Apple finally unveils its first touchscreen laptop

Tech giant Apple has spent the last three days announcing new products across its Mac, MacBook and iPad portfolios, culminating in an all-new first for the company: a touchscreen laptop.

With attention firmly on the company’s recent foldable iPhone Duo launch after reports of screen issues among early buyers, these pre-planned announcements serve as both a distraction from a product level but also a renewed focus on the brand as it launches a suite of new products under new CEO John Ternus.

The week kicked off with a new iPad mini, featuring an OLED screen for the first time.

An updated MacBook Pro laptop and desktop iMac were then announced with the company’s own M6 Apple Silicon under the hood.

Today’s announcement in Los Angeles took place in a very different style to normal for Apple, with a theatre area packed in standing room-only form by content creators from around the world.

Like many announcements from Apple, the concept of a touchscreen laptop may seem innovative for those loyal to the brand, but the fact is Windows laptops have had touchscreen options encase for over a decade; in fact, it’s more common for a Windows laptop to be touchscreen in 2026 than not.

The same criticism came last month when Apple announced their foldable iPhone Duo - while it was the first device for Apple that could fold, it’s been seven years since Samsung brought that form factor to the market.

Read more

iPhone Duo hands-on review: Is Apple’s new device worth the hype?

Talk of a touch-enabled MacBook has been around for a long time, even co-founder Steve Jobs was quoted in 2010 saying: “We’ve done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives a great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal.”

Instead, Apple added multi-touch gestures to the mousepad or trackpad on its laptops, but again, the questions came. 

Former CEO Tim Cook in 2012 said combining a laptop and a tablet was as appealing as “converging a toaster and a refrigerator”. 

But, either through user pressure or their own innovation in usability, the time has come.

Apple MacBooks hold a market share around 10 per cent globally and while there’s no raw data on sales, the overall Mac business (including desktop PCs) for Apple accounts for roughly 10 per cent of its revenues.

Apple’s new touchscreen MacBook didn’t come with a core answer to the question of “why” - only to suggest that it was now something they could do with confidence, while retaining a strong and vibrant “reference monitor”-capable display which it is calling PROLED XDR.

In reality, adding touch to the MacBook is a no-brainer for Apple given the overwhelming number of “touch” devices they already sell across iPhone and iPad.

The bigger cheer from the crowd in Los Angeles came when Ternus announced the Apple logo on the back of the screen would again “light up” - something Apple hasn’t done in it’s laptops for over a decade.

It’s not cheap, though.

The new MacBook with PROLED XDR Display goes on sale in Australia on November 6 at a starting price of $4599 for the 14-inch model, and $5499 for the 16-inch.

This week’s round of announcements likely wraps up the year for Apple, however reports within the industry suggest the company will now shift their focus to more announcements early in 2027 with expectations of an entry-level iPhone 18, iPhone 18e and a second generation of their ultra-thin iPhone Air set to be announced in the first quarter.

Concerns around the iPhone Duo’s screen don’t appear to have dampened the expectation of investors, with Apple’s share price steady over the past week.

Trevor Long travelled to Los Angeles as a guest of Apple.