Apple launches first touchscreen MacBook Pro, ending a decade of resistance

Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro arrives

Apple has launched its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, ending more than a decade of resistance to touch input on its laptops. According to TechCrunch, the machine starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch, and lands nearly ten years after Apple's last experiment with touch on a Mac — the Touch Bar, which the company later removed.

The launch is one of two marquee product introductions for new CEO John Turnus, who also unveiled the iPhone Duo foldable in September, TechCrunch reports.

Display, chips and ports

The new laptops use what Apple calls a PROLED XDR display, available in 14- and 16-inch sizes. TechCrunch reports peak HDR and SDR brightness of 2,000 nits and a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Buyers can choose between M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of storage.

The port selection includes three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe and a headphone jack. The M5 Pro configuration supports three external displays, while the M5 Max variant handles up to four.

Apple has also replaced the notch found on current MacBooks with a Dynamic Island-style cutout, and fitted a six-speaker array with a redesigned woofer.

Lighter, thinner, and a glowing logo returns

The 14-inch touchscreen model weighs 3.0 pounds (1.38 kg) and the 16-inch weighs 4.0 pounds (1.82 kg), according to TechCrunch — lighter than their non-touch predecessors. The Verge, which went hands-on, puts the gap in context: the new non-touch 14-inch M6 MacBook Pros start at 3.4 pounds, and the non-touch 16-inch M5 Pro model weighs 4.7 pounds. The Verge also found the 16-inch touchscreen model slightly thinner, with a marginally smaller footprint.

The Verge highlights another retro flourish: the glowing Apple logo is back on the lid. Its brightness tracks the display, dimming alongside it, and it can be switched off entirely.

Touch on macOS

Apple designed a hinge that stabilizes the screen when you touch it, TechCrunch reports, which also keeps the camera steadier during video calls. The Verge's hands-on suggests it is not a complete fix: firm taps toward the top of the display can still make the screen wobble.

On the software side, The Verge found that touch works largely as expected in Apple's own apps — swiping to scroll, pinching to zoom and double-tapping to maximize a window. Third-party apps may need updates to make the most of touch, but macOS falls back to translating taps into clicks, so they remain usable rather than broken.

Apple is also trying to soften touch's weakest points. According to The Verge, poking at small controls magnifies them — the red, yellow and green window buttons enlarge when touched, and tapping to open a drop-down menu enlarges the menu. Even so, The Verge cautions that hitting small interface targets with a finger remains a fiddly experience, and concludes that the touchscreen is unlikely to revolutionize the MacBook: it is a variant of an existing line, not an entirely new product category.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders open October 30, with availability from November 6, TechCrunch reports. The $2,899 starting price carries a premium: The Verge notes it is $400 more than an otherwise similarly specced non-touch M5 Pro MacBook Pro. The touchscreen models follow the announcement of a standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip starting at $1,999.

Why it matters

Steve Jobs famously dismissed touchscreen laptops as "ergonomically terrible," and TechCrunch notes that Tim Cook and other Apple executives were similarly dismissive — a stance that held for over a decade. That Apple has now reversed course, and changed macOS itself to accommodate fingers rather than only a trackpad cursor, marks a real shift in how the company thinks its laptops should be used. It also creates work for developers, since third-party apps may need updates to feel right on a touch display. With a $400 premium and the touchscreen positioned as one variant in the lineup, Apple is testing demand rather than remaking the MacBook overnight — but the break from Jobs-era orthodoxy, under a new CEO no less, is significant.