Apple Finally Put Touch on a MacBook—Then Charged Like It
Apple Finally Put Touch on a MacBook—Then Charged Like It
Ahead of Apple’s Los Angeles “Pro and tell” event, the prospect of a touch-enabled Mac was notable precisely because the company had spent years dismissing touchscreen laptops. Reporting from the venue framed the announcement as Apple yielding to demand after a long-standing philosophical resistance.
On Wednesday, Apple made the reversal official: its new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models pair a touchscreen tandem OLED panel—branded PROLED XDR—with M5 Pro or M5 Max chips. The laptops start at $2,899 and $3,399, respectively, are available to preorder immediately, and are due to ship November 6. Apple argues touch has practical uses beyond scrolling, including testing iOS and iPadOS apps and playing software instruments.
Early hands-ons suggest the screen, not the finger input, may be the real selling point. One reviewer called the OLED panel an “enormous upgrade” over the previous MiniLED display, citing its brightness, blacks and color, while finding that most touchscreen actions still duplicate trackpad gestures. There is no tablet-style conversion or Apple Pencil support—a clear sign Apple has added touch without remaking the Mac into an iPad.
The hardware has won praise elsewhere for being lighter and thinner, particularly the 16-inch model, whose “saturation and contrast” were described as remarkable. The return of the glowing Apple logo also supplied a dose of nostalgia amid the technical overhaul.
But the launch’s other headline is cost. A hands-on configuration with an M5 Max, 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage was listed at $5,799, with a jump to 128GB adding $1,600. At the far end, Elon Musk amplified a comparison claiming a fully loaded 16-inch model costs $14,549—more than a used Tesla Model 3 cited in the same post. Apple has finally embraced touch; the question is how many buyers will want to pay for it.
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