Apple unveils first touchscreen MacBook Pro with OLED

Apple on Wednesday, October 28, introduced its first Mac with a touchscreen. The redesigned MacBook Pro has a tandem OLED panel that Apple calls the PROLED XDR display, a Dynamic Island, and M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. The launch reverses the company's long resistance to touch laptops. "Yes, for the very first time, we are bringing touch to the Mac," CEO John Ternus told media and analysts at the Pro and Tell event in Los Angeles, according to CNBC.cnbc.com

The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399. CNBC noted that both prices are well above those of existing models. Pre-orders opened on October 28, and the laptops go on sale on Friday, November 6, Apple said in its announcement.tradingview.com+1

Display and design

Apple says the display reaches up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness and has a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It refreshes at up to 120Hz and covers both the P3 and Adobe RGB color ranges. The touch sensor is built into the panel itself rather than layered on top, which Apple says reduces lag. A new hinge holds the screen steadier when it is touched. Because macOS turns touches into clicks, many existing apps work with touch right away, according to Apple.tradingview.com

The Dynamic Island now holds Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds and the 16-inch 4 pounds, and Apple rates battery life at up to 24 hours. Configurations go up to 128GB of unified memory and 16TB of storage. Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer, called the laptop "a monumental step forward for the Mac," Apple said.tradingview.com

Reversing a longtime stance

Apple has dismissed touchscreen laptops for years. Steve Jobs called them "ergonomically terrible" in 2010. In 2012, Tim Cook compared merging a tablet and a laptop to combining "a toaster and a refrigerator," The Verge noted. Ternus himself, then head of hardware engineering, said in 2021 that the Mac was "totally optimized for indirect input," CNBC reported. According to MacRumors, citing Bloomberg, the current mini-LED MacBook Pro models will stay on sale for now.theverge.com+2

A weak laptop market

The launch is Ternus's third major product launch as CEO. It comes during a deep slump in the PC market. IDC estimates that total PC shipments fell 20% year over year in the third quarter, while Apple's fell 11%. Rising memory prices have pushed laptop prices higher, CNBC reported. IDC's Ryan Reith said only 17% of notebooks shipped this year will have touchscreens. He described Apple's move as "really a user interface and software thing" and added, "It's one more thing that can draw the developers in."cnbc.com