The 0.7-pound reduction in the 16-inch model, combined with the M5 Pro chip, makes this laptop noticeably more portable for design and video professionals—without sacrificing battery life or power.
When Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro with a PROLED touchscreen and M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, attention inevitably centered on the display. That’s understandable: it’s the first Mac with a touchscreen, a tandem OLED panel with up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness and a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. However, for those of us who work with graphics and video, the most significant advantage isn’t on the surface—it’s what happens when you pick the machine up.
The Detail That Changes the Daily Experience
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR weighs exactly 4 pounds in its M5 Pro configuration. The previous generation, with a mini-LED display, weighed 4.7 pounds. That’s 0.7 pounds less—half a kilogram that disappears from your bag or backpack. Thickness is also reduced from 0.66 to 0.63 inches, and the chassis is slightly more compact in width and depth.
What matters is that this reduction didn’t come with cutbacks elsewhere. Battery life remains at up to 24 hours according to Apple’s official figures, and in independent testing the 16-inch model with M5 Pro reached 21 hours and 10 minutes of continuous Wi-Fi browsing. Memory goes up to 64 GB on the M5 Pro (128 GB with M5 Max), storage reaches 4 TB in the top M5 Pro configuration, and the display actually grew from 16.2 to 16.3 inches thanks to thinner bezels.
The M5 Pro: The Other Advantage You Can’t See
The performance leap over previous generations is measurable. Apple claims the M5 Pro delivers up to 3.7 times faster image generation with AI than the M4 Pro, and up to 3.9 times faster prompt processing for language models. In 3D rendering with Maxon Redshift, the improvement is up to 1.4 times over the M4 Pro.
For those working with video, there’s a particularly relevant detail: storage read and write performance doubles compared to the previous generation, reaching speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s. In practice, this translates into faster exports of 4K and 8K projects, and less waiting time when moving large files between disk and memory.
The Caveat Worth Knowing
Not everything is perfect. The starting price of the 16-inch model with M5 Pro is $3,399**, and a fully loaded configuration can exceed **$14,000. The 14-inch version starts at $2,899. It’s a considerable investment, though in line with the professional positioning of the lineup.
Another point to keep in mind: the touchscreen, while well implemented—macOS translates taps into clicks so existing applications work without adaptation—is not compatible with the Apple Pencil. For digital illustration, you’ll still need an iPad or an external graphics tablet.
Verdict
The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR and M5 Pro isn’t just an incremental update. The combination of less weight, the same battery life, and more power addresses a real problem for those who work away from the desk: portability without compromise. The touchscreen and OLED are welcome advances, but the true competitive advantage of this model is that you can carry it with you all day without feeling like you’re hauling a brick—and without running out of battery mid-afternoon. For a designer or video editor moving between the office, the studio, and the set, that matters more than any spec on a datasheet.
By: Nestor Castillo, ForAllTechNews Director