Apple is expected to unveil its first touchscreen MacBook Pro on Wednesday, and the OLED display is the easy part to sell. Touch, weight and price will decide whether anyone who already owns a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip has a reason to upgrade.
The 14-inch and 16-inch models arrive at Apple’s Pro and Tell launch in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT on October 28, look like today’s models, weigh less and swap the notch for a Dynamic Island.
Touch has to earn its place next to the trackpad
Apple plans to present touch as an extra input that sits next to the keyboard and trackpad, and macOS Golden Gate adapts to whichever one you are using. The system tracks whether you have been touching the display or the trackpad and shows controls to match, so a tap on a button can bring up a menu around your finger. The Dock and Menu Bar have been optimized for touch, and macOS Golden Gate 27.2 already makes Safari tabs touch-friendly.
The hard part is ergonomics, since Gurman tried it and says reaching up to a vertical display gets uncomfortable after a few seconds, the same problem Steve Jobs described when he called touchscreen laptops “ergonomically terrible” in 2010. Touch only works as a reason to buy if a few jobs, such as tapping through Safari tabs or dragging files between windows, feel quicker than reaching for the trackpad, and if the reinforced hinge Apple reportedly built keeps the screen from bouncing under a fingertip.
The weight cut has to be big enough to notice
Apple reportedly miniaturized parts and rearranged the inside of the machine to make the new models significantly lighter, though they are not expected to be much thinner. How much weight Apple removed, and which sizes get the lighter build, is not known yet.
The current 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro or M5 Max weighs 4.7 pounds, which is 1.4 pounds more than the 15-inch MacBook Air. The 14-inch models weigh 3.4 to 3.6 pounds and sit within 0.1 to 0.3 pounds of the 15-inch MacBook Air’s 3.3 pounds, so the 16-inch model has the most to gain. A cut of a few ounces would go unnoticed, while a pound or more would change how the 16-inch model travels.
Battery life is the other number to compare. Apple rates today’s MacBook Pro at up to 24 hours, so an OLED model that gives some of that back would be a weaker upgrade than the spec sheet suggests.
The price has to cover a chip that is a year from replacement
The touchscreen models are expected to use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips Apple introduced in March, because Apple is skipping the M6 Pro and M6 Max. The M7 Pro and M7 Max reportedly follow in late 2027, so early buyers would pay for the OLED display, touch and Dynamic Island without getting a new chip.
Today’s 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro costs $2,499 and the 16-inch model costs $2,999 after Apple’s June price increases, and the OLED models are expected to sit above them. Apple will reportedly keep selling the existing models next to the new tier, which gives buyers a cheaper route if touch is not the draw.
The touchscreen MacBook Pro could go on sale Friday, November 6, after a big floor reset at Apple Stores on the evening of Thursday, November 5.
