Apple's Touchscreen MacBook Pro Starts at $2,899, Tops Out Near $14,550

Apple today unveiled its long-awaited touchscreen MacBook Pro, pairing an OLED display with a touch interface — and a pricing ladder that escalates to more than $14,500 on fully loaded configurations.

The 14-inch model starts at $2,899, and the 16-inch at $3,399, both equipped with the M5 Pro chip. M5 Max versions start at $4,499 for the 14-inch and $4,799 for the 16-inch, according to Ars Technica.

The ceiling is what's drawing the most attention. Fully optioned, the new MacBook Pro reaches $14,249 for the 14-inch and $14,549 for the 16-inch, The Verge reported — $4,400 more than a fully specced version of the MacBook Pro Apple announced earlier this year.

Those top configurations include the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU, $150 worth of nano-texture glass, 128GB of memory at a $2,000 premium, and 16TB of storage. The Verge called the 16TB option "the real budget breaker," citing the ongoing memory shortage: the storage upgrade alone adds $7,000.

The jump is stark against the previous generation. The prior 16-inch MacBook Pro topped out at $10,149, according to MacRumors as cited by The Verge. The new 16-inch hits $14,549 at 16TB of storage. Trim that to the 8TB option — a $3,000 add-on — and the fully specced price falls to $10,549, still $400 above its predecessor's ceiling.

The pricing math is similar lower down the lineup. Ars Technica, which had brief hands-on time with the machine, noted that a 16-inch model with M5 Max, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage runs $5,799; stepping up to 128GB of RAM adds another $1,600. Ars noted some buyers may consider that memory for future-proofing local AI workflows.

The display is the other headline. Ars Technica described the OLED screen as "outstanding," with "peak brightness, absolute blacks, well-balanced color, and dynamic range" that amount to "an enormous upgrade" over the MiniLED panel in the previous model. Ars said the laptop is not as much of a departure from the previous design as expected, but the screen "steals the show regardless."

The hardware carries other changes. The camera notch has been replaced by the Dynamic Island cutout familiar from Apple's iPhones, which expands and contracts to display live activities and other information. Ars Technica said the cutout is far less dominant on a laptop's larger display than on an iPhone, while flagging one open question: how fullscreen games will behave around it, something it couldn't test during its brief time with the device.

The Apple logo on the lid glows again — a throwback to older MacBooks — and Ars Technica said the new model is noticeably lighter than its predecessor, even if it remains in the same general weight class.

The touchscreen itself works largely as a laptop touchscreen should, Ars Technica reported. In testing, Ars swiped between desktop spaces with three fingers, pinched and zoomed on images and in the Maps app, dragged and resized windows, moved files between applications, drew in a painting app, sketched on a 3D model, and scrubbed through video playback. Much of that, Ars noted, was already possible with trackpad gestures at the OS level; creative apps such as finger painting offered a bit more.

Notably, the MacBook Pro does not convert into a tablet and does not support the Apple Pencil, Ars Technica reported — the touch layer is an addition to the traditional clamshell, not a shift toward a hybrid form factor. Ars also tested playing a keyboard-style instrument on screen with fingers, calling it "a little awkward" without a tablet mode.

The chip lineup is a holdover. Ars Technica reported that the refresh uses the M5 Pro and M5 Max — the same chips as the previous MacBook Pro — even as the M6 series arrives in other Macs. Reports indicate Apple may wait until the M7 series for a chip update, which could bring significant AI performance improvements similar to those in the recently released A20 Pro chip for iPhone, according to Ars.

Preorders opened today, with the device reaching consumers Nov. 6, Ars Technica reported.

The launch closes a debate that stretched more than a decade. Ars Technica noted that Steve Jobs was famously against a touchscreen Mac and that, under Tim Cook and now John Ternus, Apple reportedly decided to move ahead with the idea.

The price, however, remains the sticking point. "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," Ars Technica wrote.