On a Thursday in early November, Apple placed a touchscreen on a Mac for the first time, a move that reverses years of its own public scorn for such machines. The new MacBook Pro, aimed at professionals and arriving in Australia on 6 November, carries a bright OLED display and an option to switch touch off. Whether this is a sensible answer to a real need or a company bending toward its customers' habits is a question the buyers of the coming weeks will settle more than the commentators do.
Apple's First Touchscreen Mac Arrives, Reversing Years of Public Resistance
On a Thursday in early November, Apple placed a touchscreen on a Mac for the first time, a move that reverses years of its own public scorn for such machines. The new MacBook Pro, aimed at professionals and arriving in Australia on 6 November, carries a bright OLED display and an option to switch touch off. Whether this is a sensible answer to a real need or a company bending toward its customers' habits is a question the buyers of the coming weeks will settle more than the commentators do.
On Thursday, Apple unveiled the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, the first Mac with a touchscreen and a machine the company had long insisted it would never make. It goes on sale in Australia on 6 November, starting at $4,599 for the 14-inch and $5,499 for the 16-inch. The laptop is thinner and lighter than its predecessors, offers M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, and carries a 120Hz OLED screen with the Dynamic Island borrowed from the latest iPhones.
Apple says touch can be turned off, and when it is on, the company pitches it as a new way for professionals to work with content, from shaping 3D models to playing onscreen instruments. Touchscreen laptops are hardly new across the industry, but this is the first on a Mac, which is why the reaction has been so pointed.
Online commenters have been harsher than analysts. Critics raised fingerprints, the awkwardness of reaching up to a laptop, and whether touch solves any real problem, especially since the iPad Pro already does it. The history sharpens the irony: Steve Jobs had called touchscreen laptops ergonomically terrible in 2010, and analyst Benedict Evans joked that he must be rolling in his grave. Apple's executives defend the change, with Greg Joswiak arguing that young creators expect touch and John Ternus saying you have to touch it to believe it. The new model does not support Apple Pencil, and Apple has not said whether that will change.
The launch also comes amid pricing pressure. Apple has added a 512GB memory option to the Mac Studio as memory costs climb and AI workloads demand more RAM, pushing a fully loaded machine to $45,949 in Australia. Whether touch becomes a lasting part of the Mac will depend on how many buyers actually use it.
On Thursday, Apple unveiled a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, the first Mac to have one, and a machine the company had said for years it would never build. The new model, called the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, goes on sale in Australia on 6 November. The 14-inch version starts at $4,599 and the 16-inch at $5,499.
It is aimed at professional users. The OLED screen has a 120Hz variable refresh rate and the interactive camera cutout Apple calls the Dynamic Island, borrowed from its latest iPhones. The laptop is thinner and lighter than its predecessors and comes in black and silver, with a choice of M5 Pro or M5 Max chips. It also has a glowing Apple logo on the outer shell, a detail some users have missed from earlier MacBooks.
Apple says touch can be switched off. When it is on, the company describes it as a new dimension for pros to interact with their content, from manipulating 3D models to playing musical instruments onscreen. Many other laptop makers have shipped touchscreens for years, mostly at mid- to high-end prices, so the feature itself is hardly new. What is new is that it is on a Mac.
Reaction online has been split. Early testers and analysts have praised the display but are unsure a touchscreen laptop is a useful form factor. Social media commenters have been harsher, raising fingerprints on the screen, the ergonomics of reaching up to touch a laptop, and whether Apple is fixing any real problem. One asked why Apple would solve a problem its own iPad Pro had already solved well. Another called a touchscreen laptop stupid however you slice it. A third said it would make sense only with a 360-degree hinge.
The history makes the reversal pointed. In a 2010 keynote, Steve Jobs called touchscreen laptops ergonomically terrible, saying touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. He said they make a great demo, but over time your arm gets tired and, after an extended period, feels like it wants to fall off. In 2007, introducing the first iPhone, he said nobody wants a stylus. In 2012, Tim Cook dismissed Microsoft's touch-focused Windows 8 hybrids, saying you can converge a toaster and a refrigerator but the result won't please users.
Analyst Benedict Evans seemed bemused, noting that Apple's new foldable iPhone Duo also works with the USB-C Apple Pencil. On LinkedIn he wrote that Apple is now selling a phone with a stylus and a touchscreen Mac, and that Steve is rolling in his grave. The new MacBook Pro does not support Apple Pencil input, and Apple has not said whether it will be added later.
Apple's executives have defended the shift. Marketing chief Greg Joswiak reportedly told Wired that touch was overdue for professional Mac users, saying a generation of young creators expects to touch. Chief hardware officer Johny Srouji allegedly said many things had changed, including display technology and Apple's custom chips, so that touch now met the company's bar. New CEO John Ternus said Apple was glowing with excitement and, in a social media post, that you've got to touch it to believe it.
The launch comes alongside other Apple pricing news. Last week the company announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro with its new M6 chip and an LCD display without touch, from $3,199. It also began selling a 512GB RAM option for the Mac Studio, as memory costs rise and AI workloads demand more RAM. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio was released in September with a $6,000 upgrade from 96GB to a maximum of 256GB. The new 512GB option costs $23,250 more than the base configuration. A fully loaded machine, with 512GB of RAM, 16TB of storage and the top M5 Ultra chip, costs $45,949 in Australia. The earlier M3 Ultra Mac Studio also offered 512GB, but Apple removed that option in early 2026.
Whether touch becomes a standard Mac feature will depend on how many buyers use it once the machines reach customers on 6 November.
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