Apple finally caves on the one thing Mac fans were told they'd never get

For years, Apple said the Mac didn't need a touchscreen.

This week it changed its mind, and it's charging a lot for the privilege.

At its "Pro and Tell" event in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, Apple unveiled the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display: the first Mac you can poke, swipe and pinch.

It comes in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, runs the M5 Pro or M5 Max chip, and starts at $2,899. Pre-orders are open now, and it lands in stores on Friday, Nov. 6.

What touch actually does

The whole screen responds to your fingers. You can swipe to scroll, pinch to zoom, double-tap a window to fill the screen, or flick it to one side to tile it.

The keyboard and trackpad stay. Touch is simply another way in, and macOS turns your taps into clicks, so most apps work with it straight away.

Apple built the touch sensor into the display panel itself, rather than layering it on top, which it says cuts the lag. A redesigned hinge keeps the screen from wobbling when you tap it, and the camera feed is stabilised if you touch the screen mid video call.

Pixelmator Pro, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro already support it. Microsoft Word, Adobe Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve and Blender will follow later this year, according to Apple.

A screen to match the price

The display is OLED, a first for a MacBook. Apple calls it PROLED XDR: a tandem OLED panel that reaches 2,000 nits at its brightest, with a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz.

The notch is gone, replaced by a pill-shaped Dynamic Island, the first on a Mac. And there's a little nostalgia too: the glowing Apple logo on the lid is back, 11 years after Apple dropped it.

Both sizes are thinner and lighter. The 14-inch weighs 3 pounds, half a pound less than before, and Apple quotes up to 24 hours of battery life.

But that price is the catch. At $2,899, the 14-inch costs $400 more than the same MacBook Pro without touch, BGR reports, and it's the highest launch price Apple has ever put on a 14-inch MacBook Pro.

The 16-inch model starts at $3,399. Go for the M5 Max chip and it's $4,499 for the 14-inch and $4,799 for the 16-inch.

If that's too rich, Apple also announced a cheaper 14-inch MacBook Pro with its new M6 chip a day earlier. It starts at $1,999, but it keeps the old mini-LED screen, and you can't touch it.

Every model ships on Nov. 6.