Apple launches first touchscreen MacBook Pro with OLED display starting at $2,899

Apple announced its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models featuring tandem OLED displays and M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, reports TechCrunch, Ars Technica, ZDNet Cloud, Pulse 2.0, and The Information. The new laptops come in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes and introduce touchscreen capabilities alongside the Dynamic Island interface to the Mac lineup for the first time. [1][2][3][4][5]

The base model with the touchscreen display starts at $2,899, according to TechCrunch and The Information. Fully upgraded configurations reach $14,249 for the 14-inch version and $14,549 for the 16-inch version, as TechCrunch reported. Pricing pressures stem from memory shortages and hardware demand for artificial intelligence capabilities. [1][5]

The laptops use a tandem OLED screen called ProLED XDR, which supports up to 2,000 nits of brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate, ZDNet Cloud and Pulse 2.0 reported. Ars Technica and Pulse 2.0 noted that the hardware redesign replaces the traditional display notch with the Dynamic Island and features a thinner chassis. The M5 series chips remain in this line even though Apple introduced M6 chips in other Mac models, Ars Technica added. [2][3][4]

As FTMQ Startups reported earlier, Apple previously introduced entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro models with its M6 processor starting at $1,999. The line of high-end laptops originally debuted in 2006, replacing the earlier PowerBook series, and transitioned from Intel processors to Apple silicon in late 2020. [11][13][14]