We've loved Apple's 2021-era MacBook Pro design from the start, and the M5 Max edition is once again the professional notebook to beat. But it's hard to deny that the star of Apple's recent laptop rollout wasn't its most powerful Pro systems — all eyes were on the $599 MacBook Neo.

Early benchmarks reveal that the M5 Max performs significantly better in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, suggesting the smaller 14-inch model may throttle the chip under heavy workloads.