The MacBook Pro PROLED XDR 14-inch is my favorite MacBook, ever here's why

Date:
Thu, 05 Nov 2026 18:15:05 +0000

Description:
Apple's MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display touchscreen laptop is so light and so stunning that you might start looking at your MacBook Air a little differently.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter It wasnt until I unboxed the all-new touchscreen MacBook Pro that I understood the enormity of what Apple had done. Theyd told me it was now a 3lb system that was both thinner and smaller than the MacBook Pro M5 (and the recently released M6 model), but it wasnt until I put the new laptop next to the M5 and then compared it to the MacBook Air M5 that I knew Apple had changed its laptop game. Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Image 1 of 6 View Original Image 2 of 6 View Original Image 3 of 6 View Original Image 4 of 6 View Original Image 5 of 6 View Original Image 6 of 6 View Original Here's what you should know about me: I hate a heavy backpack. Thats one of the reasons I carried a Microsoft Surface Pro for a decade and have now carried a succession of excellent MacBook Air laptops for the last few years. At 2.7 lbs, it's light enough to be mostly unnoticeable in my backpack, and since the M-class Apple silicon chips, Apple has packed in more than enough power for my needs. The new Touchscreen MacBook shrinks the traditional Pro chassis by a full half pound. Thats right, its now just 0.3 pounds heavier than my MacBook Air. Its not just the weight. Overall bulk despite a larger (and also in part because of) PROLED XDR display is not
much more than the Air. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Here are the specs: MacBook Air 13-inch M5 You may like Apple event live the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is here I've tested Apple's new touchscreen MacBook, and it's worth buying but not for the reasons youre expecting What's the tech inside the touchscreen MacBook Pro's 'PROLED XDR' screen? We explain all Height: 0.44 inch Width: 11.97 inches Depth: 8.46 inches MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14-inch Height: 0.59 inch Width: 12.24 inches Depth: 8.52 inches Obviously, the touchscreen MacBook Pro is fractionally larger in every dimension, but it no longer feels like a bulky, heavy Pro system. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Apples ability to shrink this powerful laptop's dimensions while leaving ports, keyboard, trackpad, and speakers virtually untouched and
oh-so-familiar comes down, in large part, to the new tandem OLED display, which is considerably thinner than the M6s mini-LED-based Liquid Retina Display.

Its also wholly redesigned, stretching far deeper on the cover than the
Liquid Retina panel on the traditional MacBook Pro. That extra depth is how Apple almost magically fits a 14.2-inch display on a smaller chassis. Image 1 of 4 MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Air M5 13-inch on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) MacBook Pro
PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Air M5 13-inch on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Air M5 13-inch on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Air M5 13-inch on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Image 1 of 4 View Original Image 2 of 4 View Original Image 3 of 4 View Original Image 4 of 4 View Original Perhaps you can see where Im going: By shrinking its most powerful portable (with a touchscreen, no less), Apple is, whether purposefully or not, introducing some buying confusion. A MacBook Pro is officially nearly ultra-portable territory. What to read next I wont buy a touchscreen MacBook Pro heres why you shouldnt either Apple's 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro is a speed boost, not a reinvention and I'm fine with that Oops! Apple just put its first laptop touchscreen on the wrong MacBook

Obviously, the price and power disparity is what will now cleave consumers
one way or the other. The MacBook Air 13-inch M5 starts at $1,099 / 1,099 / AU$1,799 with 16GB of RAM, a 10-Core CPU, 8-Core GPU, and 512GB of storage. The 14-inch MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display starts at $2,899 / 2,899 / AU$4,599, with a 15-Core M5 Pro, 16-Core GPU, 24GB of RAM, and 1TB of
storage.

The difference is clear: this is a Pro-grade system, which has far more power than anyone looking at a MacBook Air-class system probably needs.

Still, with this new MacBook Pro, I think the MacBook Airs portability advantage has been taken off the table. The magic touch Now, Ive spent some time with a slightly juiced-up MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display (M5 Pro with an 18-Core GPU, 20-Core GPU, 48GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage for $3699) and
have come to realize that aside from formidable, virtually endless power, its the remarkable screen that I now believe is set to change the trajectory of all Apple MacBooks.

I want to be clear: the ability to touch the MacBook Pro screen and
manipulate data, content, screen views, desktops, and more is exciting. But
Im not gonna lie, Ive been struggling to figure out what it was made for. As
I wrote when Apple unveiled the touchscreen MacBook Pro , Im quite familiar with touchscreen systems and, when necessary, did touch my Surface Pro
screen.

However, its becoming clear to me that as I use the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display system as my everyday driver, I dont touch the display very often. Instead, I kept looking for reasons to touch the display.

There are apps where its fun to try, like the 3D-manipulating ZBrush, which lets me pull and push 3D models like a digital sculptor, and 3D
scene-creating Cinema 4D (using my fingers to manipulate a 3D couch was
harder than I thought it would be), but these are, at least not for me, everyday tools. Image 1 of 4 ZBrush on the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) ZBrush on the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Cinema 4D on the MacBook
Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Cinema 4D on the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Image 1 of 4 View Original Image 2 of 4 View Original Image 3 of 4 View Original Image 4 of 4 View Original I fiddled with the laptops touchscreen to scroll through web pages, but I'm just as happy to use the giant Force Touch trackpad.

I take a lot of screen grabs by holding down Command/Shift/4 to launch the grabber, and I usually use the mouse to select the capture area. With the touchscreen, I could drag my finger diagonally across the screen to select a capture area. That was kind of cool, though not a game changer, and Im fine with using the mouse.

I tried using my fingers to manipulate my Cyberpunk 2077 character, and it
was a disaster. I kept accidentally drawing my weapon and blasting away at random strangers. I decided to stick with the mouse and trackpad. Side note:
I ran all of these games and apps at once. This system is such a beast. Image 1 of 2 Cyberpunk 2077 on the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Cyberpunk 2077 on the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Image 1 of 2 View Original Image 2 of 2 View Original The point is, I think touch has its applications and
place, but I think itll end up being mostly useful in specific, vertical workflows.

That feeling may change over time. After all, sometimes touching a MacBook display does feel like an illicit act. Each time I went to close a window or scroll a webpage with a fingertip, I did glance around to see who was watching, wondering if they thought Id gone a bit daft, as they thought,
Dude, you cant touch a MacBook screen; Steve Jobs told us so .

Those who do choose this relatively lightweight and incredibly powerful
system probably wont do so because of touch, but they may choose it for another reason:

The astonishing display. Image 1 of 3 MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on
the left and the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14 on the left and the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 on the right (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Image 1 of 3 View
Original Image 2 of 3 View Original Image 3 of 3 View Original From the new Dynamic Island that replaces the giant notch on my old MacBook Pro (and provides some useful live info but sadly not Face ID) to the thinner bezels and curved bottom, its more aesthetically appealing. The tandem OLED technology, though, transforms the visuals in ways that no other laptop Ive ever used or seen can approach. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) I put the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display next to the MacBook Pro M5, and the difference is nothing short of remarkable.

The promised 10,000,000-to-1 contrast ratio pays dividends with blacks that are inkier than the deep center of a black hole. Thats paired with colors and clarity that make everything pop, and with ProMotion (up to 120Hz),
everything is smooth as silk. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Viewed separately, imagery still looks great on the MacBook M5s Liquid Retina XDR, but next to the new PROLED XDR, everything on the M5 Pro looks muted. Even
the off-angle viewing is noticeably better on the PROLED XDR Display. I wasnt alone in this assessment. I showed the side-by-side laptops to a group of coworkers, and they all agreed.

That spectacular screen is paired with a more performant silicon that easily bested the standard M5 in my older MacBook Pro. In my side-by-side tests with Resident Evil 4 , the M5 Pro MacBook Pro loaded the game faster and stayed a step ahead of the M5 MacBook Pro.

Heres my conundrum. Most people shopping for laptops are not making a feature film, cutting a studio album, working on giant CAD-level projects, or running large language AI models locally, all things that the MacBook Pro PROLED XDR and its M5 Pro are more than capable of (often, as I noted above, at the same time, but with a lot of fan noise). But I cannot think of a single potential user who would not want this display.

They dont all need the touchscreen, for as cool as it is, but as for that
big, efficient, bright, and contrast-rich tandem OLED, everyone could use that.

So the question Im left with after my MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display 14-inch experience is: when will the next MacBook Air get this display, shrink by
half a pound, and regain its position as the ultra-portable king? Oh, and how soon can the MacBook Air get that glowing logo on the back? Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Did you know TechRadar now has
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