Apple just introduced the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max, and while the company highlights major gains in CPU, GPU, AI, storage, and battery life, the base M5 MacBook Pro remains limited to Wi-Fi 6E, which feels outdated when several other recent Apple devices already support Wi-Fi 7.
In fact, Apple has already moved to Wi-Fi 7 on products like the iPhone 17 lineup, M5 iPad Pro, M4 iPad Air, M5 MacBook Air, and even the higher-end M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models, so the continued use of Wi-Fi 6E on the standard M5 MacBook Pro stands out.
Apple confirmed in its newsroom announcement that the new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max include the Apple-designed N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
“The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, bringing improved performance and reliability to wireless connections,” Apple said.
M5 MacBook Pro misses
- Stays on Wi-Fi 6E
- No Bluetooth 6
- No Thread support
- Uses an older Broadcom wireless chip
At the same time, Apple promotes “Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6” as part of its latest connectivity push, which makes the networking gap on the base M5 MacBook Pro harder to ignore.
