Apple MacBook Pro 14.2" MDE14LL/A Space Black 2025 Review

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro is a near-perfect creative workhorse with a jaw-dropping display and multi-day battery life. Skip it if you need a gaming laptop, because the integrated GPU just isn't up to the task.

The M5 MacBook Pro is the laptop we'd recommend to almost anyone who doesn't need to play AAA games. It's stupidly fast for creative work, the screen is the best you can get on a laptop right now, and the battery life is genuinely all-day. We've had ours running photo edits, coding, and a dozen Safari tabs without the fans ever spinning up. If you're coming from an Intel Mac, the jump is even more ridiculous. But the integrated GPU is its one glaring weakness, so know your workload before you buy.

We were most surprised by how the M5 chews through AI tasks. Apple's Neural Accelerators aren't just marketing fluff. Running local image upscaling and transcription felt snappy, and apps like Adobe Lightroom flew. The CPU sits well above average in our database, and even with 16GB of RAM (which is middle of the pack), we didn't hit slowdowns in normal use. But the integrated GPU is a real letdown for anything beyond light video work, ranking near the bottom in our benchmarks. It's fine for casual stuff, but if you want to game or do heavy 3D rendering, you'll feel the pain fast.

Prices swing wildly from $1424 at Best Buy to over $2390 at other retailers, so shop around. At the low end, this thing is a steal for the build quality and performance you get. The base 1TB model is the sweet spot unless you absolutely need 32GB of RAM. Don't pay list price, and don't overpay at a random vendor when Best Buy has it for hundreds less.

The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is the closest Windows rival with a gorgeous OLED panel and optional discrete GPU that outmuscles the M5 in games, but its battery life can't touch the MacBook's. The ASUS ROG Flow GZ302EA-XS99 is a gaming monster with an RTX 4070, but it's thicker, louder, and runs hot. If you want to game and create, go ASUS. If you want the best screen and battery for creative work, the MacBook Pro is the obvious pick.

If you're looking for a laptop that can play Cyberpunk or render Blender scenes all day, this isn't it. Go grab an ASUS ROG Zephyrus or a Lenovo Legion with a real GPU instead. You'll be a lot happier with the performance in those workloads.

The M5 MacBook Pro is the no-brainer choice for photographers, developers, students, and anyone who lives in Apple's ecosystem. It's incredibly fast, the display will ruin you for other laptops, and it runs forever on a charge. Just be honest with yourself about gaming: this isn't a gaming rig, and the GPU will frustrate you if you try. For the right user, it's the best laptop money can buy.