming RRP, and remembering that UK/EU boxes don't include a charger.
Price last checked: 28 July 2026Real-world use cases
All-day mobile work away from a charger
This is the M5's clearest strength — 18-21+ hours of measured battery life comfortably outlasts every Windows rival tested alongside it, with no performance penalty when unplugged.
Editing photos or video by a window
The optional nano-texture display option was praised specifically for how much it reduces glare and reflections, making it a strong pick for anyone who works in bright, naturally lit rooms.
Upgrading from an M3 or M4 MacBook Pro
This is where it's least compelling — reviewers are unanimous that the generational gains are too modest to justify the cost for anyone already on a recent Apple silicon MacBook Pro.
Where it sits in the market
The clearest rival is Dell's 14 Premium, which undercuts the MacBook Pro on price and includes Wi-Fi 7 as standard where the base M5 doesn't, though Tom's Hardware still measured the MacBook's screen brighter and its battery life roughly 2.5 times longer than the comparable Dell 16 Premium. Expert Reviews UK's own laptop-of-2025 favourite, the Honor MagicBook Pro 14, undercuts the MacBook significantly on specification for the price but 'doesn't look or feel quite as nice' — a value-versus-polish trade-off rather than an outright win either way. Within Apple's own range, the M5 Pro (from £2,199) and M5 Max (from £3,599) add Thunderbolt 5 and considerably more GPU power for buyers with heavier creative workloads.
How we reached this verdict
This verdict draws on full independent reviews from TechRadar, Tom's Hardware and Expert Reviews UK, each of which ran its own battery, brightness and performance benchmarks on a retail unit rather than relying on Apple's own claims. Where outlets' measured figures differ (screen brightness, exact battery-life hours), this is down to different test methodologies rather than a discrepancy in the hardware itself, and we've reported the range rather than picking one number. UK pricing is Apple's own current published pricing, checked July 2026.