Apple Adds a Touchscreen to the MacBook Pro, Starting at $2,899
Apple has announced a MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen at its "Pro and tell" event. The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch model at $3,399. The Verge reported that the new models will be available starting November 6.
The display is what Apple calls the ProLED XDR, a tandem OLED panel. Apple specifies peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits (a nit is one candela per square metre, a measure of light output), a 120Hz refresh rate (the screen redraws its image 120 times per second, double the usual 60) and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1. Tandem OLED stacks two light-emitting layers in series, a construction typically used to raise peak brightness over single-layer panels. Apple's newsroom lists a release titled "Apple unveils groundbreaking MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display," which uses the same branding.
Both sizes ship with M5 Pro or M5 Max silicon. The screen includes a Dynamic Island that can display Live Activities, a feature Apple previously confined to iPhone, and the glowing Apple logo on the lid returns. Apple gives the 14-inch model a weight of 3 pounds and the 16-inch model 4 pounds, and rates battery life at up to 24 hours.
The port selection carries over a conventional set of connectors: a MagSafe 3 port, a headphone jack, an SD card reader, an HDMI port and three Thunderbolt 5 ports. The machines support three external displays simultaneously, or four with the M5 Max version.
Pricing is the most immediate change for buyers. The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models that preceded the touchscreen redesign started at $2,499 and $2,999, according to MacRumors, which reported ahead of the event that the touchscreen models could start up to $500 higher. The announced starting prices are each $400 above the prior models. Apple's non-touch 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5, introduced in March 2026, started at $1,699 in the U.S. and comes standard with 1TB of storage, so the touchscreen models sit at the top of the current lineup rather than alongside it.
The touchscreen direction was not a surprise. In October 2025, Reuters, citing Bloomberg News, reported that Apple was preparing a redesigned MacBook Pro with a touch display for late 2026 or early 2027. The announcement arrived within that window.
The broader context here is ergonomic and practical. A MacBook Pro has been designed around a trackpad and keyboard, and adding direct touch input to a clamshell raises questions about how often users will reach for the screen, how the hinge and lid handle repeated pressure, and whether software built for pointer input adapts well. Those questions will be answered by use rather than by spec sheets.
In my view, the more consequential detail for working professionals is the panel itself. A 2,000-nit OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate suits HDR video, colour-critical grading and fast-moving interfaces, but it is also a sustained-use display in a machine marketed for long battery life and heavy workloads. Organic panels have historically required attention to static-image retention, and how Apple's tandem design handles that across long working days will matter more to developers and editors than the headline brightness figure.
For years, touch was a convention largely confined to tablets and two-in-one hybrids. Apple's decision to add it to its flagship laptop line changes the product definition. Whether the touchscreen becomes a primary input or a secondary one will depend on how macOS and third-party applications use it, and the announcement alone does not show that.
