Key takeaways
- Apple announced an OLED MacBook Pro with a built-in touch sensor on 28 October, saying MacBook Pro features Touch for the first time.
- The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399, with deliveries from 6 November.
- Chief executive John Ternus said Apple needed to reach a point where adding touch did not make the product lesser in any way.
Apple on Wednesday announced a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen. Apple says the MacBook Pro features Touch for the first time, and 9to5Mac calls it the company’s first touchscreen laptop. The new model is built around an OLED panel that Apple calls the PROLED XDR display. It starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch version and $3,399 for the 16-inch, with pre-orders open from 28 October and deliveries beginning on Friday, 6 November.
The laptop keeps the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips used in the MacBook Pro models announced in March, so the main changes are in the display, the hinge, the thermal design and the body. It sits alongside the existing mini-LED models and the new 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro, according to MacRumors.
A Touch Sensor Built Into the Panel
Apple has built the touch sensor into the display panel itself, which MacRumors reports means no added latency. The company says macOS translates touch into clicks, so many existing apps work with touch immediately. In its own words, the machine brings "pros a whole new way to interact with their content".
To keep the screen steady when it is pressed, Apple redesigned the hinge. A reworked thermal architecture directs warm air away from the display, and video stabilisation smooths the camera feed during touch-based video calls, MacRumors reports.
The camera notch is gone. A smaller Dynamic Island takes its place. According to 9to5Mac, the laptop still uses Touch ID rather than Face ID, and no models have built-in cellular connectivity.
At a Glance
The OLED MacBook Pro was announced on 28 October 2026, with deliveries beginning 6 November. The 14-inch starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399. Peak brightness is up to 2,000 nits, and the chips are the M5 Pro and M5 Max with up to 128GB of memory and up to 16TB of storage.
A Brighter Screen in a Lighter Body
The PROLED XDR panel uses tandem OLED technology with factory calibration. Peak brightness reaches 2,000 nits, up from 1,600 nits for HDR content on the mini-LED models, 9to5Mac reports. MacRumors lists a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1 and a refresh rate that varies from 10Hz to 120Hz. An anti-reflective coating cuts glare, and a nano-texture finish is available as an option.
Smaller bezels give the screens measured sizes of 14.2 inches and 16.3 inches. The 14-inch model weighs about 3 pounds, down from 3.5, and the 16-inch about 4 pounds, down from 4.7, according to 9to5Mac. MacRumors says the new models are up to 1mm slimmer than their predecessors. The rear Apple logo glows, and the laptop comes in silver or space black.
The laptop has three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe charging and a headphone jack. The machine supports up to four external displays, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. It has a six-speaker system that Apple says delivers 50% deeper bass, and fast charging reaches 50% in 30 minutes.
Prices and Configurations
The 14-inch model with an M5 Pro chip, a 15-core CPU, a 16-core GPU, 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage costs $2,899. The 16-inch version with an 18-core CPU, a 20-core GPU and the same memory and storage costs $3,399. Both prices are in US dollars. M5 Max configurations begin at $4,499 for the 14-inch and $4,799 for the 16-inch, each with 36GB of memory and 2TB of storage, according to MacRumors.
At the top end, the 14-inch costs $14,249 and the 16-inch $14,549. Those builds use an M5 Max with an 18-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, 128GB of memory, a 16TB solid-state drive and nano-texture glass. MacRumors puts the 16TB drive at $7,000 more than the 2TB base, the move from 48GB to 128GB of memory at $2,000 and the glass at $150.
The touchscreen models can be ordered from Apple or Amazon, 9to5Mac reports.
The company says macOS translates touch into clicks, so many existing apps work with touch immediately.
Why Apple Added Touch Now
Apple has long resisted touch on the Mac. MacRumors quotes Mr Ternus as saying the Mac "is first and foremost an indirect input device, built around the trackpad and keyboard", though he added that touch is sometimes useful. The condition, he said, was getting to a point where touch did not make the product lesser in any way.
In an interview with WIRED, as quoted by 9to5Mac, he said adding touch had not made the laptop heavier or thicker. The hardware figures bear that out: 9to5Mac reports the new models are lighter than the previous design.
Other executives gave their own reasons. Johny Srouji, Apple’s hardware chief, said display technology, Apple silicon and software had advanced enough to meet the company’s bar for touch, MacRumors reports. Greg Joswiak, the marketing chief, said professional users had been waiting for it and that a generation of young creators expects it.
Mr Ternus wrote on X that the company was glowing with excitement. Deliveries start on 6 November, and the touchscreen models will then face the same test as any new hardware: whether buyers use touch often enough to justify a price that starts at $2,899.
Sources
- Apple Announces OLED MacBook Pro With Touch Display, MacRumors
- Apple’s New Touchscreen MacBook Pro Costs Up to $14,549, MacRumors
- Apple Executives Explain Why the MacBook Pro Finally Has a Touch Screen, MacRumors
- Apple announces redesigned MacBook Pro, its first touchscreen Mac, 9to5Mac
- Ternus addresses Apple breaking touchscreen Mac taboo: Who knew?, 9to5Mac
