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It's been five years since Apple last redesigned the MacBook Pro, so it was due for an update. The PROLED MacBook Pro looks a lot like the mini-LED model, but it's thinner and lighter. The 14-inch model is about half a millimeter thinner and weighs just over three pounds, while the 16-inch model is almost a millimeter thinner and weighs four pounds. Apple shaved off about half a pound for the 14-inch model and 0.7 pounds for the 16-inch model, and while that doesn't sound like much, it makes a big difference. You can feel how much lighter it is the second you take it out of the box. Apple brought back the glowing logo for the PROLED MacBook Pro, so everyone around you will know you have the fancy new OLED model.
The OLED display is the major new feature, and it looks as good as you would expect from a display in a laptop starting at $2,899. Blacks are true black, and since each pixel lights up individually, there's none of the bloom you get with mini-LED when viewing bright objects on a dark background. The PROLED MacBook Pro can get super bright too, and that brightness paired with the deep blacks, HDR content looks great. OLED sometimes isn't bright enough outdoors, but that's not the case here.
The display bezels are thinner, and the 16-inch machine is actually 16.3 inches instead of 16.2. There's also an iPhone-like Dynamic Island that replaces the notch and houses Siri AI, Live Activities, and more. The Dynamic Island makes sense because you can now touch the MacBook Pro's display. It works like touching an iPhone or iPad, so you can swipe through webpages, tap buttons, drag and drop, and pinch to zoom.
Touch isn't meant to replace the trackpad and keyboard, but it's there if you want it. Apple made some tweaks to macOS, so menu options expand a little more when you touch them than when you click them, and tiny window resizing buttons get larger. Apple put a sturdier hinge in the PROLED MacBook Pro so the display won't move as much when you tap it, but it's not perfect. It does still jiggle depending on where you tap.
The touch feature is fine, but it's probably not a reason to go out and get the PROLED MacBook Pro. It has the potential to be useful in some situations, but it's not going to dramatically change the way most people use a laptop.
New chips weren't ready in time for the PROLED machines, so they use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max as the mini-LED models. That's a disappointment in a laptop that starts at almost $3,000. Since Apple is still selling the mini-LED models, you're basically paying a $400 premium for the higher-end OLED display, the thinner and lighter design, and the touch functionality.
The better display and the lighter weight are going to be worth the price for some people, and the touch is just a bonus.
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This article, "Hands-On With Apple's New OLED Touchscreen MacBook Pro" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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