Apple is set to introduce touchscreens to its premium MacBook Pro lineup this fall, marking a significant upgrade to its laptops with the inclusion of OLED displays and a Dynamic Island-style webcam cutout.
The upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will feature OLED displays for the first time in Apple’s laptop history, a technology the company has previously used on iPhones, Apple Watches, and the iPad Pro. The new laptops will also include a “dynamic interface” designed to adapt based on where users touch the screen, aiming to smooth the transition between mouse and touch inputs. According to the report, when a user touches an onscreen button, the operating system will pull up contextual menus containing options relevant to touch commands. Interface elements, such as the macOS menu bar, will enlarge to make items easier to select with a finger. Standard touchscreen features like smooth scrolling and pinch-to-zoom for images, files, and web pages will also be included.
Despite the addition of touch capabilities, Apple will not include a touchscreen keyboard on these models, retaining their physical keyboards instead. While Windows laptops have offered touchscreens and dynamic interface elements for some time, Apple is late to adopt this hardware feature. However, the company may be positioned to succeed due to macOS’s existing touch-friendly design and its investment in porting touch-based iPad apps to the Mac platform. This background could help the touchscreen MacBook experience feel functional immediately upon release.
