Apple's New MacBook Pro Is the First Mac Laptop With Touch

The Mac has long kept its distance from touch input, and Apple has now changed course with the new MacBook Pro. The company announced the model with a PROLED XDR display and is presenting it as the first Mac laptop with a touchscreen. It is the product Apple hinted at on October 19 with its "Pro and tell" teaser, which new CEO John Ternus followed with a "spotlight" teaser of his own.

The new MacBook Pro ships with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the same processor options offered on the existing non-OLED, non-touch models. The differences lie in the display technology, the design and the ways you can interact with the machine.

PROLED XDR display and a lit Apple logo

The new model is the first to use the PROLED XDR display, which replaces Mini-LED in the MacBook Pro. The panel has a tandem OLED structure, and peak HDR brightness rises from 1,600 nits to 2,000 nits. It can be configured with a standard or nano-texture finish.

The laptop also brings back an illuminated Apple logo, a feature Apple last used on its laptops with the 12-inch MacBook and the 2016 MacBook Pro. Apple says the new design is both thinner and lighter than standard MacBook Pro models of the same size. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds, down from 3.5 pounds, while the 16-inch model drops from 4.7 pounds to 4 pounds. Dimensions shrink too: the 14-inch model measures 0.59 x 12.24 x 8.52 inches, versus 0.61 x 12.31 x 8.71 inches for the previous design.

How touch input works on the Mac

According to Apple, the touch sensor is not layered on top of the panel but integrated directly into the display. The company says this reduces latency and gives the feeling of touching the content itself. Users can scroll web pages, pinch to zoom in photos, drag and drop presentation slides, and double-tap a window to fill the screen or quickly drag it into place.

Apple says graphic designers can now use the whole display as a drawing surface, musicians can play software instruments on screen, and developers can test the touch behavior of iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the MacBook Pro. Touch works alongside keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures. A redesigned hinge improves stability during touch use, and advanced video stabilization steadies the camera image in real time during video calls when the screen is touched.

The notch is replaced by a Dynamic Island, which acts as a hub on the Mac for Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri AI.

Pricing, hardware and what's missing

The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch model at $3,399. Pre-orders open today, with deliveries starting November 6. The laptop comes in silver and space black and can be configured with up to 128GB of unified memory and 16TB of SSD storage.

There are some omissions. The new models have no Face ID, Touch ID remains, and there is no built-in cellular option. For buyers who are not interested in a touchscreen, the existing 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations, updated with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips in March, stay on sale at the same prices. They lack the OLED display, the illuminated logo and the thinner, lighter design, but since both lines offer M5 Pro and M5 Max options, performance is broadly similar.

Apple also announced a redesigned iPad mini, an M6 iMac and a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip in the same week.