Apple’s first OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro is now in the hands of customers, and MacRumors has published a hands-on look at the machine it picked up. The outlet, which bought one of the new laptops and unboxed it on its YouTube channel, describes a thinner and lighter notebook built around an OLED panel Apple calls PROLED, with a display users can now tap, swipe and pinch.
The first redesign in five years
MacRumors notes that it has been five years since Apple last redesigned the MacBook Pro, “so it was due for an update.” The PROLED MacBook Pro looks a lot like the mini-LED model it sits above in the lineup, according to the hands-on, but it has slimmed down in both dimensions and weight.
The specifics, as reported by MacRumors:
- The 14-inch model is about half a millimeter thinner and weighs just over three pounds.
- The 16-inch model is almost a millimeter thinner and weighs four pounds.
- Apple shaved off about half a pound for the 14-inch model and 0.7 pounds for the 16-inch model.
“While that doesn’t sound like much, it makes a big difference,” MacRumors wrote, adding that “you can feel how much lighter it is the second you take it out of the box.” Apple has also brought back the glowing logo for the PROLED MacBook Pro.
How the OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro display performs
The display is the headline change on the OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro, which starts at $2,899. MacRumors says blacks are true black, and because each pixel lights up individually there is none of the bloom that appears on mini-LED screens when bright objects sit against a dark background.
The outlet also reports that the panel “can get super bright too,” and that the combination of that brightness with deep blacks makes HDR content look great. OLED screens are sometimes criticized for not being bright enough outdoors, MacRumors notes, “but that’s not the case here.”
Bezels are thinner as well. MacRumors says the larger machine now measures 16.3 inches rather than 16.2 inches.
A Dynamic Island replaces the notch
In place of the notch, Apple has fitted an iPhone-like Dynamic Island that houses Siri AI, Live Activities and more, according to the hands-on. MacRumors argues the Dynamic Island makes sense precisely because the display can now be touched.
Touch works like it does on an iPhone or iPad, the outlet reports, so users can swipe through webpages, tap buttons, drag and drop, and pinch to zoom.
What touching a Mac is actually like
MacRumors stresses that touch is not intended as a replacement for the trackpad and keyboard, “but it’s there if you want it.” Apple has made some adjustments to macOS to suit fingers: menu options expand a little more when touched than when clicked, and tiny window resizing buttons get larger.
Apple also fitted a sturdier hinge so the display won’t move as much when tapped, the review says, “but it’s not perfect. It does still jiggle depending on where you tap.”
The verdict on the feature itself is measured. “The touch feature is fine, but it’s probably not a reason to go out and get the PROLED MacBook Pro,” MacRumors wrote, saying it “has the potential to be useful in some situations, but it’s not going to dramatically change the way most people use a laptop.”
Same M5 Pro and M5 Max silicon
One area where the new machines do not advance is performance. New chips weren’t ready in time for the PROLED laptops, MacRumors reports, so they use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max processors found in the mini-LED models. The outlet calls that “a disappointment in a laptop that starts at almost $3,000.”
Because Apple is still selling the mini-LED models, MacRumors frames the OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro as a $400 premium that buys the higher-end OLED display, the thinner and lighter design, and the touch functionality.
“The better display and the lighter weight are going to be worth the price for some people, and the touch is just a bonus,” the outlet concluded in its hands-on report.
Who the PROLED MacBook Pro is for
Taken together, MacRumors’ assessment points buyers toward the display and the weight rather than the novelty of a touchscreen Mac. The OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro delivers a visibly better panel and a laptop that feels lighter out of the box, while the processors, and therefore the raw performance, carry over from the existing lineup.
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