Oops! Apple just put its first laptop touchscreen on the wrong MacBook
Out of reach
by https://www.techradar.com/author/matt-hanson · TechRadarOpinion By Matt Hanson Published 29 October 2026
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Well, it’s finally happened: Apple has got with the times and finally made a laptop with a touchscreen. However, while the new MacBook Pros with PROLED screens look like fantastic devices, I think Apple has made a mistake by putting its first laptop touchscreen on the more expensive MacBook Pro, rather than the more mainstream MacBook Air… or even the MacBook Neo.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with a touchscreen starts at $2,899 / £2,899 / AU$4,599, and the 16-inch model starts at $3,399 / £3,399 / AU$5,499. That’s a big ask for most people, especially these days.
Of course, MacBook Pros, as the name suggests, are aimed at professionals, and thanks to their high-end components, they should really be seen as investments that allow you to speed up your workflow.
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Interestingly the new touchscreen MacBook Pros come with Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. If you want Apple’s latest M6 chip, you’ll need to go for the non-touchscreen 14-inch MacBook Pro that was announced a few days earlier. Perhaps confusingly, the M6 is less powerful than the M5 Pro and M5 Max, and so far there are no hints that Apple is preparing to release M6 Pro and M6 Max chips.
My point is that by putting its first-ever laptop touchscreen on its most powerful — and expensive — MacBooks, Apple is severely limiting the potential audience for the technology. Had it instead put a touchscreen on the more affordable MacBook Air, it could have had a real hit on its hands.
Who’s it for?
As someone who has used plenty of Windows laptops and Chromebooks with touchscreens in the past, I know how useful they can be for certain tasks, and I often miss them when using a MacBook.
Being able to scroll down a website with a finger, turn a page in an ebook, or quickly tap a menu item feels natural and intuitive, and I’m sure it will on the new MacBooks. My daughter, who grew up with touchscreens on everything, would also instinctively poke an often sticky, grubby (kids, you’ve got to love them!) finger at a MacBook screen and be surprised when nothing happened.
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