MacBook Pro touchscreen will be ‘Touch-Friendly, Not Touch-First’

Apple’s rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro will be “a touch-enabled device, rather than a touch-first device,” according to . Bloombergby Mark Gurman.

Writing in Power On, Gurman said users will be able to move more easily between touch-based gestures and point-and-click, thanks to changes coming to macOS 27 — set in part by last year’s Liquid Glass redesign. However, Apple is said to be taking a more conservative approach to touch-based input, offering it more as a “bonus” than a standout feature.

Before anyone gets too excited, a touch-based MacBook Pro won’t feel like an iPad,” Gurman said. “This is the MacBook Pro you knew from twenty years ago — with touch as a bonus.”

Users will be able to tap or click on-screen elements, and the controls will change based on the input method. When a user taps on a menu bar item, for example, it will bring up a large set of touch-optimized controls. Touch-based options will be integrated throughout macOS, and will support iPad features such as pinch-to-zoom gestures or fast scrolling.

Anyone looking for a more hybrid iPad/Mac experience will have to wait until 2029, when Apple’s foldable iPad could arrive — though even this is said to be “constructed continuously like an iPad.”

The touchscreen MacBook Pro is expected to be released as soon as this year, equipped with an M6 chip and an OLED display. The redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are also expected to have a punch-hole camera at the top of the display. Expect an iPhone-style Dynamic Island to keep it, rather than the familiar notch.