Apple finally puts the Mac within finger reach: OLED MacBook Pro starts at 2,899 dollars
The long-awaited model with a touchscreen, Dynamic Island and glowing logo is available to order, but it carries a hefty premium and still runs on M5 chips.
On Wednesday Apple unveiled its first Mac with a touchscreen: a 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro with an OLED panel that Apple calls PROLED XDR. 9to5Mac reports that the touch sensor is built into the panel itself rather than layered on top, which is meant to reduce latency. A reworked hinge is designed to keep the screen steady when touched. The notch gives way to a Dynamic Island, and the Apple logo on the lid lights up again for the first time since 2016. The new machines run on the M5 Pro and M5 Max, the same chips as the regular MacBook Pro from March.
In the US the 14-inch version starts at 2,899 dollars and the 16-inch version at 3,399 dollars. Heise lists German starting prices of 3,299 and 3,899 euros; a fully loaded configuration with 128 GB of memory and 16 TB of storage climbs past 16,000 euros. Deliveries begin on 6 November. According to 9to5Mac the 14-inch model weighs about 1.4 kilograms, more than 200 grams less than its predecessor, and peak HDR brightness rises from 1,600 to 2,000 nits. Face ID and built-in cellular connectivity are still missing.
Ars Technica briefly tried the machine and was impressed above all by the OLED screen; touch input works as expected but adds little to trackpad gestures at the system level. The Apple Pencil is not supported. In a conversation with Wired, reported by 9to5Mac, chief executive John Ternus explained that Apple only wanted to add touch once it would not make the device heavier or thicker. Those who do not want the feature can switch it off entirely in the accessibility settings, MacRumors reports.