Apple ships first touchscreen MacBook Pro from 6 November at £2,899

Apple will begin selling its first touchscreen laptop on 6 November, with prices for the new MacBook Pro ranging from £2,899 to £4,499. The machine carries what the company claims is "the world's best laptop display". The launch arrives sixteen years after Steve Jobs described touchscreen laptops as "ergonomically terrible". Apple has now reversed that position with its first touch-enabled MacBook.

"The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display is a monumental step forward for the Mac," said Apple chief hardware officer Johny Srouji. He called the machine "the result of the deep integration between Apple silicon, hardware, and software, and there's simply nothing else like it."

What does the new MacBook Pro offer?

The laptop comes in 14- and 16-inch models. It weighs three pounds and four pounds respectively. Apple positions it as both portable and as a powerful tool for professional creatives working on 3D models or playing musical instruments onscreen.

The full specification list from Apple:

• PROLED XDR display
• M5 Pro and M5 Max chips
• Up to 128 gigabytes of memory
• Up to 16 terabytes of storage
• Up to 24 hours of battery life
• Thinner, lighter design than previous models
• Six-speaker sound system with deeper bass and improved clarity
• Dynamic Island, the search and notification feature currently used in iPhones

The top storage figure equals roughly 320 hours of high-definition video. In plain terms, Apple has packed a workstation into a three-pound chassis.

How does the touchscreen work?

The Touch feature allows users to swipe to scroll a webpage, pinch to zoom a photo, drag and drop slides in presentations, and double-tap a window to fill the screen. The touch sensor sits inside the display panel rather than layered over it. Apple said this gives the feel of touching the displayed content itself.

The company redesigned the laptop hinge for better stability when touching the screen. It also added real-time video stabilisation to smooth the camera feed during video calls.

"Graphic designers can now use the entire display as their canvas, no longer constrained by the area of the trackpad when drawing," Apple said. "Musicians can play software instruments right onscreen, and app developers can test how Touch performs in their iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the MacBook Pro display."

Which apps support Touch on day one?

Apple said the macOS operating system automatically translates touches into clicks. That means multiple existing applications work with Touch immediately, without updates. The list includes:

• Adobe Lightroom
• Blender
• Maxon Cinema 4D
• Maxon ZBrush
• Notion
• Canva
• Zoom
• Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint

For creative professionals, the takeaway is simple: the main design and productivity tools need no new versions to respond to touch.

What is behind the display claim?

Apple bases its "world's best laptop display" claim on the PROLED XDR panel, which combines OLED technology with algorithms that control light across the screen. The company said the display offers "true-to-life colour and unparalleled brightness and contrast".

"The PROLED XDR display offers tandem OLED technology unlike any other, with deep innovations in its layers that keep brightness and grayscale uniform across the entire display, while minimising internal reflections common in traditional OLED designs," Apple said. "It's all backed by advanced algorithms in the display engine that precisely control each pixel in real time, plus a meticulous manufacturing process and precise calibration of every panel for consistency from display to display."

The claim remains Apple's own; the company published no independent measurements.

Where does this fit in Apple's recent releases?

The touchscreen MacBook Pro continues a run of new hardware and software from the company. Recent months brought its first folding smartphone, the size of a passport, the HomeView dashboard for home controls, and the budget-friendly MacBook Neo.

Srouji framed the launch as a workflow shift, not just a hardware upgrade: "with the magic of Touch coming to MacBook Pro, combined with the game-changing performance of M5 Pro and M5 Max, we've created a whole new way for pros to interact with their content, taking their workflows to a completely new level."

From 6 November, buyers will test whether a display that answers directly to the finger changes professional practice — or simply adds a price premium of up to £4,499.