M5 MacBook Pro Now Sells for $200 Less Than the New M6 Model
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 costs $200 less than the new M6 version at Amazon and Walmart. Here is what the M6 adds and how the 15-inch Air compares.
Apple refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro with its M6 chip last month, but the previous M5 version is now on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $200 less, according to Wired. Apart from the chip, the two laptops have the same specs, so buyers who skip the newest processor keep the same screen, body and ports for a lower price.
Wired’s reviewer argued that the gap between the two chips is small for most daily work and even for content creation, which makes the older model the better buy for now.
What the M6 chip adds
The M6 has two more CPU cores and two more GPU cores than the M5. The CPU is the main processor that runs apps, and the GPU handles graphics. Wired said most of the new chip’s speed gains come from those extra cores, and called it one of the smaller year-over-year jumps for Apple Silicon in the past six years.
The bigger change is in AI tasks. The M6 adds a second 16-core Neural Engine, the part of the chip built for machine-learning work, along with faster memory bandwidth. The only other hardware difference Wired found is wireless: the M6 model moves up to Wi-Fi 7.
The M5 version came out in late 2025. Wired also pointed out that the base 14-inch MacBook Pro is not a true pro machine on performance, since it uses the same M5 chip found in the MacBook Air and iPad Pro.
What this means for laptop buyers
Someone shopping for a 14-inch MacBook Pro today pays $200 more for the M6 model and gets mostly faster AI processing and Wi-Fi 7 in return. For people who mainly browse, write, edit photos or work with video, Wired expects the difference to be hard to notice.
The M5 Pro keeps the features that set the Pro line apart from the Air. Its mini-LED display, a type of backlit screen that can get very bright, is much brighter and more colorful than the Air’s screen and handles HDR (high dynamic range) video well. It also has more ports, including HDMI and an SD card slot, and USB-C ports on both sides, so it can charge from either side.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is also discounted
Wired also flagged a sale on the 15-inch MacBook Air M5. The version with 16 GB of memory and a terabyte of storage costs $1,549, which is $150 below Apple’s retail price and the lowest price for that model since June.
The main trade-off between that Air and the 14-inch Pro is the display. The Air is thinner and gives a larger screen, while the Pro has the brighter mini-LED panel and the extra ports. Both M5 machines are currently discounted, while the M6 MacBook Pro is not.
Source: Wired
