Unleashing the Power: The Vision Pro Gets a Major Upgrade with Apple’s M5 Chip

Although the rumor mill left little room for surprises, Apple’s M5 MacBook Pro and iPad Pro announcements today were rounded out by a dark horse in the race: the Vision Pro.

It was around this time last year that veteran Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that the next-generation Vision Pro would get an M5 chip and would arrive sometime in late 2025 or early 2026. This was later corroborated by other reports, although there was a bit of dissension from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who suggested that Apple could go with an M4 chip instead.

Nevertheless, the timeframe remained vague until the end of September, when a series of FCC documents slipped out early, revealing Apple’s upcoming product lineup: six iPad Pro model numbers to cover all sizes and cellular configurations, one for a single MacBook Pro, and another for a “Head Mounted Device,” model number A3416.

It didn’t take a lot of clairvoyance to realize that this lined up with the Vision Pro rumors. The timing suggested it was just around the corner and would likely arrive around the same time as the M5 iPad Pro and M5 MacBook Pro. This also lent more credence to the idea that Apple had opted to put the M5 chip inside.

It turns out those reports were right on the mark. Today, Apple announced a second model for its spatial computing headset, and it’s changed both as much — and as little — as everyone predicted.

The M5 Vision Pro

Let’s begin by talking about the elephant in the room. The new Vision Pro is just as unwieldy and just as expensive as the original model. Like today’s MacBook Pro and iPad Pro announcements, virtually nothing has changed on the outside, and the pricing also remains the same. That’s good news for the iPad and Mac, but the Vision Pro is still an elite product, with an eye-watering $3,500 price tag.

The only hardware change in the 2025 Vision Pro is the switch to a new M5 chip, but that’s also a significant change for something that’s been running on the three-year-old M2 chip, and that difference comes into sharper focus when dealing with a spatial computing headset, which leans far more heavily on machine learning and GPU performance.

Keep in mind that the M2 chip is so old it predates the 3-nanometer technology now standard in nearly every Apple product released over the last two years. The M5 chip builds on a stable 3nm design. It moves the Vision Pro to a 10-core CPU — adding two efficiency cores to the eight-core M2 — and a 10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. Oddly, Apple hasn’t divulged how much RAM is in the new model; the old one had 16 GB, so it’s safe to assume the new one has at least the same, but the M5 chip itself supports 24 GB and 32 GB unified memory configurations, so it could be more.

In a surprising twist, the M5 chip delivers more than just raw performance here. It lets the Vision Pro render 10 percent more pixels on the same micro-OLED displays as the original model while boosting the maximum refresh rate to 120 Hz, up from 100 Hz.

The increased efficiency of the M5 also translated to greater battery life. Apple now promises an extra 30 minutes for both general use and video playback, raising the numbers to 2.5 and 3 hours, respectively. Of course, you can still use it while plugged in, so those run times are only relevant when you’re wearing it somewhere without a readily available power source.

The 16-core Neural Engine also gets a boost, promising a 50 percent increase in performance for AI-powered features like capturing a Persona or transforming photos into spatial scenes. Third-party apps will also run twice as fast compared to the previous version. Sadly, the wireless specs remain the same. Apple has surprisingly omitted its new N1 chip here, leaving the M5 Vision Pro on Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3

A More Comfortable Fit

While the lack of design changes means the M5 Vision Pro isn’t going to be any lighter, Apple has been working on ways to make it easier and more comfortable to wear. What it’s come up with is a new Dual Knit Band that goes over the top of your head to help balance some of the weight.

Apple considers this a significant enough addition that it’s part of the official Vision Pro photos. It’s essentially a very similar design to the original Solo Knit Band, extended to a second strap that goes over your head. “The lower strap features flexible fabric ribs embedded with tungsten inserts that provide a counterweight for additional comfort, balance, and stability,” Apple says in its press release.

However, you don’t need to spring for the new Vision Pro to get the new headband, as Apple will be selling it separately for $99, and it’s naturally compatible with the original M2 Vision Pro, since it shares the same physical design.

Price and Availability

As we said earlier, the M5 Vision Pro keeps the same $3,499 price tag as its predecessor and comes in the same storage configurations. That base price will get you a 256 GB model, with 512 GB and 1 TB versions available for $3,699 and $3,899, respectively.

Pre-orders open today in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UAE, the UK, and the US — and in mainland China and Singapore on Friday. The M5 Vision Pro will arrive in retail stores across all eleven countries next Wednesday, October 22.