Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro splits early readers over price and touch

Apple has released its first touchscreen laptop, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. It was announced at a "Pro and tell" event and is sold in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. Reviewers say the tandem OLED panel is the best laptop display they have used, but the price and the touchscreen are drawing mixed reactions.

Pricing starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model with the M5 Pro chip and $3,399 for the 16-inch model with the M5 Max chip, according to Tom's Guide. Pocket-lint puts the starting price of the 14-inch model at $2,900. Upgrades to RAM, storage and the display finish raise the cost further. The nano-texture glass option costs an extra $150, and the standard glass has an anti-reflective coating. Tom's Guide notes that a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip starts at $1,999. Pocket-lint says the touchscreen model costs $400 more than the regular M5 Pro MacBook Pro.

The display is the main reason reviewers praise the laptop. The 16-inch model has a 16.3-inch tandem OLED panel with a resolution of 3,472 x 2,266 pixels. Pocket-lint reports a peak brightness of 2,000 nits for both SDR and HDR content. The screen supports the P3 and Adobe RGB colour gamuts, shows 1 billion colours and has a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1. It also includes True Tone and ProMotion, which varies the refresh rate up to 120Hz. Tom's Guide says it is the brightest laptop display the outlet has tested.

The touchscreen is the more debated feature. Pocket-lint found it responsive and said apps did not fail to register touches during its testing. It said the new hinge reduces screen wobble when the display is touched, though it does not remove it. Pocket-lint also said Dynamic Island, which Apple brought over from the iPhone and which replaces the notch, gave it a reason to reach for the screen. Touch controls helped with browsing iCloud photos and with iPhone Mirroring. Tom's Guide says Google apps such as Docs, Drive and Sheets work well. It adds that developers still need to optimise their apps for touch, and that issues may appear over time. The laptop does not support Apple Pencil.

Reader reaction is split. Tom's Guide ran a poll on its website with 453 votes. The largest group, 144 votes, said the laptop is out of their budget. Another 135 said MacBooks do not need a touchscreen. 131 votes said the touch, OLED and brightness are worth the premium, and 43 said they wanted to see how third-party apps handle touch first. Comments on the outlet's TikTok videos were also mostly sceptical about the touchscreen, though some welcomed the return of the glowing Apple logo.

Design changes are smaller. The chassis is the same unibody aluminium design as the previous generation. Pocket-lint reports that the 16-inch model weighs 4 pounds, which is 0.7 pounds less than its predecessor. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds, half a pound less than before.

Several points remain open. Tom's Guide says it plans to test more third-party apps if readers report problems. Neither outlet has tested long-term durability of the touch layer in daily use. The reviews also do not show whether the price will fall or how the laptop compares with rival Windows OLED models over a full year of use.