Apple Unveils First Touchscreen MacBook Pro, Starting at $2,899
Apple reversed a stance it held for more than a decade, adding an OLED touchscreen to the MacBook Pro. The 14-inch model starts at $2,899.
Apple on Wednesday introduced its first Mac with a touchscreen, a redesigned MacBook Pro with an OLED display that responds to taps, swipes and pinches. The move reverses a position the company defended for more than a decade. Unveiled at an event Apple called “Pro and Tell,” the laptop starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch version, TechCrunch reported. Engadget said that makes it the most expensive MacBook Pro ever at launch.
The laptop is the first big Mac launch under John Ternus, who replaced Tim Cook as Apple’s chief executive earlier this year. According to TechCrunch, preorders open on Oct. 30 and the machines go on sale on Nov. 6.
What Apple announced
Apple calls the new screen a PROLED XDR display. It comes in 14.2-inch and 16.3-inch sizes, with thinner bezels than the current models. Apple says it reaches 2,000 nits of peak brightness, has a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and refreshes at up to 120Hz. In place of the notch that held the webcam on earlier models, there is a cutout similar to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island.
Engadget reported that the touch sensor is built into the display itself instead of sitting in a separate layer. Apple says this cuts latency, so using it should feel like touching the content directly. TechCrunch reported that a redesigned hinge keeps the screen steady when it is pressed, which also keeps the camera stable during video calls.
The laptops are also lighter. Engadget reported that the 14-inch model weighs about 3 pounds, compared with 3.4 pounds for the current version. The 16-inch model weighs about 4 pounds, down from roughly 4.7 to 4.8 pounds. Other key specifications include:
- M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of storage
- Three Thunderbolt 5 ports, plus HDMI, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe charging and a headphone jack
- A six-speaker sound system with a new woofer design
- Support for up to three external displays on M5 Pro models and four on M5 Max models
Prices rise quickly from there. Engadget said a fully loaded 16-inch model with an M5 Max chip comes to $14,549. Neither TechCrunch nor Engadget gave a battery-life figure.
How touch works on the Mac
Apple is not rebuilding macOS around touch. Engadget reported that the operating system treats a tap the same way it treats a mouse click, so any app can be used by touch. Apple’s own apps have been adjusted for the screen. Notion, Canva, Microsoft PowerPoint and Blender, the open-source 3D software, work with touch natively.
The interface changes are small. Menus have more room between items so they are easier to select with a finger. Users can scroll with one finger, pinch to zoom in photos and documents, and draw or write notes on the screen. Touch can also hide the Dock, a behavior borrowed from Apple’s iPad software. Apple expects professionals to use touch to work with 3D models and to test how iPhone apps will behave, while everyday users may use it in apps such as Pages and Keynote.
Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham tried the laptop in person. He wrote that touch worked as expected and that the window controls get slightly larger when a finger comes near. He called the OLED panel the best display he had seen on an Apple device and praised its “blackest blacks.” He also said heat and performance under heavy workloads still need longer testing, noting that the 2016 MacBook Pro models with Apple’s Touch Bar had a reputation for running hot.
Why it matters
For years, Apple argued that touchscreens did not belong on laptops. Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, called the idea “ergonomically terrible,” and his successor, Cook, also dismissed it publicly. Instead, Apple promoted the iPad as its touchscreen computer. Its only earlier experiment with touch on a MacBook was the Touch Bar, a thin strip of touchscreen above the keyboard introduced in 2016 and later dropped.
Many Windows laptops have offered touchscreens for years. By adding one to its most expensive notebook rather than its mainstream models, Apple is testing demand among professional users first. Engadget noted that the company could eventually bring the feature to cheaper Macs.
What comes next
The touchscreen model sits at the top of Apple’s laptop range rather than replacing the older design. TechCrunch reported that Apple also unveiled a 14-inch MacBook Pro with a new M6 chip on Oct. 27, starting at $1,999. The launch capped a busy autumn for the company, which introduced the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, in September.
The real test will come after Nov. 6, when the laptops reach buyers and independent reviewers can measure battery life, heat and how useful touch is in everyday work.
