Oops! Apple just put its first laptop touchscreen on the wrong MacBook

Date:
Thu, 29 Oct 2026 16:17:40 +0000

Description:
Opinion: Apples first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen looks good but Id
rather have a touchscreen MacBook Air

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Well, its finally happened: Apple has got with the times and finally made a laptop with a touchscreen . However, while the new MacBook Pros with PROLED screens look like fantastic devices, I think Apple has made a mistake by putting its first laptop touchscreen on the more expensive MacBook Pro, rather than the more
mainstream MacBook Air or even the MacBook Neo .

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with a touchscreen starts at $2,899 / 2,899 / AU$4,599, and the 16-inch model starts at $3,399 / 3,399 / $5,499. Thats a
big ask for most people, especially these days. Of course, MacBook Pros, as the name suggests, are aimed at professionals, and thanks to their high-end components, they should really be seen as investments that allow you to speed up your workflow. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Interestingly the new touchscreen MacBook Pros come with Apples M5 Pro and M5 Max chips . If you want Apples latest M6 chip , youll need to go for the non-touchscreen 14-inch MacBook Pro that was announced a few days earlier . Perhaps confusingly, the M6 is less powerful than the M5 Pro and M5 Max, and so far there are no hints that Apple is preparing to release M6 Pro and M6
Max chips. (Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty) My point is that by putting its first-ever laptop touchscreen on its most powerful and expensive
MacBooks, Apple is severely limiting the potential audience for the technology. Had it instead put a touchscreen on the more affordable MacBook Air, it could have had a real hit on its hands. You may like Apple event live the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is here Apple's Touchscreen MacBook Pro is finally here, and yes, touching a MacBook screen feels totally and wonderfully natural 'It doesn't work': Steve Jobs on why there was never a touchscreen MacBook and why I think he'd totally love what's coming next Whos it for? As someone who has used plenty of Windows laptops and Chromebooks
with touchscreens in the past, I know how useful they can be for certain tasks, and I often miss them when using a MacBook.

Being able to scroll down a website with a finger, turn a page in an ebook,
or quickly tap a menu item feels natural and intuitive, and Im sure it will
on the new MacBooks. My daughter, who grew up with touchscreens on
everything, would also instinctively poke an often sticky, grubby (kids,
youve got to love them!) finger at a MacBook screen and be surprised when nothing happened. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

If youre dropping $3,000+ on a touchscreen laptop just to use the touchscreen for browsing websites, then youre either super-rich or you should get help with your budgeting. These are all pretty simple tasks and gestures. What
I've never used touchscreens on laptops for, however, is for complex tasks
and tools, such as recording and editing music in Ableton Live, or editing videos in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Instead, for things that needed precision or complexity, nothing beat the
good old combo of keyboard and touchpad (or even better, keyboard and a mouse), as well as other external peripherals such as MIDI controllers and drawing tablets . Which leads me to wonder why Apple picked the MacBook Pro,
a device thats supposedly designed for exactly those type of tasks, to showcase its first laptop touchscreen.

If youre dropping $3,000+ on a touchscreen laptop to mostly just to use the touchscreen for browsing websites, then youre either super-rich or you should get help with your budgeting. What to read next What's the tech inside the touchscreen MacBook Pro's 'PROLED XDR' screen? We explain all Apple promises to Pro and Tell on October 28, and a touchscreen MacBook Pro could finally arrive Here's the secret behind the return of the illuminated Apple logo on the back of the new touchscreen MacBook Pro

The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and no touchscreen starts at $2,999 / 2,999 / AU$4,799. As the MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR touchscreen with the same specs costs $400 / 400 / AU$700 more, thats quite a premium for the touchscreen.

Yes, I know the PROLED XDR screen offers better image quality as well thanks to its tandem OLED tech (check out our explainer on why this is a big deal ), but if you dont need that additional image quality, which includes better contrast, higher brightness levels, and support for the Adobe RGB color
gamut, and are just interested in the touchscreen, then essentially yeah, youre paying $400 extra for it.

If youre a professional, especially one in the creative industry, youll need to think long and hard if that investment is worth it. Meanwhile, the likes
of the MacBook Air and MacBook Neo arent really used for complex creative tasks, and instead used for casual day-to-day use, where touchscreens are
much more useful. (Image credit: Mario Tama / Getty) Granted, adding an extra $400 / 400 / AU$700 to the price of a MacBook Neo or MacBook Air wouldnt be great, especially as theyve just had a price bump earlier this year , but Apple wouldnt need to include the OLED tech and advanced image-quality
options included in the MacBook Pro. A touchscreen MacBook Neo for $899, say, could be a real hit, especially if Apple was to also keep the non-touchscreen model for people who still want the ultimate affordable way to get into the Mac ecosystem.

This isnt just an Apple problem, of course. The new laptops powered by
Nvidias RTX Spark SoC , which are aimed at the same creative professionals
and heavy local AI users as the MacBook Pro (with similarly high price tags), come with touchscreens. Ive spent a decent amount of time with each one at various events, and I found that the touchscreen was the least-used part of the laptop in fact, I often forgot those laptops had one. Because there
arent cheaper, non-touch, models, though I didnt resent its inclusion.

As I said, I do get the appeal of touchscreen laptops, but I find the technology is best used in 2-in-1 devices where the keyboard can be flipped behind the screen (or removed entirely) so that it can be used as a tablet-like device.

In an ideal world, then, Apple would have put its touchscreen on an entirely new 2-in-1 MacBook, but I cant see that happening any time soon. Apple sort
of has a device like that the powerful iPad Pro , which can be paired with a Magic Keyboard that turns it into a touchscreen laptop. The problem there, however, is that despite coming with Apples powerful M-series chips, the same youll find in MacBooks, the iPad Pro is limited to the iPadOS operating
system and mobile apps.

Put macOS on that bad boy, however, and allow us to run full desktop applications on it, and hey presto: Apple has a touchscreen MacBook that utilizes the tech in a way thats actually useful. Until then, Ill stick with my standard MacBook Pro, and just try to remember not to prod it with my sausage fingers too often. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best laptops 1. Best overall: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M5 2. Best budget: Apple MacBook Neo 3. Best Windows 11 laptop Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch 4. Best thin and light: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 5. Best Ultrabook Asus Zenbook S 16



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/oops-apple-just-put-its-first-lap top-touchscreen-on-the-wrong-macbook


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