Touchscreen MacBook Pro hands-on: OLED looks great on a Mac
It took far too long for OLED to come to the MacBook Pro, but unsurprisingly, Apple spared no expense and cut no immediately obvious corners on quality.
I was also happy to see that the cutout near the top of the screen that has replaced the camera notch is what Apple calls a Dynamic Island; it can resize to show live activities and other information on the fly. That’s one of my favorite features on the iPhone, as I’ve been impressed with Apple’s ability to turn something that should be an albatross into an appealing feature.
Samuel Axon
The 16-inch MacBook Pro. Samuel Axon
Samuel Axon
The 14-inch MacBook Pro. Samuel Axon
The 16-inch MacBook Pro. Samuel Axon
The 14-inch MacBook Pro. Samuel Axon
The keyboard and touchpad are the same as before. (Pictured here on the 16-inch.)
Samuel Axon
The keyboard and touchpad are the same as before. (Pictured here on the 16-inch.) Samuel Axon
Same goes for ports; no changes here.
Samuel Axon
Same goes for ports; no changes here. Samuel Axon
The keyboard and touchpad are the same as before. (Pictured here on the 16-inch.) Samuel Axon
Same goes for ports; no changes here. Samuel Axon
Based on my time with the device and today’s announcement, the screen seems to be the main draw (though it’s nice that it noticeably weighs less, too), but the price is the real barrier. A 16-inch model with an M5 Max, 64 GB of RAM, and 2 TB of storage is currently priced at $5,799. Sure, that’s a high-end spec, but that’s some serious cash. Much of that is due to the storage and memory; upgrading from 64GB to 128GB adds a whopping $1,600 to that.
Sure, most people don’t need anywhere near that much RAM—but some might for future-proofing for local AI workflows.
I’m looking forward to spending more time with the new MacBook Pro, but for right now, it seems to follow in the lineup’s existing tradition: impressively high-end components like an outstanding OLED panel, but a very steep price to match. No surprises here! Though after well over a decade of speculation and back-and-forth, you’d be forgiven for being surprised that the touchscreen thing actually finally happened.
Source: arstechnica.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.