MacBook PROLED XDR: Why?

If you're anything like me, you grew up idolizing Steve Jobs. Since his passing, Apple has continued to use Jobs' product vision as their North Star, which makes today's unveiling of their latest laptop, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR, all the more confusing.

"Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical."

For those with a life, Apple announced their first touchscreen laptop on October 28, 2026, and it's called the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR (MacBook PROLED XDR). Name and headline feature aside, the machine is beautiful, like most of Apple's products. The addition of the Dynamic Island is nice, even without Face ID, and I'm a sucker for the classic glowing Apple logo. Move past that, and you're greeted with MacBook's OLED display and accompanying touchscreen.

Now, the rant.

I'm sorry, but this has to be the biggest piece of—sorry, I lost my cool for a second. I've documented my...disdain for touchscreen computers in the past, and I can safely say that the MacBook PROLED XDR, with its ridiculous name, has done nothing to convince me that such a device needs to exist. It's, in my opinion, utterly useless. And Apple's demos show as much.

For example, Spotlight and Siri are moved into MacBook PROLED XDR's Dynamic Island. Cool! So we swipe down on the screen, then put our hands back to the keyboard to start typing? What kind of backwards experience is this? Who actually does that? Do you know what device does that, AND has a touch keyboard, AND is designed to be touched/interacted with like that? An iPad. How about another example?

You're editing in Final Cut Pro and you want to navigate the timeline. Let's use the touchscreen to swipe around, instead of the world-class multi-touch trackpad at your literal fingertips, then put our hands back on the keyboard to view the keyframe editor, edit text, or make any granular/fine-tuned adjustments. But it's cool that the traffic lights magnify themselves like the dock when you hover over them!

Don't even get me started on the foolish piano/keyboard demo. Nice, I can contort my arms like a demon and poke at my screen like a caveman! And it wobbles!

I can't even pretend to hide it anymore. It's so stupid. It's the most unpolished, unserious form a computer/laptop can take. And it doesn't even have the courage to be actually useful as a touch device, like the Lenovo Yoga laptops, among others. It's literally a standard MacBook with a touchscreen. The same wobble that rears its ugly head when you type will still be there when you stab at the screen. The only difference now is that you'll have to dodge the full keyboard beneath your elbow. Do you see the idiocy? I can't be the only one.

"It turns out, it doesn't work."

Throughout this rant, I've been throwing quotes at you. They're all from Steve Jobs' presentation at 2010's "Back to the Mac" event. During it, Jobs addresses speculations that Apple was working on a touchscreen Mac, and vehemently shuts them down and explains why. That was over 15 years ago, and every single word he said remains true today.

Maybe this is another "boomer" stance in my Gen Z brain, but if you want a touchscreen laptop, chances are you'd probably be satisfied with an iPad/tablet. Hell, you probably already have one that Apple sold you! So what workflow or interaction does the laptop unlock that the iPad doesn't, beyond worse ergonomics? There aren't any special or fancy UI changes or improvements to the concept, only the englarged window controls.

This seems like a product with no reason for existing. If they wanted to release a MacBook Pro with an OLED display, why not just...do that? And when the computer is priced higher than some cars, who's going to buy it? Who is this for? It certainly isn't for kids or schools, and I'm truly struggling to see why an OLED MacBook Pro needs what is, in my opinion, a gimmick.

At the end of the day...

I'm just a guy typing into his MacBook Air, complaining about the MacBook Pro, wishing the MacBook PROLED XDR didn't exist. If you enjoy using touchscreen laptops, good for you. I'm happy that you find some use for it, even if it isn't practical or reliant on the touchscreen itself.

This product category has always felt like a lost cause to me. Of all the things that I could possibly do on a computer, I've never once said to myself, "Man, I wish this had a touchscreen!" That's what I have an iPhone and iPad for.

To quote another Apple CEO, "buy...an iPhone." Or an iPad. They apparently does.