MacBook Pro OLED reviews: the best laptop screen yet, and touch is not the reason to buy

The MacBook Pro OLED reviews are in, and they agree on one thing: the screen is the story, not the touch. Apple's MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display was the first Mac with OLED or a touchscreen when it was announced on 28 October. Reviews went up on 5 November, a day before the US launch. Tom's Hardware calls it "the best laptop screen I've ever seen", then adds that touch is a feature, not the point of the machine.

Our 23-second version:

Image: Apple (press release)

What changed in the MacBook Pro OLED?

Before: a mini-LED screen, a notch and no touch. Now: a tandem OLED panel, which stacks two light-emitting layers, a Dynamic Island in place of the notch, and touch. The chips do not change. Here is what Apple and the reviewers list against the mini-LED model with the same M5 chips:

	Mini-LED MacBook Pro	MacBook Pro OLED
Display	Liquid Retina XDR	PROLED XDR tandem OLED
Peak brightness (Apple)	1,600 nits HDR	2,000 nits HDR and SDR
Contrast (Apple)	1,000,000:1	10,000,000:1
Weight, 14-inch	3.5 lb	3 lb
Weight, 16-inch	4.7 lb	4 lb
Top of the screen	Notch	Dynamic Island
Chips	M5 Pro, M5 Max	M5 Pro, M5 Max
Price gap		About $400 more

How good is the screen, measured?

Very good, with a catch in the numbers. Tom's Hardware measured 1,964 nits in its 40% HDR test, close to Apple's 2,000-nit claim. In its SDR test it measured 542.6 nits, well below the 944 nits of the Surface Laptop Ultra, and it covered 83.6% of DCI-P3, slightly less than the mini-LED MacBook Pro. The reviewer's conclusion was that the OLED still looks better side by side, because the blacks are deeper and there is no light bleed.

Gizmodo gave it 4.5 and an Editor's Choice badge, and TechRadar gave it 4.5 out of 5 with a 3 out of 5 for value.

Is the touchscreen on the MacBook Pro OLED useful?

This is where reviewers cool off. Apple has made real changes for touch in macOS 27 Golden Gate: window controls grow when tapped, menus get bigger targets, and you can flick windows to tile them. Apps that are not updated simply treat a touch as a click.

Image: Apple (press release)

But the laptop around it is the same shape. Tom's Hardware found the hinge still wobbles when touched and the screen does not fold flat, and its reviewer's arm got tired after a few minutes in Blender. Touch was no better than a mouse in Final Cut Pro or Cinema 4D, though it worked well in iPad apps, iPhone Mirroring and the Xcode simulator. TechRadar calls the touch features a bit undercooked and says it would not suggest buying this model for the touchscreen alone. Gizmodo notes Apple Pencil Pro works only as a tap, with no pressure sensing.

The Dynamic Island got warmer reviews. Tom's Hardware says it is far more useful than the notch, partly because the black area now grows to show you where the pointer went.

Image: Apple (press release)

How long does the battery last?

The range is huge because the tests differ. Apple claims up to 24 hours of video streaming and 17 hours of web browsing on the 16-inch.

Chart: NextDiff, from TechRadar, Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, Engadget (via iThinkDifferent) and Gizmodo

The useful result is the comparison, not the headline. Tom's Guide got 21:24 from the 16-inch OLED and 21:31 from a 16-inch mini-LED model with M5 Pro, so the panel appears to cost little there, though the chips differ. Its 14-inch OLED lasted 16:52. Tom's Hardware got 15:57 against 13:03 for the Dell XPS 16 and 10:30 for the Lenovo Pro 9n. Gizmodo's roughly 8 hours of writing and streaming is the number to keep in mind if your days look like that.

MacBook Pro OLED price in India and the US

• US: the 14-inch M5 Pro starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399. M5 Max versions start at $4,499 and $4,799, according to iThinkDifferent's roundup.
• India: the 14-inch M5 Pro starts at ₹3,49,900 and the 16-inch at ₹4,09,900. M5 Max starts at ₹5,49,900 and ₹5,89,900, with education pricing lower, according to Apple India.
• Availability: 6 November in the US. Apple India's press release says Monday, 9 November.

Tom's Hardware puts the premium at $400 over mini-LED models with identical chips. The bigger gap is to our M6 MacBook Pro, which starts $900 lower at $1,999 (₹2,39,900), though that is a different class of chip.

Should you buy it?

Reviewers mostly land in the same place:

• Colourists, photographers and video editors: this is who it is for. TechRadar calls it an excellent investment for creative professionals.
• Anyone buying for touch: wait. Apple has not changed the ergonomics, and Tom's Hardware says keyboard and mouse remain king.
• Everyone else: TechRadar points to the MacBook Air or the M6 MacBook Pro.
• Windows shoppers: compare it with the RTX Spark laptops. TechRadar says the OLED MacBook Pro's price looks more reasonable next to them, and Gizmodo found the M5 Max about 35% ahead of the Surface Laptop Ultra in Geekbench 7 multi-core.

What's next

Gizmodo cites a Bloomberg report that future M7 Pro and M7 Max OLED models are coming. Tom's Hardware hopes OLED reaches cheaper MacBooks too, since the iPad Pro and iPad mini already have it. Apple has confirmed neither. Long-term burn-in is the open question: Apple says it compensates pixel by pixel, Gizmodo points out the warranty is one year, and a day of reviews cannot test that.