Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR gets touchscreen for first time: price in UAE, release date

Dubai: Apple has launched a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, the first time the company has added touch input to a Mac laptop.

The redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch models also introduce a tandem OLED display, which Apple calls PROLED XDR, along with the company’s new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Pre-orders open today (Wednesday, October 28), with deliveries and in-store availability from Friday, November 6.

MacBook Pro price in UAE

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at Dh11,999 and the 16-inch model at Dh14,499. The M5 Max versions start at Dh19,299 for the 14-inch and Dh20,999 for the 16-inch. Apple offers education pricing on all four models.

MacBook Pro touchscreen: how it works

Apple says the touch sensor is built into the display panel rather than layered on top, which reduces latency. Touch is designed to work alongside the keyboard and trackpad, and macOS translates touches into clicks, so many existing apps will work with it straight away. Developers get updated system APIs to build touch-specific controls.

The Dynamic Island, a feature of recent iPhones, also comes to the Mac. It shows calls, music controls and Live Activities.

New OLED display: brightness, contrast and colour

PROLED XDR reaches a peak brightness of 2,000 nits and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz, according to Apple, which also claims a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It covers both P3 and Adobe RGB colour spaces, aimed at photographers and designers. An optional nano-texture finish reduces glare.

MacBook Pro weight, size and battery life

The new models are lighter. The 14-inch weighs 3 pounds, half a pound less than before, while the 16-inch weighs 4 pounds, down 0.7 pounds. Screen sizes grow slightly, to 14.2 inches and 16.3 inches, and Apple claims battery life of up to 24 hours.

M5 Pro and M5 Max chips: specs and performance

Both chips are aimed at software development, video editing, 3D animation and AI work. Apple says M5 Max systems can run large language models with hundreds of billions of parameters on the device. Memory goes up to 128GB and storage up to 16TB.

The laptops run macOS 27 and have three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot and MagSafe charging.