So…fun fact: Apple hasn’t actually redesigned the look of the MacBook Pro since the M1 and M1 Max days. At least until this PROLED XDR version was released.
The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display feels like an experiment in creating the most premium laptop for those of us with deep pockets. Tack on all the bells and whistles (top-of-the-line M5 Max, 128GB RAM, 16TB SSD, Final Cut Pro, AppleCare etc.) and you can easily watch the price soar up to ₱1,050,810! But to be fair, a more modest config with the M5 Pro, 2TB SSD, and standard 24GB memory costs around ₱259,740.
It’s a lot of money to dump on a laptop that’s for sure so Apple has at least packed plenty of impressive tech to make the investment worth it.
A Touchscreen OLED Display
We’re pretty sure the biggest reason anyone would want this laptop is that display. As per its long name, this is the first MacBook Pro to be equipped with tandem OLED technology that promises all sorts of impressive numbers:
• Up to 2,000 nits of brightness (both SDR and HDR)
• “Industry-leading” 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio
• ProMotion technology, making adaptive refresh rates as low as 10Hz and as high as 120Hz depending on whether you want battery efficiency or fluid responsiveness
• Wide color gamut, Adobe RGB and so on…
However, it also brings intuitive Touch capabilities to the Mac for the very first time, giving you more control over your creative tasks whether you’re rotating a 3D model a specific way or tapping on apps to open them like you would with a phone. And yes, Apple does confirm that common 3rd-party apps like Canva, Powerpoint, and Blender do support this touchscreen natively.
What it doesn’t have however, is the ability to flip the display 360° so you can carry and use the MacBook Pro as a tablet, kind of like the cheaper Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1. No Apple Pencil support either, so you can’t quite use it as a traditional drawing tablet just yet. This capability is still reserved for their iPads and iPad Pro tablets.
Goodbye Notch
This new MacBook Pro PROLED also waves goodbye to the old notch, replacing it with a smaller Dynamic Island cutout; the same one you can find in the iPhone 15; the first non-Pro iPhone to get the feature. It’s also going to house the laptop’s webcam and other sensors.
The laptop’s Dynamic Island will house its webcam, Spotlight, Live Activities, and even Siri AI, ensuring these features are just a touch away for whenever you need it. There’s good news for Mac owners who plan on sticking with their older laptops though.
The macOS 27.3 developer beta does add Live Activities to the menu bar of these older Macs, right at the top right of the screen. Right now, it’s able to support Apple Music, Clock, Voice Memos, and Screen Recording and we’re sure many more will follow suit once the stable version launches in December 2026.
As for the webcam, you get a 12MP Center Stage camera with studio-quality mics. So good video and audio. The webcam also has advanced video stabilization, keeping your video feed stable even while you’re tapping apps on the screen. And don’t worry, Apple has reportedly reinforced the hinge on the display to also help with this.
Power Up with the M5 Pro and the M5 Max
The high sticker price also includes your choice of either the M5 Pro or the M5 Max; Apple’s current latest and greatest when it comes to their laptops. Performance-wise, they should be the same as the already-released, non-touch MacBook Pros.
The million-peso option does get there by including an M5 Max with a whopping 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU inside (which in turn, automatically defaults to 48GB unified memory at minimum). So if you’re the type who runs LLMs locally on your machine or does a lot of 8K video editing, then this option does offer plenty of power for you to use, even when on the go.
But for most people, the basic version does come with an M5 Pro with an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU so there’s still plenty of performance there for your creative and multimedia tasks. For reference, the M5 Pro gets approximately 20% to 50% more performance compared to the M4 Pro depending on the task.
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Design and Dimensions
Despite the beefier tech packed under the hood, this new incarnation of the MacBook Pro is surprisingly light (within reason of course). The 14-inch model only weighs around 1.4kg while the 16-inch comes to around 1.6kg. Probably with some variance depending on whether you went with the M5 Pro or the M5 Max chip but nothing too drastic. Either configuration should be comfortable enough to carry around in a bag for the rest of the day.
More experienced Apple users can see it as a fine middle ground between the 2016 and 2021 redesigns.
Other slight adjustments include more rounded edges on all four corners of the laptop and slimmer bezels around the display. No need for the thick bottom bezel here thanks to Dynamic Island and the touchscreen features. Oh, and the logo at the back glows again!
A Possible End of an Era?
But the arrival of the touchscreen MacBook Pro OLED could possibly herald the end of something else. There’s talks about Apple eliminating non-touch premium MacBook Pro models next year, according to Apple Insider, right when the new generation Apple silicon chips come out.
So we’d get a 2027 14-inch MacBook Pro with no touchscreen as an “entry-level” model but new 16-inch machines sporting “Max” chips might be relegated to premium touchscreen variants. But these are still initial speculation and we’ll have to see how popular the new touchscreen OLED versions are. And if the online reception is to be believed, it’s looking like another hit is on Apple’s hands this year.
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