ZDNET’s key takeaways Apple’s ‘Pro and Tell’ event could bring touchscreen Macs on Oct. 28. Apple has the opportunity to make a very compelling product. It’ll be expensive, but it needs appeal beyond niche power users.
It’s been a busy few months for Apple. After announcing its first foldable — the iPhone Duo — and its new lineup of smart home products , the company is following up with a Los Angeles event on Oct. 28 that it’s calling “ Pro and Tell ,” where we’ll likely get our first glimpse at its new touchscreen OLED MacBooks. Also: Apple TV 4K (2026) vs Apple TV 4K (2022): Is ‘Hey Siri’ worth twice the price?
The premium MacBook line, codenamed “MacBook Ultra” (but probably not called that, if you ask me), could feature 5G connectivity, redesigned thin-and-light builds, and the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. More from ZDNET 1. Make it convertible I never thought I’d be advocating for a convertible form factor, but hear me out: If there’s any laptop that would actually benefit from a tablet configuration, it’d be the MacBook Pro.
This one is a big “maybe,” but I’d still like to see it, even if it’s not in the first lineup. Giving it a touchscreen without folding back into a tablet would be a bit of a letdown. If you’re going to do it, go all the way.
From a software perspective, the MacBook Pro is already standard for artists and creatives across the spectrum, so there are tons of exciting implications for adding a 2-in-1 to Apple’s ecosystem. Plus, Apple already has an integrated stylus — the Apple Pencil , which has historically been relegated to the iPad. Imagine AirDropping photos you recently took on your iPhone 18 Pro directly to the new MacBook, then folding it back into a tablet to make edits on an edge-to-edge OLED display or iterating on a 3D model with the M5 Max chip’s lightning-fast rendering capabilities.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET 2. This isn’t a repeat of the Touch Bar The infamous Touch Bar that came with MacBooks from 2016 to 2021 is largely considered to be either a design failure or simply “meh,” but either way, it was never a feature users wanted. Steve Jobs was famously against a touchscreen MacBook, and for years, Apple product leads insisted on relegating the touch experience to the iPad until the Touch Bar appeared as a sort of middle ground.
Also: Want an iPhone Duo before 2027? Don’t preorder from Apple – try this instead Except this lack of commitment to the idea never felt good. The bar itself was glitchy, hard to repair, and, when broken, just degraded the overall experience of the laptop.
Touchscreen functionality is different. It’s widely integrated into laptops across the spectrum, and although it can be gimmicky, it is largely standard among devices geared toward creators. If Apple embraces touch for MacBook Pro, it needs to bring usability and software integrations to support it, make it compelling, and make it uniquely its own. 3.
Apple’s AI approach is an opportunity The new ‘Ultra’ MacBooks have stiff competition in the AI race and will need to find their footing in the landscape. Windows PCs are undergoing a bit of an “ultrafication” of their own, with Nvidia’s RTX Spark N1X chip appearing in a fresh lineup of devices for AI power users. Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Ultra, for example, doesn’t just exude premium physically; it has the hardware to back it up, with up to 128GB of unified memory and AI agents from Perplexity and Hermes built directly into Windows’ setup on first boot-up.
This kind of “frontier” AI compute hasn’t typically been MacBooks’ strong suit, and the Microsoft x Nvidia collab solidifies Windows as the platform where it’s happening. Also: Got iOS 27? Do these 5 things first after upgrading This new lineup of MacBooks will need to compete with RTX Spark devices, both as premium-tier laptops and as viable options for cutting-edge AI.
That said, Apple’s measured approach to AI in general — once thought to be slow-going and reactionary — now seems a little more intentional, especially given how off-putting Microsoft’s initial push with stuffing AI into Windows was. I’m bullish on Apple’s approach to AI with recent upgrades to Siri and MacOS “Golden Gate,” and I’d love to see these new MacBooks flaunt their own takes on agentic AI, particularly for everyday users. Kerry Wan/ZDNET How much is it going to cost?
Let’s address the elephant in the room: A redesigned, “ significantly lighter ” MacBook with an OLED panel is not going to be cheap. This is especially true given the rest of Apple’s lineup. With the MacBook Neo on the low end and the base-model MacBook Pro with the M6 chip targeting the mid-level consumer, the so-called “MacBook Ultra” will undoubtedly attract power users looking for the premium experience and powerful hardware.
Also: Apple Mac Mini M5 Pro review: Serious power, for the right users That said, why do we keep producing expensive laptops in the throes of the RAMpocalypse? The aforementioned Microsoft Surface Ultra, for example, scales up beyond $6,000 for high-end configurations, relegating the product to a very niche subset of users. The touchscreen MacBook Pro will make an impressive companion to the iPhone Neo, and the two products punctuate the arrival of Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, on the scene as important statements that, when it comes to new products, the old restrictions no longer apply.
Source: ZDNET
