Should you buy Apple’s M5 iPad Pro or MacBook Pro? (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We just got a new iPad Pro and MacBook Pro and, well, they're pretty much the same as last year's. But that pretty much is actually covering up changes under the hood. Let's figure out who should add to cart and buy now and who should wait. The new M5 MacBook Pro that I've been testing is a great laptop. Faster than the previous generation, which made it great for video editing, multitasking, just all the little things. Really great display for watching movies, good speakers, great keyboard for typing crystal clear video calls on FaceTime. It's also great for Road Warriors as it hit over 19.5 hours on our looping 4K video test. I'm not calling the MacBook Pro a gaming laptop quite yet. That's more about the games that are available because of what's being released for Macs. Same great, really bright ProMotion screen as you've got on previous MacBook Pro, 14-inch and 16-inch models. The only flaws with the M5 MacBook Pro are the same flaws with, well, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 from last year. So you don't have an OLED screen yet. It's still on the iPad Pro only. You still don't have cellular. You still don't have a touchscreen. It still doesn't even have Face ID like the iPhone does. Bigger story here is that it's only available in 14 inches. The only real problem is that the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is that friend who's always early to the party and it's a little lonely. Right now, all we have is the regular base M5 14-inch MacBook Pro. That means the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the enemy of airplane seatback trades and the Pro and Mac powerful chips aren't here yet. If you buy the MacBook Pro because it has a brighter screen, smoother ProMotion, better ports, go ahead and get the M5 if you need a new laptop. These are great laptops. I speak from experience as the owner of a 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro and it's still kicking strong four years later. If you have an M1 Pro or later, you're probably good with what you have unless you're hitting a wall, in which case you probably want to wait to see what's going on with the Pro and Mac series chips and the 16-inch model. I timed how long it would take this MacBook Pro and others to export a new file made up of 24.17 gigabytes of 4K video files. The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro beat this M5 chip, so the workhorse stays a champion. That's why some people will be waiting for the M5 Pro and the M5 Max versions, but I think the M5 chip will have enough power and speed for many people. If you need a new MacBook Pro right now, I really can't tell you to not get the 14-inch M5 model unless you want all the brawn for all the high intense graphics and whatnot and all the processing, but for 4K video editing, light gaming, and various other things, I've thought the MacBook Pro M5 was great.

[00:02:47] Speaker 2: The iPad Pro M5 is identical to last year's model on the design front. This is an incredibly thin and light. It's actually thinner than the iPad Air. I've got the 11-inch model here. There's also a 13-inch. Either way, it's very, very portable. OLED finally came to the iPad Pro last year, and that has remained the case with this year's model, and it's got all the things that make OLED great. That super rich color, that really satisfying contrast, and then you couple that with the returning 120 hertz ProMotion display that just makes swiping and scrolling a lot more fluid and satisfying, and you've got probably the best tablet display ever. The one change with the iPad Pro M5 this year is that M5 chip packed inside, so you're getting an even faster version of what is already the most absurdly fast tablet out there. I used this thing as my main work machine for about a week. All of it ran without a hitch, so if you're looking to use an iPad Pro for that purpose, this does it as well as ever. You're looking at about a 13% gain over last year, but you'll notice a way bigger difference if you're coming from an M1 iPad Pro or older, and especially compared to the other current iPads, you're looking at up to three times as fast. So if you want a great productivity tablet, this continues to be the best one. Another thing that made the iPad Pro viable for me to actually do my work is the improved windowed app experience. You can finally kind of freely move your windowed apps around. You will probably want the 13-inch model if you plan on using that type of feature. This 11-inch screen gets cramped. Again, this is not a one-to-one laptop replacement, but it's getting a little bit better as being that work machine you could take on the go. This thing has pretty great battery life. We got about 13 hours and 27 minutes of 4K video playback. While there was not a lot about the iPad Pro that needed fixing, it's still disappointing to see virtually no changes on this year's model, especially when I still do have some nitpicks about this specific device. The bezels are still a little thick. I am tired of Pro devices having boring colors, so I would love to see some iPad Pro color options that go beyond the silver and space gray. This tablet starts at $999 for the 11-inch model, and that's an investment that could quickly balloon once you factor in a Magic Keyboard or an Apple Pencil. Prices go even higher when you factor in the 13-inch model, upgrading storage. If you want an iPad that can double as a laptop alternative, I think the iPad Air is a way better option for the vast majority of people. It has all the same features and can be found for around half the price. Of course, if you're picking this up to attach it to a keyboard and get basic work done, you might wanna just get the M4 MacBook Air. You can find that for as low as $800 these days. That leaves the iPad Pro M5 in a very specific niche for folks that are maybe coming from an M1 iPad Pro or older, looking to get their first iPad Pro and really don't mind splurging. And if you are in that camp, you're gonna love this tablet.

[00:05:29] Speaker 1: Same as it ever was, but with upgrades that make it so this year's models are slightly better than last year's models.

[00:05:36] Speaker 2: I think with both of these, if you are in that sweet spot of you've got the cash to spare because these are premium devices and you haven't upgraded in a long time, these are both incredible machines that will give you great performance. I do think the everyday person will be served just as well by an iPad Air or a MacBook Air.

[00:05:53] Speaker 1: Stick around with CNN Underscored as we do deal hunting. Apple doesn't love to put these on sale, but the older models will be available elsewhere and we'll be tracking them.