LOS ANGELES—It felt wrong, getting fingerprints on this brand-new MacBook screen on purpose. But there I was, flicking my finger up and down to speedily scroll through wsj.com, just as I would on an iPhone. I zoomed in on a thumbnail, tapped to click on a headline.

This isn’t exactly what Apple had in mind when it put a touch screen into its new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. It’s a high-end machine, starting at $2,899—$900 more than the latest entry-level MacBook Pro—and aimed at a niche group of superusers willing to pay top dollar.

But we’ve often seen innovative features appear first in the priciest models, then work their way down. As I poked and prodded the Pro’s display, the question on my mind was: If and when a touch screen comes to the MacBook Air and other models, what will I do with it?

In 2010, Apple founder Steve Jobs said the company contemplated touch screens for Macs but rejected the idea. “It gives great demo, but…after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off.”Going into this event, I believed Jobs: Lifting your arm to tap the screen doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s why even Apple’s keyboards for iPads have a little trackpad.

So why defy Jobs now? My time with the new Pro provided a partial answer.

Apps are more visual and interactive today than they were in 2010, and touch does feel more natural in some places. As I navigated around a map, it was quicker for me to zoom and pan on the screen. In a video editor, it was easier to move the timeline cursor with my finger. Using a trackpad, I would have to awkwardly hold down a click with my thumb while swiping with another finger.

[video] PTECH1028 - Touch-Screen MacBook When I spend hours editing video, my hand cramps up from so much trackpadding. I could see how a touch screen might provide some relief there. The primary perk of touch: You don’t have to find the cursor.

Outside of the apps, I was curious about how the Mac interface itself felt. Anything I could do with a mouse or trackpad I could do with my finger: A tap is a click. Swiping up from the bottom edge reveals the dock. Long-pressing a folder expands a menu of options, and I can drag my finger to move it elsewhere. There are some special gestures, too: Flick a window to the side and it fills half the screen. Yet I don’t really see the touch benefit for this kind of day-to-day computer work.

Despite some touch-friendly accommodations, the targets are still too small and, per the Jobs concern, lifting my arm became an effort. An Apple Pencil would help for this kind of precision tapping and marking up documents but, confusingly, this MacBook Pro isn’t compatible with one. Apple says software on the iPad is optimized for the stylus.

A demo of a touch-screen piano was another head-scratcher. The display can’t lie flat, so it’s an awkward position to play anything remotely musical. I was impressed, though, by how stiff the hinge was, keeping the screen upright even with aggressive prodding.

The last time Apple tried to add a touch screen to a MacBook Pro—the Touch Bar in 2016—it ended up being a less-than-ideal experience. (I use one as my work laptop, and I still hunt for the volume button pretty much daily.) In 2021, the company brought physical keys back.

I think this attempt could be more successful among the pro set: creatives like photographers and designers, and perhaps developers who want to use their Macs to test their apps’ touch interactions.

Many Windows laptops have had touch screens for years, and it’s a growing sector. Vendors shipped 33.4 million touch notebooks in 2025, up 22% from 2024, according to IDC.

For Apple, there’s a business case to be made, but the Pro’s price means touch-screen Macs won’t be mainstream for a while. “Consumers like the option, but only 11% buy a touch laptop and they rarely pay extra for it,” says Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s vice president of worldwide devices.

Frankly, touch seems like a bonus on this laptop, not the main event. The real upgrade is the new OLED display for deeper blacks and better contrast. It’s the same kind of display that’s on the iPhone. Like the iPhone, this Mac also gets the Dynamic Island, a shortcut to apps running in the background, like Spotify. It’s also a half-pound lighter and a centimeter thinner than the standard Pro.

Apple announced upgraded gear for the rest of us earlier this week: There’s a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip update, an M6 refresh of the iMac line and a new iPad Mini with its own bright OLED display, starting at $699, with an optional antiglare step-up for $899. (We told you Apple prices were going up!) If you’re as overwhelmed as I am by this season’s steady stream of Apple stuff—also including the folding iPhone Duo and the HomeView smart-home hub—rest assured that nothing else is lurking on the horizon, at least until cheaper iPhones come due in the spring.