Apple unveils its first touchscreen MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display, on sale November 6

Apple on October 28 unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, in 14-inch and 16-inch models with a tandem OLED display branded PROLED XDR and M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, going on sale November 6. It is the first time Apple has brought touch to the Mac's main display, more than a decade after Steve Jobs dismissed the idea of a touchscreen Mac as ergonomically terrible.

How touch works

Apple says the touch sensor is built directly into the PROLED XDR panel rather than layered on top, to reduce latency and make interactions feel more immediate. Users can scroll webpages, pinch to zoom in photos, drag and drop between apps, double-tap a window to fill the screen, or flick windows into tiled positions. The keyboard and trackpad remain fully supported, with Apple positioning touch as an additional input method rather than a replacement.

Existing Mac apps work with touch because macOS translates touches into clicks, while new gesture APIs let developers build touch-specific interactions. Apple's launch list includes Notion, Canva, Zoom, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, plus Adobe Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, Blender, Cinema 4D and djay Pro. For creative work, designers can draw directly across the display, musicians can play software instruments onscreen, and developers can test touch behaviour in iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the MacBook Pro.

Hardware changes to match

Apple redesigned the hinge so the machine stays stable while users interact with the display, and software-based stabilization can smooth the camera image during video calls when touching the screen causes movement. The notch is replaced by a Dynamic Island for search, live updates and Siri AI. Apple advertises up to 24 hours of battery life in a thinner, lighter design.

Pricing and availability

In the US, the 14-inch model with M5 Pro starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399; with M5 Max, prices start at $4,499 and $4,799 respectively. Both models go on sale November 6. The launch follows Apple's M6-based standard 14-inch MacBook Pro and new iMac announced a day earlier, making the touchscreen models a higher-end second line. Whether touch becomes standard across the Mac range, and how quickly developers adopt it, will depend on how the new models perform after launch.