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Apple’s New MacBook Pro Adds PROLED OLED and Touchscreen

The tandem OLED delivers reference-grade brightness and color for pro work while touch remains a useful extra that depends on more app support to matter.

Overview

  • The new 14‑ and 16‑inch MacBook Pro models are available to pre-order and begin reaching customers on Friday, Nov. 6, with starting prices of $2,899 and $3,399 respectively.
  • Reviewers overwhelmingly praise the PROLED XDR tandem OLED panel for up to 2,000 nits peak brightness, a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and P3 plus Adobe RGB color modes that give photographers and colorists a portable reference display.
  • Touchscreen input is present for the first time on a MacBook, but critics say it is an occasional convenience rather than a workflow overhaul because macOS and many third‑party apps lack optimized touch features at launch.
  • Apple kept M5 Pro and M5 Max chips in the PROLED models and charges about a $400 premium for the OLED-plus-touch configuration, positioning this as a display‑first, pro-focused tier rather than a mass upgrade.
  • Design and practical tradeoffs include a thinner, lighter chassis, a Dynamic Island and a backlit Apple logo, alongside reported hinge wobble, speaker tuning complaints, and higher temperatures under sustained M5 Max loads, and analysts expect the OLED move to reshape premium laptop panel demand.