Apple takes "monumental step forward" with first touchscreen MacBook
Apple has revealed its latest MacBook Pro model, which features the technology brand's first laptop touchscreen and what it claims is "the world’s best laptop display".
Sixteen years after Steve Jobs described touchscreen laptops as "ergonomically terrible", Apple has ventured into the market with its new MacBook Pro, which is available from 6 November at prices ranging from £2,899 to £4,499.
As well as being touchscreen, the laptop features a PROLED XDR display, which Apple said is "the world's best laptop display", M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, 128 gigabytes of memory, 16 terabytes of storage, up to 24 hours of battery life and a thinner, lighter design compared to previous models.
It comes in 14- and 16-inch models, weighing three and four pounds respectively. The laptop was designed to be both portable and a powerful tool for professional creatives on the go, whether they're working on 3D models or playing musical instruments onscreen.
“The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display is a monumental step forward for the Mac,” said Apple chief hardware officer Johny Srouji.
“PROLED XDR is the world’s best laptop display," he continued. "And with the magic of Touch coming to MacBook Pro, combined with the game-changing performance of M5 Pro and M5 Max, we’ve created a whole new way for pros to interact with their content, taking their workflows to a completely new level."
"The new MacBook Pro is the result of the deep integration between Apple silicon, hardware, and software, and there’s simply nothing else like it."
Aiming to provide an intuitive experience, the Touch technology allows users to scroll through a webpage by swiping, zoom in on a photo by pinching, drag and drop slides in presentations and double-tap a window to fill the screen.
The touch sensor is built into the display panel rather than layered over it, to give the feel of touching the displayed content itself.
To support the Touch feature, Apple redesigned the laptop hinge for better stability and created real-time video stabilisation to smooth the camera feed when using the touchscreen on a video call.
Apple said that the macOS operating system automatically translates touches into clicks, meaning multiple existing apps will work with Touch right away. These include Adobe Lightroom, Blender, Maxon Cinema 4D, Maxon ZBrush, Notion, Canva, Zoom, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
"Graphic designers can now use the entire display as their canvas, no longer constrained by the area of the trackpad when drawing," said Apple.
"Musicians can play software instruments right onscreen, and app developers can test how Touch performs in their iOS and iPadOS apps directly on the MacBook Pro display."
Apple said the new PROLED XDR display offers "true-to-life colour and unparalleled brightness and contrast", made possible by combining OLED technology with algorithms that control light across the display.
"The PROLED XDR display offers tandem OLED technology unlike any other, with deep innovations in its layers that keep brightness and grayscale uniform across the entire display, while minimising internal reflections common in traditional OLED designs," said Apple.
"It’s all backed by advanced algorithms in the display engine that precisely control each pixel in real time, plus a meticulous manufacturing process and precise calibration of every panel for consistency from display to display."
The MacBook Pro also has a six-speaker sound system, designed for deeper bass and improved sound clarity compared to previous models, and the Dynamic Island search and notification feature currently used in iPhones.
Other recent releases from Apple include its first folding smartphone, the HomeView dashboard for home controls and the budget-friendly MacBook Neo.
The images are courtesy of Apple.
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