The touchscreen MacBook Pro finally brings touch to the Mac after Apple argued against it for over a decade, and I have no issue with the change of mind. What bothers me is that touch here does the same jobs Windows laptops have handled since 2012, and only models that start at $2,899 get it.
Steve Jobs called vertical touch surfaces ergonomically terrible in October 2010, and Tim Cook dismissed Windows 8 merging a tablet and a laptop in 2012 by saying “you can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those aren’t going to be pleasing to the user.” The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 at $1,999, the iMac with M6 and the MacBook Neo stay on a trackpad or mouse.
Touchscreen MacBook Pro gestures match what Windows laptops do
The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display lets you swipe to scroll, pinch to zoom, drag and drop slides between presentations, double-tap a window to fill the screen and flick to tile it. Windows has treated touch as an alternative to the mouse pointer in regular apps since Windows 8 went on sale in 2012.
macOS takes the same approach to existing software, because macOS turns taps into clicks and many apps work on day one. Updated system gesture APIs are there for developers who want more, and touch works in tandem with keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures.
The touch sensor is built into the panel instead of layered on top, which reduces latency. Video stabilization smooths the camera feed when you tap during a call, so touching the screen on a video call does not shake your picture.
The clearest software difference is on the Mac side. At the launch event, macOS enlarged drop-down menu options and window buttons when they were touched, while Windows 11 adapts mostly through taskbar spacing that only appears when a laptop is used as a tablet.
Apple’s answer to touching a vertical screen is a newly designed hinge that provides greater stability while using touch. The MacBook Pro stays a laptop with a keyboard and trackpad, so every tap means reaching across the keys, the posture Steve Jobs criticized in 2010. Windows makers built 2-in-1 laptops whose screens fold into tablet posture, and that is where Windows switches on its touch interface.
Windows touch laptops are still a minority after 14 years
Windows 8 made touch the priority in 2012, and buyers did not follow. IDC cut its forecast for 2013 touch laptop sales from 17% to 18% down to 10% to 15%, and in August 2013 none of the top ten laptops on Amazon’s bestseller list had a touchscreen. IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell said touch was not compelling for most people, and touch laptops cost $700 to $800, up to double the price of non-touch models.
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore later said “we didn’t quite get it right” with Windows 8. Windows 10 then put the mouse and keyboard first on desktops and notebooks, with touch extending the experience.
Touch has grown since then, but it is still the smaller group. Touchscreens made up 16.3% of global laptop shipments in 2025, according to IDC. IDC group vice president Ryan Reith says touch is less popular with commercial buyers, because most workers plug their laptops into monitors at their desks.
Touch starts at $2,899 while iMac and MacBook Neo get none
Touch comes bundled with a tandem OLED display, the Dynamic Island on MacBook Pro and a body that weighs 3 pounds in the 14-inch size and 4 pounds in the 16-inch size. Prices run $2,899 for the 14-inch model with M5 Pro, $3,399 for the 16-inch with M5 Pro, $4,499 for the 14-inch with M5 Max and $4,799 for the 16-inch with M5 Max.
The mini-LED MacBook Pro models stay on sale for people who want to spend less, and the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 has a Liquid Retina XDR mini-LED display with no touch. At $1,999 it costs $900 less than the cheapest touch model, though the chip is different. Within the M5 Pro lineup, touch adds $400, since the non-touch 14-inch and 16-inch models start at $2,499 and $2,999.
The iMac with M6 starts at $1,499 with a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display and a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. The MacBook Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and a large Multi-Touch trackpad at $699. Apple CEO John Ternus explained why Apple waited for touch, but he declined to say whether it will reach the MacBook Air or iMac.
Apple has had touch-first large-screen devices in the iPad for years. In 2021, it said it had no plans to merge iPad and Mac, and John Ternus said Apple was pushing to make the best Mac and the best iPad it could. Touch on the MacBook Pro narrows that gap, and developers can test how touch performs in their iOS and iPadOS apps on its display.
The ergonomic objection has not fully gone away. A launch-day video shows the display still wobbling under a finger during piano playing in Logic Pro, even with the redesigned hinge.
If this is what Apple ended up doing with touch on the Mac, it is fair to ask why it did not do it a decade ago. The ergonomics remain poor and there is no convertible form factor for a MacBook. Touch on the Mac does the same thing Windows aimed to do on the desktop, and on Windows it never really took off.
Perhaps, the next logical step now is for Apple to support macOS on iPad for users with Magic Keyboards since converging a toaster and refrigerator is acceptable now.
