Apple's new MacBook Pro adds a touchscreen and OLED display
Apple on Oct. 28 unveiled a MacBook Pro with a tandem OLED "PROLED XDR" display and, for the first time on a Mac, touch input. The 14- and 16-inch models use M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, start at $2,899 and ship Nov. 6.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
Apple introduced a new MacBook Pro with what it calls a PROLED XDR display, a tandem OLED panel, and touch input for the first time on a Mac, at its "Pro and tell" event on Oct. 28. The touch sensor is built into the display panel. The laptops come in 14.2-inch and 16.3-inch sizes.
Apple said the screen reaches up to 2,000 nits of brightness for both HDR and SDR content, with a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a refresh rate from 10 to 120 Hz, and support for both the P3 and Adobe RGB color spaces. The Mac also gets a Dynamic Island, the iPhone-style area at the top of the screen, which shows Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri.
Inside are M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, rather than the M6 chips in other MacBook Pros Apple released this week, The Verge noted, with up to 128GB of memory and 16TB of storage. Apple said the M5 Max can run large language models with hundreds of billions of parameters on the device but did not give speeds. Apple claims up to 24 hours of battery life. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds and the 16-inch 4 pounds. Ports include three Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, an SDXC slot, MagSafe and a headphone jack; it supports Wi-Fi 7 and runs macOS 27.
Why it matters
Windows laptops have offered touchscreens for years. Apple's move brings its pro laptops closer to the iPad, which raises questions about how macOS apps will adapt to touch and whether touch will spread to cheaper Macs.
What’s next
Independent reviews of the display and battery claims when the laptops ship Nov. 6, and how many Mac apps add touch-friendly features.
More context
Key numbers: The 14-inch with M5 Pro starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399. M5 Max models start at $4,499 (14-inch) and $4,799 (16-inch). Preorders opened Oct. 28, with availability Friday, Nov. 6, in 30 countries. "The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is a monumental step forward for the Mac," said Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer.
Timeline: In 2010 Steve Jobs called touchscreen laptops "ergonomically terrible," The Verge recalled. In 2012 Tim Cook said, "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user." Apple added the touch-sensitive Touch Bar in 2016, brought back physical function keys in 2021 and dropped the Touch Bar in 2023. This week's launch reverses its long stance against touchscreen Macs.
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Editorial sourcing notes
Sourcing: Apple's Oct. 28 press release and tech specs page, plus The Verge's report from the event, which supplied the history of Apple's statements on touchscreen laptops. Prices and specifications are Apple's. Images are official Apple press images used for editorial purposes.
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