breaking / Apple

🚨 Apple Just Put a Touchscreen on the MacBook Pro — and It Starts at $2,899

Apple's first touchscreen Mac is a MacBook Pro with an OLED display, from $2,899. Pre-orders open now; it arrives November 6.

By Tech Arcade··2 min read

Apple Just Put a Touchscreen on the MacBook Pro — and It Starts at $2,899 — Tech Arcade
Photo: Dmitry Chernyshov / Unsplash

Apple has finally done the thing it spent 15 years mocking. Today it unveiled a MacBook Pro you can touch, with an OLED screen, starting at $2,899 (Apple).

CEO John Ternus showed it off at Apple’s “Pro and Tell” event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28. Pre-orders are open now in 30 countries and regions, and the first machines arrive Friday, November 6 (Apple, Reuters via GBAF).

Steve Jobs called laptop touchscreens “ergonomically terrible” in 2010 (Reuters via GBAF). Apple has now put one on its most expensive laptop.

⚡ What Happened

The new MacBook Pro brings two firsts for the Mac: Touch, and an OLED panel Apple calls the PROLED XDR Display (Apple).

  • Display: tandem OLED, up to 2,000 nits peak brightness, a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and ProMotion from 10Hz to 120Hz.
  • Chips: M5 Pro or M5 Max, with up to 128GB of memory and 16TB of storage.
  • Battery: up to 24 hours, by Apple’s own testing.
  • Weight: the 16-inch model is 4 lb, 0.7 lb lighter than before. The 14-inch is 3 lb.
  • Dynamic Island moves from the iPhone to the Mac, where it holds Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri AI.

Prices start at $2,899 for the 14-inch M5 Pro, $3,399 for the 16-inch M5 Pro, $4,499 for the 14-inch M5 Max and $4,799 for the 16-inch M5 Max. BGR reports that’s $400 more than the matching non-touch models, which stay on sale (BGR).

“The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is a monumental step forward for the Mac.” — Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer

🧠 Why It Matters

Windows laptops have had touchscreens for over a decade. Apple held out, and in 2012 Tim Cook compared the idea to combining a toaster and a refrigerator (Reuters via GBAF).

So this is a real change of mind at the top, and it lands on the Mac line that pros pay most for. If you edit photos, video or 3D models, you can now poke the thing you’re working on directly.

It also tells you where Ternus is steering Apple. This is his third big hardware launch in about two months, after the folding iPhone in September and a smart home hub earlier this month.

🔜 What To Watch

  • Reviews before November 6. The big question is whether touch on macOS feels designed in, or bolted on.
  • The $400 premium. If buyers skip touch for the cheaper non-touch models, Apple will notice.
  • Whether touch spreads to the MacBook Air or the iMac next.

Hands-on impressions are still coming in, so expect more detail over the next few days.

Sources

❓ Quick answers

Does the new MacBook Pro have a touchscreen?

Yes. Apple announced on October 28, 2026 that the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is the first Mac with Touch, according to Apple's newsroom.

How much does the touchscreen MacBook Pro cost?

It starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch M5 Pro model and goes up to $4,799 for the 16-inch M5 Max starting configuration, per Apple.

When can I buy the OLED MacBook Pro?

Pre-orders opened October 28, 2026 in 30 countries and regions, and Apple says it begins arriving to customers on Friday, November 6.