desertcart.com: Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro
chip with 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU: Built for AI, 14.2-inch
Liquid Retina XDR Display, 24GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7;
Space Black : Electronics
Review: No surprises, it's what I expected. - Overall, I love
this laptop. I haven't owned my own since giving my wife my m1
air almost 5 years ago to buy a windows gaming laptop. The Build:
-Build quality feels solid. I just like the way it feels holding
it, using it, etc. Smooth, rounded edges, not super heavy, no
weird vent and lights like a gaming laptop. -Keyboard feels nice.
I can type pretty quickly on it, and overall provides decent
tactile feedback for a small / thin laptop -Screen is beautiful.
Coming from my IPS on my laptop, its night and day. Blacks are
inky black, HDR is fantastic. I wish I had a bigger monitor with
this quality. 2. Performance -we already know Apple silicon
performs very well. this is no exception. Does everything I need
it to with ease. My current use cases are light development with
VSCode, Codex, Claude, etc, internet use, and some music
production. -I've only felt it warm one time when i was
installing 80GB of Logic Pro sounds and downloading some other
stuff at the same time, with browser open with 10 tabs, etc. On
average, it stays cool. Note: I got the 24gb model, and I'm glad
I did. Just having Claude open, Chrome with maybe 5 tabs and a
couple of other things I use it hovers around 17gb. With 24gb my
RAM pressure stays low and keeps things fast. Highly recommend
24gb if you are even somewhat of a "power user" 3. The software
-Mac Os is pretty nice. It doesn't seem to get in my way too
much. I won't say its better or worse than windows, it just
depends on your use case. I still have my windows laptop I am
using as a "game console" / media server. Windows is about the
only option for a gaming machine other than Steam OS which isn't
supported on all hardware. Out of all 3, if someone asked me for
what OS their first every computer should be to just surf the web
and watch movies and videos, I'd say Mac is most likely the best
fit especially if you already have mac hardware. If you want to
play AAA games online, windows is basically the only option. If
you want to fully customize your OS and have complete control,
Linux is where it is at. For a gaming handheld, you can't beat
Steam OS. 4. Price -Mac RAM prices used to seem unreasonable,
until this whole RAM shortage thing happened. Its still a lot,
but it feels like less now. I plan to keep this laptop for 5+
years so the price is justified for me. Should you buy a Macbook
Air instead? -If you can get a macbook pro for <= 200 dollars
more, get it, because of the screen and speakers alone. People
will say "save the money if you are surfing the web" etc, which
for the most part is true, but I'm telling you, even if you are
just a normal casual user, the screen will make a HUGE difference
in your enjoyment. Its not only the 120hz refresh rate which just
overall makes everything feel more snappy, its the brightness,
colors, HDR, inky blacks, etc. now as an average user should you
spend $500 more to get a pro with the same specs? I'd say no.
Also keep in mind, the Air starts at 256GB vs 512GB for the pro,
so when do your price comparisons, use that as the baseline
(512GB AIR).
Review: Incredible (from a PC guy) - I’ve been a Windows and
Linux guy for decades and actively avoided Macs for years.
Apple’s old Intel machines deserved the hate. Overpriced,
underpowered, ran hot, and felt like lifestyle products
pretending to be computers. The new Apple Silicon M5 changes all
of that. This MacBook Pro is absurdly fast. Everything feels
instant. App launches, multitasking, creative software,
automation, AI features. It is noticeably snappier than my
Windows 11 laptop, and the overall experience is far less of a
hassle. No bloatware. No OEM junk. No antivirus popups pretending
to protect you from yourself. It just works. There’s also
something to be said for how quiet this machine is, in every
sense of the word. macOS isn’t constantly hounding you with
notifications, nags, or pop-ups begging for attention. You sit
down, open it, and get work done. Physically, it’s just as quiet.
The fans are effectively silent, even under load. The hinges are
smooth and silent. No creaks, no whine, no heat-soaked laptop
pretending it’s fine. The whole thing feels calm, controlled, and
powerful. The battery life is genuinely absurd coming from the PC
world. This thing actually lasts all day, even with heavy use.
Not “marketing all day,” not “if you dim the screen and do
nothing.” Real, full workday use without hunting for a charger.
Once you experience that, it’s hard to unsee how bad most Windows
laptops still are in this department. This is also the ultimate
creative machine. My Huion and XP-Pen drawing displays work
immediately with zero drama, and they are noticeably more
responsive here than on my monster Windows gaming desktop, which
is frankly embarrassing for Windows. Latency is lower, pen input
feels better, and the whole drawing experience is smoother and
more predictable. GarageBand is legitimately excellent. It’s not
a toy, it’s real software, and the fact that it’s included for
free is wild. Same goes for Apple Pages and Keynote. They’re
fast, clean, capable, and completely usable for real work.
Getting this level of polished creative and productivity software
bundled at no extra cost is something Windows just doesn’t do
anymore. The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is excellent.
Bright, sharp, great contrast, and genuinely comfortable for long
sessions. The speakers are the best laptop speakers I’ve
personally encountered. Loud, clear, and actually usable without
immediately reaching for headphones. Most laptops still sound
like angry tin cans. This one doesn’t. Build quality is top-tier.
Solid, tight tolerances, zero flex, and the Space Black finish
looks great in person. This finally feels like a premium machine
without excuses or caveats. macOS still has some jank, and
Apple’s software installation model is still dumb in the same old
Apple way. Dragging apps around like it’s 2006 is not charming.
It’s just weird. That said, the OS has been refined a lot, and as
a daily driver it’s smoother and less irritating than Windows 11.
Fewer interruptions. Less nonsense. More getting work done. The
automation and AI capabilities on this machine are genuinely
impressive compared to my Windows laptop. This is not marketing
fluff. Even light use makes a difference, and heavier users will
get real value out of it. One genuinely baffling decision: Apple
ships this entirely jet-black laptop with a black MagSafe cable…
and then cheap-outs and includes a white wall charger like it was
pulled from a clearance bin. What the heck? If you’re going to
obsess over aesthetics this hard, at least commit. It’s a small
thing, but it’s such an unforced miss on an otherwise beautifully
designed machine. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m
officially a Mac guy now. Apple Silicon finally earned it. This
is an outstanding daily driver and easily the best laptop I’ve
owned.
