Apple - MacBook Pro 16-inch Laptop - M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU - 48GB Memory - 1TB SSD - Space Black

I decided to upgrade from my 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch intel chip laptop – because I found it was getting really slow. And I have to say – the change is huge! I love the larger screen on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the return of the SD card slot. But – most of all – it’s lightning fast and the battery lasts for 17+ hours! (My old laptop would lose half its battery in 2 hours). It’s amazing. The only negative – is the size & weight of the new laptop. It’s clunky & heavy – it reminds me of my old 2011 MacBook Pro, which had a ton of ports, DVD player, SD card slot, etc. (It still works, by the way – which is a testament to Apple products). Also annoying is the constant reminders that pop up – telling me that many Intel-based apps (TurboTax, Spotify, VLC player, etc) won’t work in future OS updates on M5 Pro chip laptops. Not sure why Apple decided to stop allowing Rosetta to convert the apps to Apple Silicon. So, I’ve had to hunt around to see if the makers of those apps have made any updates, which is time-consuming & annoying. But, overall, I love the performance of my new laptop. Hope it continues performing well.

This is my first time getting a 16 inch laptop as i've been a consistent Macbook Pro 13 inch user since 2008. These laptops just last so much longer my first laptop lasted me 10 years and mysecond one has lasted me 6 years. The M1 was good and honestly it still works but the magic bar was starting to have issues and to be fair i've dropped it way too many times to count. The M5 is a significant upgrade for me with SO Much faster processing speed and I love having so much memory. I'm not as worried abut nearing the top of my memory limits with this laptop. Pros: Great speed and processing Huge screen- I can fit TWO documents side by side and that has been a game changer for me with work. - It's heft and SOLID Cons: - it's hefty- this is a heavy laptop compared to the 13 inch but I guess that is expected for a bigger laptop

Windows user since Windows on DOS days, never tried anything Apple made. Not for a minute, even through college when studying IT and cyber security. I became so very sick and tired of all the windows issues, and the ads... Oh the ads! And McAffee and all the things that break your session. I just decided on a whim to try a MacBook, and I got two - the air 24gb and the pro 48gb. The Air is ridiculous, it's all the laptop I would need- with a beautiful display and decent speakers (probably better than all but 1 or 2 Windows machines). But I have a new bad habit because MacOS is so much more stable than Windows- I leave it on for well over a week without rebooting. So I have maybe 200 browser tabs, 8-12 300+ page PDF's to reference, all the organization apps like Notion, notes, 5 finder windows, 4 different calendar accounts.... You get the idea. I would run out of memory on the 24gb by Tuesday morning, and with the 48gb MacBoook, I don't have to close anything. Now this is me being bad at using a computer, but the MacBook doesn't care. It just... Flies. Never studders, never hesitates, everything is seemless and fast. I bet in 2 months of 8-10 hour days and travelling all over, only a small handful of times has it even shown any sign of imperfection- and I'm on the public beta OS. These used to be expensive compared to a windows laptop, but depending on how you squint your eyes, that may not be the case anymore. In fact the G16 32gb 5080 I also tried, and this is better in every way ecxcept FPS on AAA games, was something like $1400 more. 5/5, would recommend. One more thing - windows laptops are always a tool. This is somehow something a little different. Just as capable, but (I can't believe I'm gonna say this about a laptop) somehow more personal.

I do video editing on a desktop with really good specs, and I was very surprised that the Mac would outperform my desktop in video editing. Of course, it only has 24 GB of RAM, so it struggles with Premiere and After Effects; however, if I'm just using Premiere, there is no problem. I really like how it feels, looks, overall it's just very solid. The screen itself is also very nice. I wanted a bigger screen for video editing and design, and it works well. I will miss gaming on Windows because MacOS has little support for it. I added a skin on mine just for scratches. I've been hearing that a hard case can damage the MacBook.

Upgraded from a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro, and this is not an upgrade… it’s a time jump. My old machine had been solid for years. Did everything I needed, never really let me down, but you could feel it working for a living. Fans spinning up, battery anxiety creeping in, and that occasional “give me a second” when juggling heavier apps. This new MacBook Pro? It just doesn’t have those moments. Everything is instant. Apps launch immediately, switching between them is seamless, and even when I’m running a stack of productivity tools alongside creative work, it never feels under pressure. What used to be small interruptions are just gone, and that adds up massively over a full day. Battery life is a quiet game changer. I’ve gone from planning my day around a charger to barely thinking about it. I can work a full day and still have juice left. That alone changes how portable this thing actually feels. And the silence. No fan noise in normal use is something I didn’t expect to care about, but it’s brilliant. It just gets on with it, no drama. The display is excellent. Bright, sharp, and genuinely enjoyable to look at whether I’m working or watching something. Going back to my old screen now feels like stepping backwards. Build quality is exactly what you’d expect. Solid, premium, and everything feels dialed in. Keyboard is comfortable, trackpad is still best in class, and the whole thing just feels… finished. What surprised me most is the overall flow. It’s not just faster, it removes friction from everything I do. Less waiting, less thinking about performance, more just getting on with work. If you’re on an older Intel MacBook and wondering if it’s worth it, this is a yes. Not a marginal gain. A proper leap forward.