After years of saying no, Apple finally brings touchscreen to MacBook Pro

Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at Rs 3,49,900 in India.

Hyderabad: Apple on Wednesday, October 28, did something it had resisted for years: it put a touchscreen on the MacBook.

The new MacBook Pro, in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, is the first Mac laptop with touch. Users can scroll a web page with a swipe, pinch to zoom into a photo or drag slides from one presentation to another with a finger.

In India, the 14-inch model with the M5 Pro chip starts at Rs 3,49,900 and the 16-inch at Rs 4,09,900. Pre-orders are open and sales begin on November 6.

Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, called it “a monumental step forward for the Mac.”

Touch inside the screen

The touch sensor is built into the display panel, not laid over it. Apple says this cuts lag and makes users feel they are touching the content itself. 

Designers can draw across the whole screen, musicians can play software instruments on it and developers can test iPhone and iPad apps directly. Many existing apps work with touch straight away. Microsoft Office, Zoom, Adobe Lightroom and Blender are among those adding dedicated support.

Brighter, lighter, longer-lasting

The new PROLED XDR display uses tandem OLED technology, which has two light-emitting layers. It reaches 2,000 nits of peak brightness and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1, according to a release by Apple.

The Dynamic Island, the pill-shaped strip at the top of iPhone screens, also comes to the Mac. It shows search, live updates and Siri.

The 14-inch model weighs about 1.36 kg and the 16-inch about 1.81 kg, roughly 230 grams and 320 grams lighter than before. Battery life is up to 24 hours.

The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with up to 128GB of memory and 16TB of storage, can run large AI models on the laptop itself, Apple said.

Late to the party

Windows laptops have offered OLED and touchscreens for years, with some good models costing as little as a little over Rs 60,000. The Chromebooks are much cheaper, being priced under Rs 25,000. The new MacBook Pro is priced is Rs 1,00,000 higher for the 14-inch model launched in March this year and Rs 1,10,000 more for the 16-inch entry MacBook Pro.

For buyers who don’t need the new screen, Apple also launched a 14-inch MacBook Pro with its M6 chip at Rs 2,39,900. That model keeps the older Liquid Retina XDR display.