Apple has announced its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen at its Pro and Tell event in Los Angeles, as reported in an early hands-on by Engadget. The laptop is named the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, and it keeps the standard 14 and 16 inch screen sizes of the line, although the display has been improved considerably. The reviewer who tried it briefly said that it still feels like a MacBook Pro, since Apple did not reinvent the design even though the redesign brings many significant changes. The report is a first impression after a short time with the machine, and more detailed testing is still to come.
The new models are lighter than their predecessors, with the 14 inch version weighing three pounds and the 16 inch version four pounds. The reduction of about half a pound makes a noticeable difference in use, according to the hands on report. Apple kept the same set of ports on the new models, and the keyboard and trackpad appear to be the same comfortable options that have been used on the MacBook Pro since its large redesign in 2021. The 2016 Touch Bar models were also about the same weight, but they ran Intel chips and had difficulty staying cool and performing well under heavy workloads. The reviewer expects that this will not be the case here, although the point will need to be checked during longer testing.
The screen is the main attraction of the new laptop. In 2024, Apple released the iPad Pro with a tandem OLED screen, which the reviewer described as the nicest display he had seen on an Apple device, and he says the title now goes to the new MacBook Pro. The OLED technology produces very deep blacks, and the demo photographs and videos that were loaded on the laptop show it off well. Touch works as users would expect, and it allows them to swipe through images, use two fingers for multi touch gestures such as panning and zooming, draw in apps like Pixelmator and adjust editing sliders in Photos.
The interface of the operating system has not changed significantly to accommodate touch, so a person would not guess at first glance that the laptop was designed for it. Elements such as the stop light buttons at the top left of a window, which are used for window management, expand slightly when they are touched, but there are no other major concessions to touch in the software. The glowing logo on the lid of the laptop has also returned, which the reviewer welcomed. The report was marked as still developing, and it did not include prices, processor details or a release date, which means that buyers will need to wait for further information from Apple and for the full review before they can judge the machine.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
