Apple Announces 14- and 16-Inch MacBook Pro Models With Touchscreens, Starting at $2,899
Key Facts
Apple announced a new MacBook Pro in 14- and 16-inch sizes on October 28, with a PROLED XDR display that supports touch gestures, according to MacRumors. The 14-inch version starts at $2,899, compared with $3,399 for the 16-inch version. The device is the first MacBook Pro with a touch-enabled display, the report said, with a sensor integrated into the display panel. Supported gestures include scrolling, zooming, and drag and drop. MacRumors said integrating the sensor into the panel means there is no additional response time. The specifications put the display at the center of the announced changes, alongside a thinner and lighter design.
The PROLED display uses tandem OLED technology, with peak brightness of up to 2000 nits in HDR and SDR modes and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1, according to MacRumors. Those figures give the new model display specifications focused on brightness and contrast, while the touch interface allows direct interaction with the screen. The report did not describe the move as a shift across all Mac devices or macOS; it confined it to the new MacBook Pro models with touch-enabled displays. The new model is up to 1 mm thinner than the previous version. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds, while the 16-inch model weighs 4 pounds. The published specifications therefore combine the new display with a limited change in thickness and weight, without further detail on how those changes affect use.
The announcement follows Apple's long-standing public reservations about touchscreens in laptops. Reuters, via Investing.com, quoted Steve Jobs as saying in 2010 that using touchscreens in laptops was "ergonomically terrible," and also cited Tim Cook's comparison of combining devices in 2012. This context makes the addition of touch to the MacBook Pro a notable shift in the company's approach to laptops. Bloomberg had reported that Apple's October 28 event would feature its first MacBook with a touchscreen, alongside other devices. The company confirmed the event date, according to the report, as part of the fall launch wave covered by the report. The touchscreen move is separate from another company announcement the previous day.
On October 27, Apple officially announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip, a different model from the touch-enabled PROLED devices unveiled the following day. The company presented the M6 update as focused on chip performance, artificial intelligence and connectivity. It said the 12-core GPU delivers up to 30% faster graphics and up to 25% faster performance on AI tasks compared with the M5 chip. Apple also said the M6 model offers up to 24 hours of battery life. Apple quoted Shelley Goldberg, vice president of hardware engineering, describing the computer as an option for a wide range of users, from university students to professionals. The difference in announcement dates and specifications helps distinguish the M6 model with a conventional display from the new models with touchscreens and OLED technology.
Apple shares closed at $345.545 on October 28, compared with a close of $347.1 in the previous session, according to EL7 data. That was a lower close than on the October 27 session, but the data provided do not link the move to the computer announcement. The initial draft had cited an intraday price and session high, but the EL7 data available here record only the closing price. The data provided do not include prices for other companies' shares that day. The market context in this report is therefore limited to Apple's close and its comparison with the previous session's close.
Preorders for the touch models open immediately following the announcement, with sales beginning Friday, November 6, according to MacRumors. The report gives the launch date without further details on the markets it will cover or availability arrangements. For the separate M6 model, Apple said preorders begin on October 28 and availability starts on November 6. In its M6 announcement, the company cited battery life of up to 24 hours, while the report did not attribute that specification to the OLED and touch models. The two models therefore share the announced availability date but differ in chip, display specifications and announcement timing. November 6 remains the stated launch date in the published information about both devices.