Apple’s 2025 report card - Mac
This is the third in a series of posts reviewing Apple’s 2025 across their major product lines. You can also read my Mac 2024 and 2023 report cards.
MacBook Pro
Only one MacBook Pro got an update this year, and it's the baseline model, which was the first (and to this point only) Mac to get the M5 processor. No Pro or Max processors yet, just the base M5. The M5 seems like a good upgrade over the M4, but that's all I can say, everything else about the MacBook Pro stayed the same.
I think this makes buying a MacBook Pro a bit awkward right now. Many buyers are surely looking at the Pro and Max models, but those are on an older chip generation than the base model. They may outperform the M5 model in some tasks, but the M5 beats them at some other things, such as single-core performance. If you're in the market for a new MacBook Pro right now, I'd say don't buy one unless you're getting the base model; everything else is on the way out and will likely be notably better soon.
MacBook Air
Back in March we got new MacBook Airs, which upgraded to the M4 processor and got an upgraded FaceTime camera. We also got a very nice sky blue color, which I know some people think looks like nothing, but I think it's pretty nice when I've seen it in person.
The big win here is the price point, which in last year's post I suggested could go several ways. If you think back to this time last year, the M2 Air was the $999 model, with the M3 starting $100 higher. My best case scenario was that they would ditch the dual-processor lineup and put the M4 in all models while sticking with the $99 starting price, but I wasn't confident that would happen. It turns out Apple was able to sort this out, and for the first time in the Apple silicon generation, the MacBook Air has one processor family and the starting price remains at $999.
Mac Studio
Also in March, we got another upgrade which made a few people raise some eyebrows, and I get why. The Mac Studio, which lingered on the M2 generation through 2024, caught up to the rest of the line with the M4 Max and the…checks notes…this can't be right…the M3 Ultra.
Repeat everything I said above about the MacBook Pro lineup being split between processor generations, because the Mac Studio is in a similar situation, although this one is less transient and is just what they have decided is the right thing to do. Don't expect an M4 Ultra ever. I don't think this is the end of the world, and people buying this computer can figure out what they need, but it is undeniably odd and not the ideal state for this product.
It's all a bit odd to me, as the general discourse around the M3 generation was that it was kind of hard to make and not exactly the best generation of Apple silicon, and yet somehow it's the M4 that won't get an Ultra chip for some reason. Here's hoping the M5 generation gets to go from the base chip all the way up to an Ultra, it would be the first time since the M2 that we got that all at once.
On the plus side, if you need the best M4 chip in a desktop environment, the Mac Studio will save you a bunch compared to a MacBook Pro with the same M4 Max ($2,499 vs $3,699).
Overall score - B
It wasn't a particularly thrilling year for the Mac. In fact, I'd say it was quite boring, but I guess you can still score pretty well on my arbitrary scoring system by coming into the year with what I think is clearly the best lineup of Macs ever in the history of the company. Seriously, has there ever been a point in time where Apple made so many Macs that are unanimously considered to be great computers, and where basically every single product in the lineup outperforms its competitors in the Windows space (minus some desktops)?
That said, I can't give the Mac an A grade because it was just boring and a couple of their products are in weird spaces right now. The MacBook Pro only getting its base model upgraded to the M5 is a little weird, and the Mac Studio's M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations are surely not what the company would have wanted. And then there's the Mac Pro, which Apple should really just build up the courage and kill. That thing is stuck on the M2 generation with no signs of it getting an upgrade past that.
A bright spot this year is the MacBook Air, which gets the processor bump in a timely manner. You get the best processor generation on the $999 model, and it's just clearly the best laptop for most people right now.
What I want/expect in 2026
It's always hard to do these Mac predictions because for the last couple of years they've been pretty boring. Apple releases new processors every year or so, and every Mac is in a good place, so it's really just a matter of predicting when each product is going to get the new processor. That said, I do have a little spice in this year's predictions, so let's get to them.
I'm a MacBook Pro guy, and I'm excited to hear that this might be the most exciting MacBook Pro upgrade we've had since the 2021 Apple Silicon switch for this lineup. The boring part of this prediction is that we'll get M5 Pro and M5 Max models early in the year, eliminating the odd mixed processor situation we have right now. The more exciting part of this is what we're going to get in the fall, which rumor has it will be an OLED model with a touch display and an M6 processor. The rumor mill will surely start grinding away on this throughout 2026, and we'll get a better idea as to what we're looking at here, but I'm excited at the prospect of this update. I am concerned about the price, which is surely not going to be the same as what we pay today, and I'm also concerned that Apple is going to be too conservative with adding touch support to the Mac. Don't get me wrong, if this happens, I'll be getting one, but I really think the vision here should be a convertible device, much like an iPad, rather than the same clamshell form factor the Mac has always had. I think we'll get there eventually, but the early rumors are that this first version is a pretty conservative device.
The MacBook Air is the number one selling laptop in the world, and for good reason. It's an outstanding device with incredible performance and competitive pricing for its class of computer. I'm going to be really boring and say they'll do exactly what they did this year, and in March 2026, we'll get an M5 upgrade with no other notable changes.
I think the Mac Studio will get updated this year, maybe in the summer, and it will get onto the M5 generation of chips. Yes, including an M5 Ultra.
I predict the Mac Mini will get bumped to the M5 and M5 Pro in the spring, maybe at the same time as the MacBook Air.
The Mac Pro will continue to linger as the $7,000 computer that ships with a 2022 chipset that's 3 generations behind the rest of the Mac line.
And oh yeah, the iMac. I'm 50/50 on this one, but if I had to make a guess, I would expect this to get an M5 upgrade at some point in 2026. I'd love to know how many of these Apple sells compared to their other Macs, because this still feels like such a weird product to me. Like a relic from the past that they keep around for a very small niche of users compared to everything else they sell. That said, they've given it M3 and M4 variants, so you gotta think it'll get an M5 edition eventually.
There is an open question about displays, which isn't technically Mac hardware, but it's in the same ballpark. The Studio Display turns 4 this spring, and I'm going to be a downer and say that it will not get an upgrade in all of 2026. I mean, they're selling a 2013 display panel for an insanely high price that comically pales in comparison to the specs in far, far cheaper monitors, so they should upgrade it, but my money's on it not getting touched. My impression is that Apple won't upgrade this until they can make a meaningful improvement without spiking the cost, and I don't see them doing that in today's environment.
It's also not strictly Mac hardware, but the macOS story in 2026 will be an interesting one. I think two main drivers will impact this release: Tahoe's reception and touch Macs. I don't expect major changes to the design, but I do expect to see some changes to the Liquid Glass design system to feel more at home on the Mac. To me, Liquid Glass feels a bit like an ill-fitting Shapeshifter skin on top of macOS's real UI, and they should do better here. On the touch front, I expect we'll see that using macOS with touch doesn't actually require much change to the UI, since as we all know, macOS isn't as small as you think, and actually the pundits who have suggested for years that major changes would need to be made were way overthinking things.
And if I can take a major swing here, I'm going to say here and now that macOS will be available to run on the iPad Pro by the end of 2026. This could be officially from Apple or it could be though some clever people hacking things together to make it work, but I think if you want it enough, you'll be able to do it.
All in all, I think it'll be a relatively standard year for the Mac, but I think we have the potential for some real excitement with the MacBook Pro and what that means for macOS. We'll see what happens.
