After years of resisting, Apple today launched a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen starting at $2,899. The release comes nearly 10 years after the company first tried integrating touchscreens on its laptops, with its Touch Bar on a MacBook Pro, which it later went on to remove.
The new MacBook Pro more fully embraces the touchscreen, offering a new PROLED XDR Display in both 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes. The device is powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips as options to choose from, along with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of storage. The display has 2000 nits peak HDR and SDR brightness and a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The Touchscreen MacBook Pro 14-inch starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch version starts at $3,399.
To make the new MacBook easy to use, Apple designed a hinge that stabilizes the screen when users touch it. This also helps to stabilize the camera when you are on a video call and trying to access content on the display.
In addition, the screen will include a Dynamic Island-style cutout instead of the notch that’s present on most of the current MacBooks.
The new Touchscreen MacBook marks two marquee product launches for new CEO John Turnus, who also introduced the company’s first foldable, the iPhone Duo, in September.
The launch follows yesterday’s unveiling of a new standard MacBook Pro with the M6 chip in two sizes starting from $1,999.