The first independent reviews of Apple's new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the PROLED XDR display have been published, a day before the laptops go on sale on Friday, November 6. MacRumors rounded up the verdicts from several outlets, and the headline question is whether the first touchscreen Mac is worth the extra money.
Touch is useful, but not essential
Reviewers largely agree that touch is a nice extra rather than a reason to buy. The Verge's David Pierce wrote that touch input has not "meaningfully" changed the laptop experience, though he still recommends the machine for its display and other upgrades. He found touch handy for zooming into photos and for showing something to another person, but noted that no onscreen keyboard appears when tapping a text field and that Apple Pencil does not work on the screen.
Gizmodo's Kyle Barr said touch makes iPhone Mirroring more intuitive, while WIRED's Luke Larsen said he often forgot the touchscreen was there at all.
The display gets the praise
The tandem OLED panel drew the strongest reactions. Bloomberg's Chris Welch called it "genuinely striking," citing deeper contrast than the mini-LED models and no uniformity problems. Mashable's Timothy Beck Werth said the display "absolutely slaps." According to the report, the screen reaches up to 2,000 nits of brightness for HDR content.
Reviewers also noted a Dynamic Island in place of the notch, slimmer bezels, a redesigned hinge, and a lighter and slightly thinner body. 9to5Mac's Chance Miller said the lower weight is noticeable as soon as you pick up the 16-inch model. The glowing Apple logo on the lid has returned, with its brightness tied to the display and to ambient light.
A few caveats
Welch found the redesigned six-speaker system, which Apple says delivers 50 percent deeper bass, sometimes too boomy for music, podcasts and YouTube, with no easy way to dial it back. Other changes include a redesigned cooling system and a new 16TB storage option.
The models use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips as the mini-LED MacBook Pro, so reviewers expect similar performance. In the U.S., the 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch model at $3,399.
Apple introduced the PROLED XDR MacBook Pro models in an October 28 announcement.
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