At its Pro and tell. event on October 28, Apple revealed a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, two days after an OLED iPad mini. This gathers the scene from two design outlets.
At an October event titled "Pro and tell.", Apple revealed a new MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR Display. Apple says Touch comes to the Mac for the first time, in 14-inch and 16-inch models.
This post leans on Apple's Newsroom release and two design outlets, Design Compass and Creative Bloq. I have not used it myself, so please read it as a note on what just happened, not as a confirmed trend.
The event ran at 10 a.m. on October 28 in Los Angeles, which was 2 a.m. on October 29 in Korea. According to Tom's Guide, which received an invitation, it was billed as a special Apple experience for the media. The invitation shows a glowing Apple logo on a dark background.
Creative Bloq followed the event with a live article, and its headline lists the touchscreen MacBook Pro, the iPad mini and the iMac together.
According to Apple's release, the MacBook Pro gets Touch for the first time. You swipe through a webpage, pinch to zoom a photo, drag slides between presentations, and double-tap a window to fill the screen. Designers can use the whole display as a canvas instead of the trackpad area, and musicians can play software instruments right on the screen.
Touch does not replace the keyboard and trackpad. Apple describes it as working alongside the shortcuts and gestures people already use, and says macOS turns touches into clicks, so many existing apps work with Touch right away. Honestly, that is the part I am most curious about. How fast apps adopt Touch is something to watch.
The Dynamic Island you know from the iPhone arrives on the Mac. Apple presents it as the new home for Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri AI, a place to search, check real-time updates, take a call or control music within easy reach.
The screen is the PROLED XDR Display, built on tandem OLED technology. The numbers Apple gives are up to 2000 nits of peak brightness and a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It covers P3 and now Adobe RGB, and there is a nano-texture option that cuts reflections. The chips are M5 Pro and M5 Max, and the battery lasts up to 24 hours, Apple says.
| Screen | Tandem OLED (PROLED XDR) |
| Sizes | 14-inch, 16-inch |
| Peak brightness | 2000 nits |
| Contrast | 10,000,000:1 |
| Colour range | P3, Adobe RGB |
| Chips | M5 Pro, M5 Max |
| Battery | Up to 24 hours |
Before the event, on October 26, Apple revealed a new iPad mini. As of October 27 it was the latest product announcement on Apple Newsroom. The screen and body structure changed, and it carries an A20 Pro chip. The screen is 8.5-inch OLED, and the body footprint matches the last generation, with slimmer bezels to widen the display.
| Screen | 8.5-inch OLED |
| Chip | A20 Pro |
| Bezels | 24% smaller |
| Peak brightness | 1,200 nits |
| Lowest brightness | 1 nit |
One short piece from Creative Bloq stands out on the design side. Its headline reads "Apple is finally embracing chaos and I'm here for it", and the summary line says goodbye to space grey stuffiness. It reads as a story about colour, but this record does not say which product or which colour.
The same outlet also ran a piece on iPhone Duo screens cracking in exactly the same place, based on several early users reporting identical damage. The cause is a guess, so I only note that the reports exist.
I do not know yet whether a touchscreen MacBook Pro will change how people work. What I noticed is that Apple's introduction leads with drawing on the screen and playing an instrument. That frames it as a tool for makers more than for office work. That is my reading, and real user reactions are not in this record.
- Apple unveils groundbreaking MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display (Apple Newsroom)
- Apple unveils a MacBook Pro you can touch (Design Compass)
- Apple unveils a new OLED iPad mini (Design Compass)
- Apple's October event, Pro and tell. (Design Compass)
- Apple event LIVE (Creative Bloq)
- Apple is finally embracing chaos and I'm here for it (Creative Bloq)
- Apple iPhone Duo screens are cracking (Creative Bloq)