Steve Jobs spent many years preaching that touchscreen laptops were ergonomic poison, and that they made no sense. And for over a decade, Cupertino treated that stance like scripture. The closest Apple ever came was the Touch Bar, a skinny OLED strip that pros mostly tolerated until was eventually killed off in 2023. Now, in a single announcement, the company has torn the whole doctrine up. Meet the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, the first Mac you’re actually supposed to touch.
Sixteen Years of Saying Never
The touch sensor is built directly into the OLED panel here rather than being layered on top of it. Ultimately, this ends up cutting latency to the point where tapping, pinching, and flicking windows around macOS 27 feels much more like a native experience rather than being bolted on.
Apple even reworked the hinge so the screen doesn’t wobble every time you poke it. It is worth mentioning that there’s no Apple Pencil support, and the display doesn’t fold flat, so don’t expect a 2-in-1. At the end of the day, this is still a laptop.
Two OLEDs Are Better Than One
Honestly, the panel itself might be the bigger story here. PROLED XDR stacks two self-illuminating pixel layers (the tandem OLED trick Apple debuted on the iPad Pro), pushing 2,000 nits of peak brightness. This is well beyond the outgoing mini-LED panel’s 1,600, alongside a frankly ridiculous 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 120Hz ProMotion.
Color nerds get P3 and Adobe RGB in a single preset, and over 80 percent Rec. 2020 coverage. The laptop also offers up factory calibration tight enough that Apple is pitching this as a portable reference monitor.
Lighter Than an Air, and the Logo Glows Again
Despite all the new tech, both models were still able to shed some weight in the process. The 14-inch now weighs 3 pounds (lighter than a 15-inch MacBook Air), while the 16-inch drops to an even 4 pounds. The notch is gone too, replaced by an iPhone-style Dynamic Island that houses Spotlight, Siri, and Live Activities.
Under the hood sit M5 Pro and M5 Max chips with up to 128GB of unified memory, 16TB of storage, and a claimed 24 hours of battery life. Oh, and the glowing Apple logo is back for the first time since 2015.
Spec Sheet
Model: MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display
Display: 14.2″ or 16.3″ tandem OLED touchscreen
Peak Brightness: 2,000 nits (HDR & SDR)
Contrast Ratio: 10,000,000:1
Refresh Rate: ProMotion, 10Hz-120Hz adaptive
Chip: Apple M5 Pro or M5 Max
Memory: Up to 128GB unified
Storage: Up to 16TB
Battery Life: Up to 24 hours
Weight: 3 LBs (14″) / 4 LBs (16″)
Connectivity: 3x Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SDXC, MagSafe, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6
Pricing & Availability
Pre-orders are open now ahead of a November 6th release, with the 14-inch M5 Pro model starting at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399. Stepping up to the M5 Max runs $4,499 or $4,799 respectively, and a fully specced build sails well past $10,000. Head over to Apple’s website to configure yours.
Recap
Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display
After sixteen years of swearing off touchscreens, Apple builds one into the MacBook Pro, pairing a 2,000-nit tandem OLED with M5 Pro and Max power.
