Apple has done the thing it spent a decade saying it wouldn't. The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, announced Wednesday at the company's "Pro and Tell" event in Los Angeles, is the first touchscreen Mac Apple has ever shipped, and the first MacBook Pro to use an OLED panel.
The new display is a tandem OLED, a design that stacks two OLED layers to push brightness and longevity further than a single layer can, the same approach Apple just brought to the new touchscreen iPad Pro lineup. Apple quotes 2,000 nits of peak HDR and SDR brightness and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1. Instead of the notch on current MacBooks, the screen carries a Dynamic Island cutout for notifications and live activities, mirroring the iPhone.
To make touch actually usable on a laptop screen, Apple redesigned the hinge so it stays stable when someone taps or swipes the display, according to TechCrunch, which also says the same mechanism helps keep the camera steady during video calls. The machine supports multi-touch gestures, Gadgets 360 reports, and brings back the glowing Apple logo on the lid, a design element Apple dropped years ago and that fans have been asking for ever since.
Under the hood, buyers choose between M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of storage. Apple says battery life runs up to 24 hours. TechCrunch reports a battery as large as 100Wh, per Gadgets 360's account of the Indian launch.
Pricing and where it lands
In the US, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display starts at $2,899, and the 16-inch model starts at $3,399. Preorders opened Wednesday, with deliveries beginning November 6.
Gadgets 360 confirmed the laptop is coming to India in two colour options, going on sale November 6, the same date as the US rollout. Indian pricing wasn't disclosed in Wednesday's coverage, so expect that detail to land closer to the sale date.
The launch is notable timing as much as hardware. It comes one day after Apple unveiled a separate, non-touch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip starting at $1,999, meaning the lineup now splits cleanly: a cheaper M6 Pro without touch or OLED, and a pricier PROLED XDR model that has both. It's also Apple's second attempt at touch on a Pro laptop, a decade after the Touch Bar arrived and was later quietly removed.
For new CEO John Turnus, the touchscreen MacBook Pro is the second marquee launch in two months, following September's iPhone Duo foldable. Whether buyers actually want to poke at a Mac screen, after years of Apple insisting they wouldn't, is the open question heading into November 6.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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