After years of speculation, Apple has finally unveiled its first ever touchscreen MacBook.
Although the touchscreen is undoubtedly the headline feature, the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display also has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve. But how does it compare to the “standard” MacBook Pro? Who is the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display really designed for?
We’ve compared the specs of the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display to the MacBook Pro below. Once you’re finished here, make sure you check out our best laptops round-up too.
Price and Availability
At the time of writing, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is available for pre-order and will officially launch from November 6th. Although most laptops and other gadgets have gotten more expensive this year, with the on-going RAM situation to blame, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is a pretty extreme example of this. With a £2,899 starting price, it can’t be a laptop designed for everyday use.
That standard MacBook Pro is slightly cheaper in comparison, though it’s still a pricey option with a £1,999/$1,999 starting price.
The new MacBook Pro debuts a touchscreen display
One of the headline features of the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is that it’s fitted with a touchscreen display. In fact, it’s the first MacBook to ever see a touchscreen.
Apple promises that the inclusion of Touch will transform pro workflows and enable “more intuitive and intimate ways to create”, and feel simple and responsive to use. As the touch sensor is built into the display panel, and not layered on top, latency should be reduced too. The MacBook Pro is also equipped with a newly designed hinge to provide greater stability while using Touch too.
Although Touch is one of the most anticipated features of the new MacBook Pro, the display is also equipped with plenty of new and premium features. Promised to be the world’s best laptop screen, the PROLED XDR display uses tandem OLED technology which promises to deliver “exceptional brightness, striking contrast, and vivid true-to-life colours”.
The display also promises a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, is fitted with ProMotion technology that can drop down to just 10Hz for better power efficiency and offers a super-wide colour gamut with P3 and Adobe RGB too. In other words, the PROLED XDR Display a seriously loaded screen.
This isn’t to say the standard MacBook Pro M6 has a poor display. While it lacks a touchscreen, the MacBook Pro is still fitted with a Liquid Retina XDR display that delivers up to 1600 nits of peak brightness and supports the P3 wide colour gamut too. Both laptops also come with a nano-texture coating that reduces reflections and glare – though this will cost an additional £/$150.
MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display runs on either the M5 Pro or M5 Max chips
While the flagship MacBook Pro comes with Apple’s M6 as standard, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is equipped with either the M5 Pro or M5 Max chips. You can learn more about the differences in our MacBook Pro M5 Pro vs M5 Max guide, however Apple promises that both will deliver “phenomenal single- and multithreaded CPU performance”.
The M5 Pro is designed with scientists, engineers and creative pros in mind, as it allows them to tackle intensive projects, whereas the M5 Max is built for those who want to push the limits even further – such as AI developers, 3D VFX artists and film composers.
In comparison, the MacBook Pro with M6 brings “even more performance next-level AI capabilities”, and is designed for a wider range of users from students to business professions and creators too.
MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is lighter
Before we go into specifics, we should note that the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is available in two sizes: 14.2- and 16.3-inches. While the standard MacBook Pro also comes in two sizes, the M6 iteration we’re comparing here is only available as a smaller, 14.2-inch model.
Otherwise, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display now weighs just 1.38kg whereas the MacBook Pro with M6 weighs 1.6kg instead. Not only that, but the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display also has a slimmer design, which Apple says is enabled by the OLED’s more efficient display stack.
MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display has a Dynamic Island
The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display also sees another first with the inclusion of the Dynamic Island. Normally reserved for the iPhone series, the Dynamic Island on the MacBook Pro offers a quick way to see and interact with important information, while Live Activities provides users with timely updates too.
MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display promises the “best audio” of any laptop
Apple promises that the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display features an all-new woofer design that should result in 50% deeper bass and all-new tweeters that shape sound dispersion too.
That’s not the only improvement. The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display now sees dedicated audio tuning for closed-lid use which should deliver “exceptional sound quality” when connected to an external display.
Early Verdict
Choosing between the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and the standard MacBook Pro will depend on a few factors – mainly whether or not you want an upgraded screen or not. Although the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display does come running on either M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, you can also find these chips within the standard MacBook Pro instead.
With this in mind, if you’re someone who will benefit from the inclusion of touch, alongside a higher peak brightness and P3 plus Adobe RGB colour gamuts, then the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is worth the splurge. If you can live without a touchscreen, then the standard MacBook Pro is a slightly more affordable alternative.
