A touchscreen MacBook has long been talked about, but when Apple launched the iPad, in 2010, the assumption for many years was that the company wouldn’t put touch on a laptop for fear of cannibalising sales of that. Times change, though, and a touchscreen MacBook Pro – or the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display to give it its full title – was officially announced yesterday.
As you’d expect, Apple hasn’t skimped on the internals here: you can choose between an M5 Pro and M5 Max processor; up to 128GB of memory can be installed; and you can have up to 16TB of storage. It’s the display, though, that the company is really talking up, and the specs sound undeniably impressive.
Whether you go for the 14- or 16-inch model, PROLED XDR uses “tandem OLED technology” to deliver “Extreme Dynamic Range (XDR)” and high levels of detail and brightness. In fact, the display engine is said to control each pixel in real time.
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And then there’s that touch interface, which brings swiping, pinch-to-zooming and all those other gestures we’re familiar with to the Mac for the first time. Apple says that the touch sensor is built into the display panel rather than layered on top of it, the theory being that this will reduce latency.
This could be important, of course, if you’re playing keys or tapping drum pads in Logic Pro, as Apple’s launch video suggests you might. We’re intrigued to find out how this feels; while touch certainly makes sense in iPad music making apps, where the device can be placed flat on the desk or slightly angled, we’re yet to be convinced that leaning across a laptop keyboard and tapping keys on an upright screen (the one on the new MacBook Pro can’t be folded back on itself) is going to be conducive to an accurate or pleasurable playing experience. We shall see.
Elsewhere, Apple has also kitted the new MacBook Pro out with an enhanced six speaker audio setup. We’re promised 50% deeper bass and newly-designed tweeters, while the mics are said to be of “studio quality.”
Connectivity options are plentiful, too: we’re talking three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe, and a headphone jack.
None of this comes cheap, of course – the 14-inch model starts at $2,749/£2,899 and the 16-inch machine at $3,399/$3,399. Pre-orders are being taken now, and shipping will start on 6 November.
Find out more on the Apple website.
