GoKawiilAfter over a decade of not adopting touch displays on its Mac notebook lineup, Apple will finally be rolling out its first touchscreen MacBook as soon as October. This’ll come alongside the next MacBook Pro redesign, potentially dubbed MacBook Ultra.
Of course, rumors are rumors – though essentially every reputable source has aligned on the idea of the MacBook Pro gaining support for touch later this year. Apple even left a few hints in macOS 27: Touch Support in Sidecar, pull to refresh support, and slightly bigger menu bar items.
As a 13-inch MacBook Air user, the last one was particularly annoying because things that used to fit on the left side of the notch were now spilling over.
One could call all of this a mere coincidence, but it’s probably exactly what it looks like. Regardless, here’s what the first touchscreen MacBook will have to offer.
OLED, Dynamic Island
On the display panel side of things, the redesigned MacBook Pro will come with a Tandem OLED display. This will be similar to the iPad Pro, which is often touted as one of the best mobile displays on the market. Tandem OLED comprises of stacked OLED panels, which allows for incredible colors, strong contrast, and increased brightness.
Reports also suggest it’ll come with a Dynamic Island, and it’ll be a bit smaller than the one on the iPhone. It won’t, however, come with support for Face ID.
Software optimizations
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will have some special optimizations for the first touchscreen MacBook Pro, beyond what’s already visible in the betas of macOS 27:
“For instance, if users touch a button or control, the interface will bring up a new type of menu surrounding their finger that provides more relevant options for touch commands. The software will also display the most appropriate set of controls based on users’ prior interaction. And if a person taps an item in the menu bar at the top of the screen, the set of controls will enlarge to be more easily selectable with a finger.”
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