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Apple's First Touchscreen Mac Is a $2,899 OLED MacBook Pro That Turns Taps Into Clicks for Apps Never Built for Touch
Apple's MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display puts the touch sensor inside a tandem OLED panel, adds a stiffer hinge, and has macOS translate touches into clicks; it starts at $2,899 with M5 Pro chips, a day after Apple's $1,999 non-touch MacBook Pro with M6.
“The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is a monumental step forward for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, in Apple’s announcement. Apple calls it “Touch for the first time on Mac.”
The touch layer isn’t a sheet on top of the screen. “The touch sensor is built directly into the display panel — not layered on top of it — reducing latency so users feel like they’re touching the content itself,” Apple says. And “a newly designed hinge provides greater stability while using Touch,” which is the part anyone who has poked a laptop screen and watched it wobble will care about.
The software trick is simpler. “Many existing apps work with Touch right away, because macOS automatically translates touches into clicks.” Apps that want more get updated gesture APIs. Apple’s own pro apps already have them: Logic Pro gets “a fully Multi-Touch polyphonic keyboard,” and developers “can test how Touch performs in their iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the MacBook Pro display.”
The panel is tandem OLED with “up to 2000 nits peak HDR and SDR brightness,” a 10,000,000 contrast ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate. The 14-inch “now weighs half a pound less at 3 pounds,” and the 16-inch weighs 4 pounds. Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours. MacRumors notes the notch is gone: “There is no more notch, with Apple instead adding a small Dynamic Island that takes up less space.” It also has “a glowing rear Apple logo.”
Prices start at $2,899 for the 14-inch M5 Pro and $3,399 for the 16-inch M5 Pro. The M5 Max models start at $4,499 and $4,799. Preorders are open now.
| MacBook Pro 14 PROLED (M5 Pro) | MacBook Pro 14 (M6) | MacBook Pro 14 mini-LED (M5 Pro) | Dell XPS 14 (2026), touch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $2,899 | $1,999 | Not in Apple’s release | $3,149.99 as configured with touch |
| Touchscreen | Yes, sensor in the panel | No | No | Yes |
| Display | Tandem OLED, up to 2000 nits | Liquid Retina XDR, up to 1600 nits peak HDR | Mini-LED | QHD+ 2880x1800 touch |
| Chip | M5 Pro, 3nm | M6, 2nm | M5 Pro, 3nm | Intel Core Ultra 7 358H |
| Weight | 3 pounds | Not in Apple’s release | Half a pound more than PROLED | 3.00 lb (2.8K OLED) |
| Rated battery | Up to 24 hours | Up to 24 hours | Not in Apple’s release | Not on Dell’s page |
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6, announced October 27, “starts at $1,999 (U.S.).” According to MacRumors’ comparison, the M6 is made on “TSMC’s first-generation 2nm process (N2)” and the M5 on “TSMC’s third-generation 3nm process (N3P).” The touch model skips that generation. “The new MacBook Pro uses the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips as the MacBook Pro models announced back in March,” MacRumors wrote, and “Apple is selling the OLED MacBook Pro models alongside the existing mini-LED models and the new M6 14-inch MacBook Pro.” On the Windows side, Dell’s XPS 14 lists a touch configuration at $3,149.99.
What Apple didn’t say. The release never mentions Apple Pencil. The Dynamic Island’s best trick has a condition: “Spotlight only moves to the Dynamic Island if Siri AI is available and enabled.” Siri AI is “subject to daily usage limits,” and “Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future.” Apple gives no date and no price for that fee.
What it means for buyers. If you use Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro or test iPad apps, touch has a job on day one. If you mostly type and browse, the $1,999 M6 model is newer silicon for less.
Why now. Apple put both new MacBook Pros out in the same week, one on October 27 and one on October 28, so buyers choose between the newest chip and the newest screen at the same moment.
For years Apple’s answer to a touchscreen Mac was the iPad sitting next to it. This model doesn’t settle that argument so much as move it up the price list: touch arrives at the top of the lineup, on the previous chip, beside two other MacBook Pros that don’t have it. The interesting part is the click translation. Any Mac app becomes a touch app on day one without a rewrite, though nothing guarantees those apps feel good under a finger.
Apple’s release lists Touch, the Dynamic Island and Siri AI side by side. Its footnotes say only that expanded Siri AI access will cost something “in the future.”