MacBook Pro M6 vs MacBook Pro M5: Biggest upgrades you need to know

The 14-inch MacBook Pro M6 has just been released, bringing with it the new Apple M6 chip and promising improved performance and longer battery life. Unfortunately, due to Apple's recent price hikes, this entry-level model now starts at $1,999. The MacBook Pro M6 has incorporated all the usual yearly upgrades, leading to the question of whether it represents a significant improvement over the M5 model.

To answer this, let's explore all the upgrades and what has remained the same to help you determine if an upgrade is necessary.

The most noticeable difference between the new MacBook Pro and the previous model is the starting price. The M6 starts at $1,999, compared to the M5's price of $1,599. While the M5's current price remains the same, this increase could be offset by choosing more storage and RAM. The new Apple M6 chip, based on TSMC's 2-nanometer architecture, is expected to deliver performance and efficiency gains of around 10-15%.

It features two additional cores in both the CPU and GPU, as well as a dedicated Dual 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning and AI tasks.

Performance benchmarks show that the MacBook Pro M6 offers noticeable improvements over the M5. For instance, Geekbench 6.7 single-core scores jump from 4,708 to 4,701, while multi-core scores increase from 17,505 to 29,411. Additionally, the M6's 12-core GPU provides up to 25 percent faster AI performance and up to 30 percent faster graphics processing compared to the M5.

The enhanced Neural Engine in the M6 delivers substantial advantages when running AI-driven creative software. Although we'll need to test the MacBook Pro M6 in our lab to confirm these results, it is likely that users upgrading from an M1 or M2 MacBook Pro will feel a significant difference.

Connectivity has also been upgraded with the introduction of Apple's N1 chip, which supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. This delivers higher throughput and lower networking latency than the previous model's Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The M6 MacBook Pro also boasts up to 24 hours of battery life, an improvement over the M5's 18 hours. However, this will need confirmation through battery tests.

Other than the design, display, and other features, the MacBook Pro M6 remains unchanged from its predecessor. The same lightweight aluminum body, port selection, and 14.2-inch Mini-LED display with ProMotion at 120Hz are present. The M6 MacBook Pro promises excellent color representation and accuracy, along with the same camera and sound system quality.