Apple's New Touchscreen MacBook Pro: Lighter and Brighter, but Much Pricier
Engadget's review of Apple's new OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro gives it 8.8 out of 10. The laptops are slimmer and lighter, but the 14-inch model costs $900 more than the standard version.
Tech site Engadget has published a review of Apple's new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display laptops. They are the first MacBook Pros with OLED screens and touch input, and the reviewer rated them 8.8 out of 10. The main conclusion: the changes are notable, but the price is very high and the touchscreen itself adds little.
Price and weight
The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds (the standard version weighs 3.7), and the 16-inch weighs 4 pounds (down from 4.7). Prices are higher: the 14-inch starts at $2,899, which is $900 above the standard version, while the 16-inch costs $3,399, or $400 more. Earlier this year the 14-inch started at $1,699 and the 16-inch at $2,699; price increases in June raised them to $1,999 and $2,999.
Display and sound
The screens are slightly larger (14.2 and 16.3 inches) with thinner bezels. They reach up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness and 1,000 nits of sustained full-screen brightness, with a 10,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. In everyday use the reviewer found it hard to tell the difference from the earlier Mini LED screens, but dark movie scenes with bright bursts looked more realistic. The laptops also have a Dynamic Island housing the webcam and six speakers with stronger bass.
Touch and performance
Touches register as mouse clicks in macOS, and Adobe and Blackmagic plan to fully support touch. There is no Apple Pencil support. The chips are the same M5 Pro and M5 Max as before. The tested 14-inch model with an M5 Pro and 48GB of RAM scored 4,217 in single-core Geekbench 6. Battery life was about 12.5 hours on the 14-inch, and 10 hours 15 minutes for the 16-inch in a coding benchmark.
The reviewer says the upgrade mainly suits professionals and frequent travelers; owners of a recent MacBook Pro have no need to rush.
