Apple spent years insisting you shouldn’t touch a Mac screen. Now it has made one you can poke. The new touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899, which Engadget calls the highest launch price it has seen for a MacBook Pro.
Apple calls it the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. It arrives in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, and pre-orders opened today, according to Apple’s announcement. Deliveries and store availability begin Friday, Nov. 6.
What the touchscreen MacBook Pro actually gets you
The big change is the screen. It is a tandem OLED panel with the touch sensor built right in. Apple says it hits up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, with a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a 120Hz variable refresh rate.
Apple also redesigned the hinge to cut down on wobble when you tap the display. And you won’t have to wait for developers to catch up. MacRumors reports that macOS translates touch into clicks, so many existing apps work with touch right away.
It is lighter, too. The 14-inch weighs about 3 pounds, roughly half a pound less than before. The 16-inch weighs about 4 pounds, down about 0.7 pounds, according to Tom’s Hardware.
Inside, you also get Thunderbolt 5, a 12MP Center Stage camera, a six-speaker sound system, macOS 27 and up to 24 hours of battery life, per Apple’s release.
Here’s the thing: the price of Apple’s touchscreen laptop
The 14-inch starts at $2,899. The 16-inch starts at $3,399. Education pricing drops those to $2,749 and $3,199 for the M5 Pro models, Gizmodo reports.
Engadget says $2,899 is the highest launch price it has seen for a MacBook Pro. Still, the sticker shock has context. 9to5Mac notes that before Apple’s June price hikes, M5 Pro models started at $2,199 and $2,699. By that math, the new entry price is at least $700 higher in just four months.
So a touchscreen is nice. Is it $700-more-than-last-time nice?
That is the question your wallet gets to answer.
The catch: this OLED MacBook Pro is not the new M6 chip
Don’t confuse this laptop with the one Apple announced a day earlier. The touchscreen MacBook Pro runs the M5 Pro and M5 Max, the same chips as the existing non-OLED models. The M6 is not in it, according to 9to5Mac.
The separate M6 14-inch MacBook Pro came out Tuesday. It starts at $1,999 and has no touch and no OLED, per Apple. For a closer look at that model, see our breakdown of Apple’s M6 MacBook Pro versus the M5. Apple is selling all of these side by side, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported the company plans to keep selling the non-touch versions.
If you are shopping, check the full spec sheet. Memory and storage ceilings are reported differently across outlets, and M5 Max starting prices vary from site to site. Apple’s own store is the place to confirm both before you click buy.
Why Apple built a touchscreen Mac now
Apple executives spent years waving off touch on the Mac. That changed. Per Bloomberg, new CEO John Ternus believed touch had become “table stakes” for laptops. If you want more on the man steering the company, we also covered what’s confirmed about Apple’s job cuts under Ternus.
Apple’s hardware chief Johny Srouji called the new machine “a monumental step forward for the Mac.” Ternus, for his part, posted on X: “We’re glowing with excitement over the new MacBook Pro. You’ve gotta touch it to believe it.” (Yes, the logo lights up. Apple really did lean into the pun.)
This is also not Apple’s first run at a gimmick on this keyboard. TechCrunch notes it comes nearly 10 years after the Touch Bar MacBook Pro, a feature Apple later dropped. This time the whole screen is the touch surface, which is a much harder idea to quietly retire.
It was also a busy week. The OLED iPad mini landed Monday, the M6 iMac and M6 14-inch MacBook Pro on Tuesday, and this one on Wednesday.
Next up is Nov. 6, when the first ones reach customers and the real reviews start rolling in. Then we find out whether people actually want to touch their Mac, or just want to be able to.
