You can turn off touch on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display models, and the screen stops responding to a finger entirely. Apple builds the touch sensor into every PROLED XDR model, so the OLED panel comes with touch and the only way to opt out is in software.
The option sits in the accessibility settings of macOS 27 Golden Gate. Buyers who want no touch hardware can pick the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 or any Liquid Retina XDR model, which have no touch display.
Turn off touch on MacBook Pro
The touch sensor is built into the display panel itself instead of layered on top, and the setting turns off the input. The parts Apple tuned for touch ship on every PROLED XDR model, including a redesigned hinge that steadies the screen under a finger and video stabilization that smooths the camera feed when the display is touched during a video call.
The Liquid Retina XDR display stays on sale without touch. The 14-inch model starts with M6, and the 14-inch and 16-inch models also come with M5 Pro or M5 Max, so the choice between the two displays decides whether touch hardware is in the machine at all.
Apps built around touch have the most to lose from the off switch
Touch works alongside keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures rather than replacing them, and macOS translates touches into clicks so many existing apps respond to a finger on day one. With the input off, those apps behave the way they do on any other Mac.
The apps designed for touch lose the most. Pixelmator Pro lets you draw, paint and select directly on the canvas, Logic Pro adds a polyphonic Multi-Touch keyboard with tappable chord and drum pads, and Final Cut Pro supports marking ranges, dropping clips into place and pinching to zoom on a cut. Those controls arrive in Apple Creator Studio updates on the App Store this November.
Fourteen third-party apps, including Microsoft Word, DaVinci Resolve and Blender, add touch support later this year. Developers also get updated system gesture APIs and can test touch in their iOS and iPadOS apps on the display itself, which gives them a work reason to leave the setting on.
The OLED touch models start at $2,899 and arrive November 6
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display starts at $2,899 with M5 Pro and the 16-inch starts at $3,399. The M5 Max versions start at $4,499 for the 14-inch and $4,799 for the 16-inch, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 starts at $1,999 and has no touch display.
Pre-orders are open in 30 countries and regions, including the United States, and the first units reach customers and Apple Store locations on Friday, November 6.
Our Take
I would give touch a week before switching it off. Reaching up to a vertical screen is the hard part, and the display still wobbles under a finger in hands-on video. If touch never feels natural, the setting lets you keep the OLED panel and work from the keyboard and trackpad, and the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is there for anyone who would rather skip the touch hardware too.
