SAVE $15: Amazon has the new 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M5, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) on sale as of Oct. 22. It's usually priced at $1,599, but you'll pay $1,584.
Amazon is marking the release of the new Apple MacBook Pro the best way it knows how: by putting it on sale.
As of Oct. 22, the first day it's available to the general public, the space black base configuration of the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is marked down to just $1,584 on the retail giant's website. It comes with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, my recommended minimums for a reliable daily driver.
The M5 MacBook Pro normally starts at $1,599, and it's still full price at Best Buy and the Apple Store at the time of writing. In other words, Amazon is the only place where I'm seeing it on sale for $15 off. (Be sure its "Shipper / Seller" is Amazon.com: Earlier this morning, it was coming from a random third-party merchant. They're riskier to buy from than Amazon itself, so I always tell shoppers to avoid them for big-ticket purchases like this.)
In case you missed it, the M5 MacBook Pro is our latest Mashable Choice Award winner. It may not be a very exciting next-gen update — silicon aside, it's basically identical to its M4 predecessor — but it brings even more oomph to Apple's high-end laptop line without a price hike. It's not like the MacBook Pro desperately needs a huge design overhaul, anyway (though an OLED touchscreen would be fun).
The cheaper M4 MacBook Air is still the best MacBook for most people, in my opinion, but the M5 model is a great upgrade pick if you have the budget. It has a brighter mini-LED display with a better 120Hz refresh rate, better speakers, and a better mix of ports (including an HDMI port and an SDXC card slot).
The M5 MacBook Pro is also way better at handling heavier workloads because of its built-in fans; the Air can run hot if you stress it out. For this reason, Mashable tech editor Timothy Beck Werth likes it for "professionals, AI enthusiasts, and creators." (Read his full review.)
If you're looking for a MacBook Pro on sale for less, I'll add that Amazon is selling the M4 version at a discount right now, too. The space black base model is listed for $1,349, or $150 off its $1,599 MSRP. That feels reasonable for a 17% dip in multitasking speeds compared to the M5 version, per our CPU benchmarking.
