MacBook Pro M5 Battery Life Test： How Long Does it REALLY Last？

Everyone's asking, how long does the new MacBook Pro M5 last on a single charge? We ran our Tom's Guide battery test, and in this video, I'll talk about what we found. If you want a full MacBook Pro M5 review, Tony's video is already live here on the channel, so be sure to check that out as soon as we're finished up here. For those new to the channel, at Tom's Guide, we run a standardized battery test across every laptop. The screen is locked to 150 nits, the laptop is connected to Wi-Fi, and it just keeps surfing the web until it dies. This way, the results are consistent and easy to compare. So much so that we even keep a running list of the best laptops for battery life, which I'll link below. And I'll tell you right away, the MacBook Pro M5 earns a spot on that list. Our test shows a runtime of 18 hours, 14 minutes. That's basically in line with the 1831 of the 14-inch M4. Before you worry, keep in mind laptops generally don't see huge leaps in battery life, generation to generation. The M5 isn't about extending battery hours. It's about 12% to 15% faster performance and roughly the same endurance. That's a win if you're exporting a video edit, compiling code, even gaming or other heavy workloads without losing battery time. But how does the MacBook Pro M5 battery life compare to Apple's ultra-portable MacBook Air M4 13-inch? The latest-gen MacBook Air lasted 14 hours, 51 minutes in the same test. So we're looking at over three hours more on the M5 Pro. That's a big difference if you're planning to work away from a charger all day. If battery life is a priority and you want more screen size and performance, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 is still the better pick between the two types of Apple laptops. Which brings me to an important point. At the time I'm sitting down to record this video, Apple only has the 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 available. The 16-inch M5 Pro or M5 Max will likely arrive in a couple of months, and those will have higher-end chips and probably even longer battery life than the base M5. For reference, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro lasted 20 hours, 46 minutes. It's one of the longest-lasting laptops we've ever tested, period. I'm not expecting huge jumps in battery life between the M4 Pro and M5 Pro, but let me know if you want us to run battery tests on the future 16-inch M5 models in a future video. Now, I just can't compare Apple's to Apple's. I wanted to know how the MacBook Pro M5 stacks up against a comparable Windows rival. We tested alongside the Dell 14 Premium, one of the more popular 14-inch Windows laptops out there. The Dell lasted 8 hours, 16 minutes on our Tom's Guide battery test. That's less than half of the MacBook Pro M5's battery life. Yeah, ouch. But the Dell 14 Premium does have an OLED screen, so that very likely plays a part in why we see such a huge gap in results. So, is the MacBook Pro M5 battery life good? Yes, totally. 18-plus hours on a 14-inch laptop is very impressive, and Apple once again proves it can navigate power efficiency better than almost every other laptop maker out there. On this machine, you can do a full day of work without reaching for a charger. The small dip from the M4 is basically irrelevant for most users, and you get more power in return. If that sounds good to you, I'll link the MacBook Pro M5 in the description. And if you found this video interesting, be sure to give it a thumbs up. And, hey, why not subscribe to the channel and see more videos on Apple devices, including more of our battery tests? For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spudow.