For years, Apple’s position was defined by Steve Jobs’s dismissal of touchscreen laptops as “ergonomically terrible.” That doctrine ended on October 28, when Apple unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro at its “Pro and tell” event.¹

The new machines, available for preorder immediately and due to ship November 6, pair a touch-enabled tandem OLED panel—branded PROLED XDR—with M5 Pro or M5 Max processors. Apple says the screen reaches 2,000 nits of peak SDR brightness, delivers a 120Hz refresh rate and uses touch sensors built into the display rather than layered above it, a design intended to cut latency.²

Apple’s argument is not that the Mac has become an iPad with a keyboard. The company is instead selling touch as an extra input: for scrolling, zooming, testing iPhone and iPad apps, or playing on-screen software instruments. The hardware remains a conventional clamshell, meaning users still have to reach over the keyboard—a compromise that leaves Jobs’s ergonomic objection only partly answered.

There are tangible changes beyond the screen. The 14-inch model weighs three pounds, while the 16-inch version comes in at four pounds; hands-on reporting found the larger machine noticeably better balanced and slimmer than its predecessor. The redesign also restores the glowing Apple logo, a small but conspicuous nod to older MacBooks.³

Then comes the sting. The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399; M5 Max versions begin at $4,499 and $4,799 before memory or storage upgrades. Storage can rise to 16TB, turning the flagship configuration into a luxury purchase rather than merely a powerful laptop.⁴

That pricing quickly became the counter-narrative online. Elon Musk amplified a comparison claiming a fully loaded 16-inch OLED MacBook Pro costs $14,549—more than a used 2020 Tesla Model 3 listed at $14,190.Elon Musk (elonmusk)⁵ Apple has finally made the MacBook touchable; it has also made its ultimate version difficult to touch without a very large budget.