Hands-on with the 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display: M5 Pro performance, a slimmer chassis, a stunning OLED screen, and a touchscreen you'll forget exists.
A Laptop That Happens to Have a Touchscreen
After spending the better part of a week with Apple's new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, the most telling detail is how easy it is to forget the touchscreen exists. The slimmer design, the improved display, and the Dynamic Island that draws the eye more than the old notch ever did all demand attention. The touch layer, by contrast, quietly blends into the background.
That may be exactly what Apple intended. Steve Jobs famously called touch laptops a bad idea, even as a subset of users kept demanding one. Now the MacBook Pro has one, but not in a way that meaningfully changes the laptop experience. There are moments when reaching out and poking the screen is genuinely more intuitive than the trackpad or a mouse, yet calling this "the touchscreen MacBook Pro" does not feel right. It is the latest evolution of Apple's most powerful laptop, and it happens to have a touchscreen.
Familiar Upgrades, No New Problems
Very little about this machine will surprise anyone who has followed the MacBook Pro line. That is a good thing. The PROLED Pro, as it is easier to call it, arrives with a batch of new upgrades and no new problems, performing exactly as you would expect from a laptop this expensive. Combine the screen, the body, and the touch layer, and the result feels like the start of a new MacBook Pro generation.
The headline hardware is the PROLED XDR display, an OLED panel that reviewers describe as gorgeous, paired with a chassis that is both lighter and thinner than before. The Dynamic Island replaces the notch as the camera housing, and the overall package reads as a refinement rather than a reinvention.
What Stands Out
- Gorgeous OLED screen with the PROLED XDR display
- Lighter and thinner chassis than the previous generation
- Excellent performance from the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips
- Dynamic Island camera housing that is less obtrusive than the notch
Where It Falls Short
- A significant bump in Pro pricing
- Speakers that leave something to be desired
Pricing and Configurations
The 14-inch PROLED Pro starts at $2,899, while the 16-inch model begins at $3,399. Both ship with either an M5 Pro or an M5 Max chip, each offered in two configurations, alongside a wide range of RAM and storage options. The review unit tested was a 14-inch model with an M5 Pro featuring 18 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores, plus 48GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, for a total of $3,699.
In general, the device carries roughly a $400 premium over a standard, similarly specced Pro. Even so, the verdict is that it is worth it, touchscreen or no touchscreen. For those who want the absolute ceiling, a fully loaded PROLED Pro with the beefiest M5 Max chip, nano-texture glass, 128GB of RAM, and 16TB of storage lands at a staggering $14,549.
To call this "the touchscreen MacBook Pro" just doesn't feel right. It's the latest evolution of Apple's most powerful laptop — and oh, it happens to have a touchscreen.
The Bigger Picture
Apple's decision to add touch to the MacBook Pro is notable less for what it changes than for what it signals. The company spent years arguing that reaching across a keyboard to a vertical display is ergonomically wrong, and the new hardware does not overturn that argument. Instead, touch arrives as a supplementary input method, useful in a handful of moments but never the reason to buy the machine.
The real story is the display and the silicon. An OLED PROLED XDR panel, a thinner and lighter enclosure, and M5 Pro or M5 Max performance make this one of the most impressive laptops Apple has ever created. The touchscreen is simply along for the ride, a long-requested feature delivered without letting it define the product. For buyers weighing the $400 premium, the calculation rests on the screen, the design, and the chip, not on the ability to tap a menu bar.