Apple announced an all-new MacBook Pro laptop with an OLED touchscreen on Wednesday at its “Pro and tell” event. It starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model, or $3,399 for the 16-inch version, and it’s available for pre-order today ahead of its November 6 release.
The new MacBook Pro features what Apple calls a “PROLED XDR” display, which is a tandem OLED display. It offers up to 2,000 nits of peak SDR brightness, a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1. It is equipped with M5 Pro or M5 Max chips – not the M6 chip from other MacBook Pro announced this week. There’s a dynamic island on the screen that can show you things like live activities, similar to those available on iPhones. And the glowing Apple logo on the lid is back.
Apple says the display’s touch sensor is integrated “directly into the display panel” and not overlapped, which the company says reduces latency. As for why you might want to use the touchscreen, in addition to tasks like scrolling a web page or zooming in on a photo, Apple offers examples like testing iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the screen or playing software instruments on the screen. In a press release, Apple said its apps are optimized for touch and that an updated API will allow developers to add touch to their own apps.
The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds and the 16-inch model weighs 4 pounds, according to Apple. Both laptops are also thinner; the 16-inch version is “nearly a millimeter” thinner, while the 14-inch version is half a millimeter thinner, according to Apple. And Apple has increased the size of the screens by thinning the bezels; the smallest model has a screen size of 14.2 inches, while the largest now measures 16.3 inches.
The laptop offers “up to” 24 hours of battery life. It has a MagSafe 3 port, a headphone jack, an SD card reader, an HDMI port, and three Thunderbolt 5 ports. The laptop supports three external displays simultaneously or four if you get an M5 Max version.
Apple also touts an “enhanced six-speaker audio system” that delivers “50 percent deeper bass and remarkable sound clarity.” The laptop also features a “newly designed hinge” for better stability.
Until now, Apple has long resisted the idea of a touchscreen laptop. During a 2012 earnings conference call, former CEO Tim Cook, responding to a question about why he didn’t think the tablet and laptop would converge, said, “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things probably won’t appeal to the user.” » In 2010, Steve Jobs called touchscreen laptops “ergonomically terrible.” Apple tried replacing function keys with the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros starting in 2016, but returned to physical function keys with the 2021 MacBook Pro redesign and abandoned the Touch Bar altogether in 2023.
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