The key facts

  • First MacBook Pro with a full touchscreen: 14 and 16 inches, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, up to 128 GB of memory and 16 TB of storage
  • Pricing: from $2,899 for the 14-inch and from $3,399 for the 16-inch version; pre-orders open, sales start November 6
  • Keyboard and trackpad retained — touch input complements macOS rather than turning the laptop into a tablet

The touchscreen has arrived in the MacBook

On October 28, Apple unveiled a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen at a starting price of $2,899 — nearly ten years after the company's first attempt to bring touch input to laptops via the Touch Bar, which was later removed from the lineup. TechCrunch reports this. The new approach is far more radical: the laptop received a PROLED XDR display in two sizes — 14 and 16 inches — with peak brightness of 2,000 nits and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1.

Specifications and design

The device runs on M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, offering up to 128 GB of unified memory and up to 16 TB of storage. Apple designed a hinge that stabilizes the screen when touched — this also helps keep the camera steady during video calls while the user interacts with the display. Instead of the familiar notch, the screen now features a cutout in the Dynamic Island style. According to Kun.uz, the body has become thinner and weighs 1.3 kg, and the glowing Apple logo has returned to the back panel — for the past few years the company had been producing MacBooks with a plain engraved logo. Two colors are available: silver and black.

Pricing and launch

Publications differ on pricing details: TechCrunch cites $2,899 for the 14-inch and $3,399 for the 16-inch version, while Kun.uz rounds these to $2.9K and $3.4K respectively. Pre-orders are open now, with sales beginning on November 6. The keyboard and trackpad remain in place: touch input and gestures familiar to iPhone and iPad users merely complement macOS — this is not about turning the laptop into a tablet.

Context: the second major release under the new CEO

The launch became the second high-profile release under Apple's new chief John Turnus: in September the company unveiled its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. The day before, on October 27, Apple also announced a standard MacBook Pro with the M6 chip in two sizes, priced from $1,999. Notably, the touchscreen version costs $900 more than the base 14-inch model — it is a separate, more expensive lineup, not a replacement for the existing MacBook Pro.