After roughly two decades of rejecting the idea of a touchscreen Mac, Apple (AAPL) has unveiled a fully redesigned MacBook Pro, adding a touchscreen for the first time and giving its flagship laptop a feature that has long been a key fixture of the personal computer industry.
The new MacBook Pro comes in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, with a thinner chassis and a substantial reduction in weight, and it is the first Mac to adopt an OLED display, a technology already used in iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices in recent years.
The new machine also brings the Dynamic Island, familiar to iPhone users, to the Mac for the first time. The new computer features a redesigned user interface optimized for touch input and is powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
The 14-inch version starts at $2,899, while the 16-inch version starts at $3,399.
Apple's chief hardware officer, Johny Srouji, called the new MacBook Pro "a milestone step forward for the Mac." New chief executive John Ternus took the stage at the launch event to introduce the product.
Co-founder Steve Jobs publicly criticized the idea of a touchscreen Mac late in his career, once calling the design "terrible ergonomically." His successor, Tim Cook, said combining a laptop and a tablet was like merging a refrigerator and a toaster. Other Apple executives also mocked the idea in interviews.
According to prior reports, however, about four years ago Cook and Ternus began supporting a break from past tradition by adding a touchscreen to the MacBook Pro. Apple hopes to inject new momentum into its Mac business and boost revenue by adding high-end features and raising prices.
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