At its “Pro and tell” showcase in Los Angeles, Apple on Wednesday announced its touch-enabled MacBook Pro.
“Apple today introduced the all-new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, featuring breakthrough tandem OLED technology that delivers game-changing front-of-screen performance,” the company said in its Newsroom announcement. “Available in 14- and 16-inch models, MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display offers a visual experience unlike any other, transforming pro workflows with up to 2000 nits peak HDR and SDR brightness, an industry-leading 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio for exceptional detail, a 120Hz variable refresh rate, and a wider color gamut covering both P3 and Adobe RGB for brilliant colors. The new MacBook Pro also introduces intuitive Touch capabilities on the Mac for the first time, opening up a whole new dimension for pros to interact with their content, from manipulating 3D models to playing musical instruments onscreen. The Dynamic Island now comes to Mac, serving as the home for Spotlight, Live Activities, and Siri AI. And with up to 24 hours of battery life in thinner and much lighter 3- and 4-pound designs, MacBook Pro is more portable than ever, empowering pros to take their work wherever inspiration strikes.3 Featuring M5 Pro and M5 Max, Apple’s most powerful chips ever built for a pro laptop, along with up to 128GB of unified memory and now up to 16TB of blazing-fast storage, the new MacBook Pro delivers speed and capability for the most demanding workflows. An enhanced six-speaker sound system now provides 50 percent deeper bass and remarkable sound clarity for even more immersive audio. And Thunderbolt 5 and a wide array of connectivity, a 12MP Center Stage camera, studio-quality mics, and the power of macOS 27 with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI complete the MacBook Pro experience. It is available to pre-order starting today, October 28, with availability beginning Friday, November 6.”
I am not in SoCal today. Apple didn’t invite me to either experience this month, but that’s okay. I’m not excluded.
Although I’m pretty sure this new machine isn’t for me—my 2023 14” M2 Pro MacBook Pro is permanently docked to the Pro Display XDR on my desk—that doesn’t mean I’m neither curious about nor aware of the accessibility implications of the new computer. For one thing, I’m damn curious about the brightness and crispness of the OLED display running macOS; my Pro Display XDR remains a wunderkind, but as an OLED TV owner, I’m sure the pixel-level control of the new MacBook’s screen is something to see. As someone with very low vision, I’m sure it will have an appreciable effect on my work—especially in an app like MarkEdit where I prefer to write my stories in dark mode (for contrast) despite the system being in light mode during daytime hours. For another thing, I’m curious about the accessibility features Apple presumably has baked in for the touch experience. It’s clearly intended to be a secondary input method—i.e., this fancy-pants new MacBook is decidedly not an iPad—but nevertheless I’m left to wonder if macOS Golden Gate has something like Touch Accommodations, et al, for those people who may need or want it. It’s also worth mentioning the accessibility gains of the Dynamic Island as well. I’ve loved it on every iPhone I’ve used since the 14 Pro came out in 2022, and imagine the benefits on the Mac will be largely identical to what I’ve enjoyed on iOS the last few years.
Between iPhone Duo, the new OLED iPad mini, and today’s new MacBook Pro, I’m excited to dig into this stuff.
Apple has posted a video on the new MacBook Pro to YouTube.
