A recent battery test comparing Intel’s new Panther Lake SoC with Apple’s M5 processor shows that the two platforms deliver nearly identical levels of battery life under heavy load.

The test paired an Asus 14-inch ExpertBook Ultra powered by Intel’s 18A-based Panther Lake chip against a 14-inch MacBook Pro equipped with Apple’s M5 processor. It is important to note that Panther Lake represents Intel’s latest high-efficiency chipset, while the M5 tested here is Apple’s entry-level configuration in the new lineup.

Battery Test Results

The battery comparison involved 2.5 hours of continuous heavy testing at maximum screen brightness. At the end of the test, the MacBook Pro retained 40% battery, while the Asus ExpertBook Ultra had 38% remaining.

The results indicate that Apple’s M5 processor maintains a slight advantage in efficiency. However, the narrow two percentage point difference suggests that Intel’s Panther Lake platform has significantly improved in power management under demanding conditions.

Hardware Comparison and Benchmark Results

The Asus ExpertBook Ultra was configured with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, compared with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD in the MacBook Pro with the M5 chip.

In the Blackmagic disk speed test, the Asus system recorded SSD read speeds of 13,980MB per second, compared with 6,797MB per second on the MacBook Pro.

Geekbench 6 results show the Asus laptop scoring 2,823 in single-core and 15,449 in multi-core CPU tests. The M5 MacBook Pro posted higher scores, with 4,328 in single-core and 17,987 in multi-core performance.

On the graphics side, the Intel Arc B390 GPU in the Asus device achieved an OpenCL score of 50,072. The GPU inside the M5 MacBook Pro recorded an OpenCL score of 76,601.