Apple Roadmap Offers M5 MacBook Pro Release Dates

Update, Sunday July 20, 2025: This article has been updated with additional details on Apple’s M5 roll-out.

Apple’s iPhone has long had a steady cadence of releases, far more constant than the Mac portfolio. The last few years have felt like a similar annual update was being put in place, yet Apple’s current roadmap is patchy at best, and MacBook Pro supporters may have to wait longer than they hoped.

MacBook Pro Launch Date

The team at Apple Insider has laid out a potential Mac roadmap for 2025 and 2026. With 15 products on the list, it is a comprehensive look deep into 2026. That includes the highly anticipated M5 MacBook Pro and M5 MacBook Air.

What the roadmap lacks is exact dates. For example, the M5 MacBook Pro release is listed as late 2025 and covers three models (presumably the MacBook Pro, MacBook Pro Max, and MacBook Pro Max). That could easily fit a mid-to-late October date that many felt Apple was using as the annual anchor. It could also coincide with a later launch in mid- to late-November, which would potentially result in only a handful of laptops being sold in December, with the bulk of retail devices arriving in January 2026.

MacBook Pro First, MacBook Air To Follow

Unlike the first Apple Silicon M series MacBooks, which saw the MacBook Air lead off the new hardware, the M5 series will start with the late-2025 MacBook Pro models. The consumer-focused M5 MacBook Air models are expected to arrive in the first half of 2026, with March the likely window for the macOS laptop to arrive.

Both the 13-inch and 15-inch variants are expected to arrive simultaneously.

MacBook Pro’s M5 Competitor

Update, Sunday July 20, 2025. Apple’s MacBook range is not the only hardware from Cupertino fighting for the M5 chipset. Last year, when Tim Cook and his team debuted the Apple Silicon M4 in May 2024, they also introduced the seventh-generation iPad Pro. Compared to the previous M2-powered iPad Pro, the chipset offered a 50 per cent uplift in CPU performance and x4 uplift in GPU performance.

As the only M4 hardware for many months, the iPad Pro set the conversation.

While Apple has yet to announce the hardware that will utilise the presumptively named M5 chipset, let alone the M5 chipset itself, the iPad Pro could well be the debut hardware once more. Last year, the selfie camera shifted from the portrait orientation to the landscape orientation, enabling the iPad to be used comfortably in a laptop-like mode, especially with the addition of the Magic Keyboard. Yet that has led to an awkward UX for those who lean into portrait mode.

Writing for the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes that the new design for the iPad Pro will accommodate portrait and landscape selfie cameras, providing the option to comfortably use the camera for unlocking and video chat in both portrait and landscape modes.

With a similarly wide “late 2025” release date for the iPad Pro, the question now is if Apple will move to a joint launch of tablet, laptop and desktop, or if it will let the iPad Pro take pole position once more with the new Apple Silicon?

MacBook Pro Refresh

The M5 MacBook Pro and M5 MacBook Air models will bring more power to the platform thanks to the updated Apple Silicon M-Series chipsets, but for many Apple fans the rela update comes not with these two laptops, but with the laptops to follow.

The MacBook models slated to use the M6 chipsets are also slated to bring in the new hardware additions and redesign that many are waiting for. This includes the eagerly anticipated move away from the current LCD display to a more vibrant and power-efficient OLED display… a display option that high-end Windows laptops have offered for many years.

The M6 MacBooks are also expected to herald a redesign of the laptop itself with a chassis designed to be both thinner and lighter compared to the current models. Given this will line up with the 20th anniversary, it’s a good moment to reinvigorate the brand and reinforce the place it has in Apple’s portfolio.

The MacBook Pro Needs A Heart

In all this, there’s one important piece of the jigsaw missing… Apple has yet to announce the M5 chipset. While there are many signs that it is coming (not least tucked away in the developer betas of macOS 26, the physical chip is nowhere to be seen. Last year’s M4 was announced in early summer, but that anniversary has been and gone.

That’s a delay of the M5 chipset to go alongside the delay of the MacBook Pro. Far from the 12-month cycle that the iPhone has, the M4 to M5 generation is looking more like an 18-month window to reach the mid-cycle upgrade.

Now read the latest MacBook Pro, iPhone, and Apple TV headlines in Forbes’ weekly news digest from Cupertino…