The Journal's Nicole Nguyen spent her review doing something that felt wrong. She covered a new MacBook screen in fingerprints. Apple (AAPL) built it for that. Its first touch-screen laptop is a MacBook Pro starting at $2,899. That's $900 more than the latest entry-level Pro. It's built for a small group of power users with deep pockets.
In 2010 Steve Jobs said Apple had looked at touch screens for Macs and said no. “After an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off,” he said. Nguyen went in believing him. Then she used it. On a map, zooming and panning by finger was quicker. In a video editor, dragging the timeline by finger beat the trackpad's thumb-and-swipe. The best part, she found, is not hunting for the cursor. Tapping does what a click does. A swipe up from the bottom brings out the dock. Push a window to one side and it takes half the screen.
Who pays for it
For everyday work she didn't see the point. The targets are too small, and lifting your arm gets tiring, just as Jobs said. An Apple Pencil would help with the small targets. Oddly, this Pro can't use one. A touch-screen piano demo flopped because the screen can't lie flat. Apple's last try, the 2016 Touch Bar, disappointed, and the physical keys came back in 2021. Nguyen thinks photographers, designers and developers testing touch apps might love this one.
The numbers say touch is growing but not paid for. Vendors shipped 33.4 million touch notebooks in 2025, up 22% from 2024, by IDC. Yet IDC's Francisco Jeronimo says only 11% of buyers choose a touch laptop, and they rarely pay extra for it. Nguyen's verdict is that the real upgrade is the OLED screen, the iPhone's kind, in a machine half a pound lighter. Apple also announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip, an M6 iMac and an iPad Mini with OLED from $699, or $899 with antiglare. Prices, she notes, are going up.
Our read
This is a Cash Flow story, M5 in our planning map, with a Behavioral twist. Apple tends to debut a feature on its most expensive machine. Cheaper models get it later. That's good for Apple and tempting for you. The IDC number is the one to keep. Most buyers don't choose touch, and those who do rarely pay extra for it. Buy the tool for the job you actually do. If you edit video for hours, the touch screen might save your hand. If you write emails and spreadsheets, it's $2,899 for a feature you'll forget by Christmas.
Apple is held at weight in 24 of our model books; nothing added. A gadget review is not a reason to trade a stock, and we won't read Apple's business from one laptop. For your own money, the check is the upgrade line in this season's budget. Before you buy any new device, write down the one thing the old one can't do. If the list is empty, the old one still works. Most upgrades are wants dressed as needs, and the receipt is the only part that's new. If you want help sorting the two, that's an easy conversation.