For a decade, Apple insisted that Macs would never get touchscreens. That era is over. On October 29 the company introduced its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, pairing a new PROLED XDR display with its M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with preorders open and an on-sale date of November 6.
The Touchscreen MacBook Pro Display, Up Close
The touchscreen panel is the headline: a 120Hz PROLED XDR display rated at up to 2,000 nits of brightness, offered in 14-inch and 16-inch models. It is positioned as a separate, higher tier above the standard line rather than a replacement for it, with pricing to match — the 14-inch touchscreen models start at the equivalent of ¥22,999 in the first listed market. Alongside it, Apple refreshed the conventional range: an M6 MacBook Pro starting at $1,999 with Wi-Fi 7 and up to 24 hours of battery life, and an M6 iMac from $1,499.
A Busy Week Beyond the Mac
The MacBook was the centrepiece of a wider October push that included an OLED iPad mini with an A20 Pro chip starting at $699, plus smarter Creative Studio tools across Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and the iWork apps. Reviewers who went hands-on called the touchscreen the story of the event — the moment Apple’s laptop line finally converged with the interaction model its own iPad popularised. Readers can follow more gadget and consumer tech news for continuing gadget coverage.
What It Means for Buyers
As the late-October launch wave round-up notes, the launch caps a late-October wave of hardware across the industry. For Mac buyers, the choice is now three-way: the value M6 models, the touchscreen flagship, or waiting for reviews to judge whether touch input genuinely improves a laptop workflow. Full independent reviews are expected within about a week of the November 6 release.
Apple resisted the touchscreen laptop longer than any rival. Now that it has relented — at the premium end, with its best display attached — the rest of the industry will be watching the sales figures very closely.
