Quick Answer
Yes, you can completely disable touch input on the new touchscreen MacBook Pro through Accessibility, according to MacStories’ Federico Viticci. I’d consider buying one and doing exactly that: the reasons would be its tandem OLED display, lower weight and redesigned hardware. Turning touch off preserves those benefits and lets me keep working with the keyboard and trackpad. Compared with matching non-touch M5 Pro or M5 Max models, the starting-price premium is $400 in the U.S. The important question is whether the screen and portability justify that money for your work—even if your fingers never touch the glass.
The First Setting I’d Change
Apple’s first touchscreen MacBook Pro has an unexpectedly persuasive feature for people who dislike touchscreen laptops: an off switch. In his hands-on report, Federico Viticci confirms that Accessibility can disable touch input entirely. A separate Display Zoom preference, off by default, enables two-finger magnification across the macOS interface.
I’d switch off touch first and judge the laptop on everything else. That is a perfectly sensible way to buy this particular machine: Apple packages the new display and lighter body together with touch, so wanting the hardware does not mean wanting every input method.
Please Point at My Screen—Without Touching It
You know the moment. Someone leans over your laptop to show you a line in a document. Their finger gets closer, then lands directly on the screen. They move away, but the oily mark stays behind.
For anyone who already hates that on a conventional laptop, a touchscreen can make the interaction more irritating. A finger placed on the wrong part of an active touch display could also select something, move the insertion point or activate a control. A quick explanation can become an interruption to the work you were doing.
There are two separate complaints. Disabling touch addresses unwanted input. It cannot stop fingerprints, remove a smudge or make someone’s hand disappear from your view.
My preference would still be simple: point near the screen, use the cursor, or ask before touching it. A display being touch-capable does not make it a shared control surface.
This is why the off switch matters beyond personal taste. A reviewer, designer or spreadsheet user may want colleagues to look at the display while keeping control of the session. Being able to choose who interacts with the computer is useful, even when touch itself works exactly as intended.
Touchscreen vs. Standard MacBook Pro: The Price
Here are the corresponding starting configurations with standard glass. These are U.S. list-price comparisons before sales tax, checked October 30, 2026; retailer discounts and regional pricing can change the actual gap.
| Matching configuration | Non-touch | OLED + Touch |
|---|---|---|
| 14-inch M5 Pro 15-core CPU / 16-core GPU 24GB / 1TB |
$2,499 | $2,899 +$400 |
| 16-inch M5 Pro 18-core CPU / 20-core GPU 24GB / 1TB |
$2,999 | $3,399 +$400 |
| 14-inch M5 Max 18-core CPU / 32-core GPU 36GB / 2TB |
$4,099 | $4,499 +$400 |
| 16-inch M5 Max 18-core CPU / 32-core GPU 36GB / 2TB |
$4,399 | $4,799 +$400 |
Sources: Apple’s PROLED XDR announcement and MacRumors’ corresponding price and configuration breakdown. The standard prices are the contemporary comparison prices, rather than the lower March launch prices.
The premium is about 16% on the entry 14-inch M5 Pro and 13.3% on the 16-inch M5 Pro. It buys a hardware bundle; treating the whole $400 as the cost of a touch sensor misses most of the decision. Our full $400 upgrade analysis looks at that broader value question.
Why I’d Still Want the New Hardware
1. OLED is useful every time I look at it
A touchscreen only helps when I reach for it. A better built-in display can help throughout a photo edit, a video review or an evening spent watching a film. That would be my strongest reason to choose this model.
| Display feature | Liquid Retina XDR | PROLED XDR |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | Mini-LED LCD | Tandem OLED |
| 14-inch resolution | 3024 × 1964 | 3024 × 1986 |
| Larger display | 16.2-inch 3456 × 2234 |
16.3-inch 3472 × 2266 |
| HDR peak | 1600 nits | 2000 nits |
| Full-screen sustained HDR | Up to 1000 nits | Up to 1000 nits |
| Rated contrast | 1,000,000:1 | 10,000,000:1 |
| Wide color | P3 | P3 + Adobe RGB |
| ProMotion | Up to 120Hz | 10–120Hz |
Specifications: Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR and PROLED XDR technical pages. Peak brightness is conditional, not a promise of sustained 2000-nit output across the whole screen.
OLED’s individual pixel control is particularly relevant to bright details against dark backgrounds, where an LCD’s shared backlight zones can produce halos. Adobe RGB support also has a specific appeal for photography and print workflows. Neither advantage depends on registering a finger tap.
I would be careful about the headline brightness numbers, though. Both displays already reach the same listed sustained full-screen HDR level. The OLED model’s higher peak rating does not make every document or webpage twice as bright, and the traditional display remains a capable option.
2. Less weight matters after the launch excitement fades
The weight reduction is easier to appreciate than a fractionally thinner side profile. These figures compare M5 Pro versions, so the chip tier stays consistent.
| M5 Pro size | Standard | OLED |
|---|---|---|
| 14-inch | 1.60kg 15.5mm thick |
1.38kg 15.0mm thick |
| 16-inch | 2.14kg 16.8mm thick |
1.82kg 16.0mm thick |
That removes 220g, or roughly 13.8%, from the smaller M5 Pro and 320g, or about 15%, from the larger one. Those percentages are calculated from Apple’s listed weights. For someone carrying a laptop between home, an office and client meetings, that benefit arrives on every trip. It would matter to me much more often than a touchscreen gesture.
3. The redesign has benefits beyond finger input
Dynamic Island replaces the notch and provides a home for activities and controls. Apple also describes a redesigned thermal system and an improved six-speaker system with 50% deeper bass. The thermal design is intended to preserve sustained performance in the lighter chassis; the audio figure is Apple’s claim, rather than a listening result from this article.
I would treat those as supporting reasons. OLED and weight would need to justify the purchase first. A more attractive interface or a nostalgic design detail can make a computer more enjoyable, but they should not rescue a configuration that lacks the memory your work needs.
What About Performance, Memory and Storage?
With the same chip, CPU/GPU configuration and memory, there is no basis for expecting a major processing-speed jump just because you buy the OLED model. The screen redesign does not turn M5 Pro into a new processor generation.
M5 Pro: 15-core CPU / 16-core GPU on the starting 14-inch model, with an 18-core CPU / 20-core GPU option; the 16-inch starts with the latter. Memory bandwidth is 307GB/s, with configurations reaching 64GB of unified memory.
M5 Max: 18-core CPU with a 32- or 40-core GPU, 460GB/s or 614GB/s memory bandwidth respectively, and configurations reaching 128GB. These chip resources exist in both display families.
Apple’s standard 16-inch M5 Pro/M5 Max specifications provide the baseline. For exports, code builds and 3D work, match the actual core count and memory before comparing screens. A higher-tier non-touch configuration may be a better purchase than an OLED model that forces you to compromise on those resources.
Storage does have a meaningful ceiling difference: the OLED M5 Max can be configured with up to 16TB internally, compared with 8TB on the standard M5 Max. M5 Pro tops out at 4TB in either family. That is a capacity advantage for a particular workload, not evidence that the starting OLED SSD is faster.
The cheaper, non-touch M6 MacBook Pro is a separate comparison. Its newer generation name does not make it equivalent to M5 Pro or M5 Max in graphics resources, memory capacity or bandwidth. Our M5 Pro versus M6 explanation covers that distinction.
Battery, Ports and Familiar Controls
The touchscreen redesign keeps much of the existing professional laptop experience. Matching M5 Pro/Max models retain three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, SDXC, MagSafe 3 and a headphone jack, along with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and a 12MP Center Stage camera. The keyboard, Force Touch trackpad and Touch ID remain part of the package.
Apple’s video-streaming ratings also stay the same for corresponding chips: up to 22 hours for 14-inch M5 Pro and 20 hours for 14-inch M5 Max; up to 24 and 22 hours respectively on the larger versions. The 14-inch battery changes slightly from 72.4Wh to 72.6Wh, while both 16-inch designs list 100Wh.
That makes battery life a reason to compare actual workloads rather than assume OLED automatically lasts longer. Likewise, retaining the same ports means the $400 premium does not buy a general connectivity upgrade over the existing Pro/Max machines. PROLED does add listed genlock support for specialized synchronized production setups.
Steve Jobs’ Criticism Still Deserves Its Context
At Apple’s 2010 Back to the Mac event, Steve Jobs called vertical touchscreen use ergonomically terrible
. His argument concerned the fatigue of repeatedly reaching up to a display over an extended session, as documented in contemporary coverage of the keynote.
That is different from disliking fingerprints. Jobs’ point was about the position of your arm; the colleague-touching-your-screen problem is about cleanliness, interruption and personal preference. Both objections can matter, but they should not be merged into a quote he never gave.
My reading is that Apple’s current approach makes room for both positions. Briefly manipulating an image may suit one person. Keeping your hands near the keyboard and trackpad may suit another. Viticci’s enthusiasm for occasional direct input is also reasonable: an optional gesture does not have to replace an entire day’s workflow.
I would keep the old ergonomic concern in mind without turning it into a rule that everybody must follow. The important part is having control over how the laptop responds.
Who Should Buy It With Touch Switched Off?
I’d pay for it if the built-in screen is my workspace
Regular travel, photo or video work on the laptop itself, and a strong preference for the lighter chassis make the best case. The test I would use is simple: would I still pay the price difference if touch never existed? If the answer is yes, switching it off does not undermine the purchase.
I’d choose the standard model for a mostly fixed desk
A laptop that spends most of its time closed beside an external monitor gives up much of OLED’s value. Keep the saving, or use the budget for the chip, memory or storage that your applications actually need. Compare available checkout prices, because a discounted standard model can make the premium considerably larger.
If smudges are the main concern, choose your glass finish for the lighting where you work. Nano-texture addresses glare; it does not make touching the screen consequence-free. Our nano-texture versus standard glass guide explains that choice.
FAQ
Does the touchscreen MacBook Pro support Apple Pencil?
No. Viticci’s launch hands-on confirms that Apple Pencil is not supported. A buyer who needs pressure-sensitive Pencil drawing should not assume finger touch supplies that workflow.
Will turning off touch improve battery life?
There is no published measured battery-life gain from that setting in the sources above. Use it to control input behavior; do not include an assumed runtime improvement in your purchase calculation.
Is the $400 difference what an existing owner pays to upgrade?
No. It compares corresponding new machines. If you already own a suitable M5 Pro or M5 Max MacBook Pro, calculate the full replacement cost after resale or trade-in. A compelling option for a new purchase can still be an expensive replacement for a recent laptop.
Related Reading
- Is the Touchscreen MacBook Pro Worth the Extra $400?
- Why the OLED MacBook Pro Uses M5 Pro Instead of M6
- MacBook Pro Nano-Texture vs Standard Glass
- New Touchscreen MacBook Pro: What Problems Remain?
- The Glowing Apple Logo Returns to MacBook Pro
Guichang Chen · ZEERA WIRELESS · October 30, 2026
