Apple's first touchscreen MacBook ships this year with M5 Pro and M5 Max
Apple is finally making a touchscreen MacBook, and it will run on current-generation silicon rather than waiting for next-gen chips. The first models, expected to ship between late 2026 and early 2027, will be powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The move is a sharp reversal for a company that spent years arguing touchscreens don’t belong on laptops. Steve Jobs once described the idea as ergonomically unsound: arms get tired, vertical surfaces don’t work the same way as phones or tablets. “It’s fundamentally broken,” he said. But the rest of the industry moved on anyway, and now Apple is following.
The 14- and 16-inch touchscreen MacBooks, codenamed K114 and K116 internally, will be the most significant redesign of Apple’s high-end laptops since the company began phasing out Intel chips in 2020. Apple declined to comment on the plans.
What’s new beyond the touchscreen
The laptops will also pick up two features from the iPhone lineup for the first time: the Dynamic Island notch design and OLED displays. Taken together, the three elements — touch input, OLED panels, and Dynamic Island — add up to a generational update for the MacBook Pro line.
Here’s a breakdown of what the first models will offer:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Chip | M5 Pro / M5 Max (current generation) |
| Display | OLED, first on a Mac |
| Touch | Full touchscreen input |
| Notch | Dynamic Island UI |
| Sizes | 14-inch (K114) and 16-inch (K116) |
| Release | Late 2026 – early 2027 |
| Positioning | Top of Apple’s laptop lineup |
Why Apple skipped M6 Pro and M6 Max
Gurman reported this week that Apple made an unusual pivot in its chip roadmap. The company is skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max entirely, redirecting engineering resources toward the M7 series — a family designed from the ground up for intensive AI workloads.
The M7 chips, codenamed Andros, are already in advanced testing at Apple. They will feature heavily upgraded neural accelerators, improved graphics performance, and higher memory bandwidth, all tuned to accelerate on-device AI model processing. Models with M7 Pro and M7 Max chips are expected around late 2027.
Apple is also planning a Mac Studio refresh in 2028 with M7 Max and M7 Ultra options.
The timing matters
The decision to ship the first touchscreen MacBooks with M5 silicon — rather than waiting for M7 — tells you something about Apple’s product strategy. The company sees the touchscreen form factor as a bigger sales driver than waiting for the next chip generation. Gurman noted that introducing touch-capable Macs should help boost Mac sales, which have been uneven across recent quarters.
The first generation will test whether Apple’s take on a touchscreen laptop can carve out a real audience, especially from customers who’ve spent the last decade using Windows laptops with touch input. Apple’s approach — keeping macOS rather than merging iPadOS — means the experience will be different from a Surface or a Chromebook. Whether that difference reads as deliberate or stubborn is the open question.
For now, the hardware specs are set: M5 Pro and M5 Max, OLED displays, Dynamic Island, and a touch screen that Steve Jobs once publicly ridiculed. The only thing left to see is how well Apple executes on an idea it spent 15 years refusing to build.