9:39 AM PST · March 3, 2026
Apple unveiled its latest slate of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops on Tuesday morning, and in the case of the MacBook Pro, the new hardware comes with the announcement of new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
The specs on the new chips are impressive, featuring an 18-core CPU that Apple says is over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. But consumers may be surprised to see the price of the new MacBook Pro devices. For the base MacBook Pro device, which has an M5 Pro chip, prices start at $2,199 and $2,699 for the 14-inch and 16-inch models, respectively. The MacBook Pro models with the M5 Max chips start at a whopping $3,599 and $3,899 for the respective 14-inch and 16-inch models.
For comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip started at $1,999 when it was released.
With the demands for more computers and data centers to power AI, the market is experiencing a shortage of RAM, causing memory prices to surge.
Analysts are already predicting that smartphone shipments will plummet this year as a result of the shortage. Naturally, other hardware like laptops would be impacted too, and Apple’s pricing could serve as a bellwether for how much the sector will be affected.
