16-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR: the screen is the story

When rumours of a redesigned, thinner, lighter MacBook Pro started surfacing, I couldn’t help but think back to 2016. Apple’s last attempt to slim down its pro laptop didn’t go over particularly well with many people.

Thankfully that’s not the case this time around and my first impressions are much more reassuring. The display is the best I’ve seen on a laptop, and the lower weight has made the 16-inch model very appealing. I’ve only had limited time with it, though, so this is very much a first look. I’ll replace this article with a more detailed review once I’ve spent more time with it.

What I didn’t care much about is the name. Unlike some other manufacturers, Apple usually keeps product names short and sweet. I’m not sure how this one ended up being called the “MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display.”

I’ve been using various models of the 14-inch MacBook Pro over the last four years, so I opted to review the 16-inch model this time around. Apple sent over an M5 Pro model with 48GB of unified memory and a 1TB SSD. It’s replacing a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M5 chip, configured with 32GB of memory, a 4TB SSD, and a nano-texture display.

A lighter 16-inch MacBook Pro

Rather than a complete overhaul of the familiar shape, the OLED MacBook Pro feels like a series of well-placed tweaks. It’s a little thinner and smaller in every dimension, but the biggest change is the weight. Here’s how the two 16-inch M5 Pro models compare.

Before Apple switched to its own silicon, the 16-inch Intel Core i9 MacBook Pro was my daily driver. With the move to the M series, I found the 16-inch a bit too weighty for my liking. I had bought the 16-inch M2 Pro model, but returned it almost immediately and have stuck with the 14-inch since.

But the new 16-inch M5 Pro model is 320g lighter than its mini-LED counterpart, or roughly 15%. That makes it much more manageable, and I’m quite enjoying it. The reduction in thickness is much harder to spot, even when placing the older and newer models side by side.

Apple has kept the familiar port layout. Inside, the cooling system has been redesigned to direct warm air out the back rather than towards the OLED display, helping protect the panel and keep the touchscreen comfortable to use. It’s too early to say how the new thermal design performs under sustained workloads, but the lighter chassis is already much easier to carry.

The bezels around the screen have shrunk slightly, and the display now has rounded corners all the way around. I think it looks neater, though I might be in the minority. On a screen this size, the curves haven’t made the workspace feel cramped.

And yes, the glowing Apple logo is back on the lid. I’d love to see where Apple takes this. It would be great if it could show the battery’s charging state or subtle notifications while the laptop is in standby.

The screen is the story

The star of the show is the new MacBook Pro’s tandem OLED panel, which replaces the familiar mini-LED screen and brings a touchscreen to the MacBook Pro.

On paper, the PROLED XDR display is a substantial upgrade. It’s a 16.3-inch panel with a 3472-by-2266 resolution and an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz. Apple claims up to 1,000 nits of sustained full-screen brightness, 2,000 nits for peak HDR highlights, and up to 2,000 nits of peak SDR brightness outdoors.

Apple also lists support for both P3 and Adobe RGB colour spaces, which could be useful to photographers moving between screen and print work.

But specs only tell part of the story. HDR content looks incredible on this machine. It’s easily the best display I’ve seen on a laptop. Beyond the contrast between deep blacks and bright highlights, what immediately stood out was how much less reflective my standard glass panel looked compared to the glossy MacBook Pro displays I’ve used in the past. The display stack and cover glass are designed to minimise internal and external reflections, helping preserve contrast, and while it’s not nano-texture good, it’s still very impressive.

I did notice something less impressive: text looked a little softer in a few places, particularly the WhatsApp chat list and notification banners. I noticed it in light mode but not dark mode. I don’t yet know what is causing it, and I want to investigate further before drawing a conclusion.

The notch has also been replaced by Dynamic Island, and it’s fine. In full-screen apps such as Slack and Chrome, the black strip across the top hides the Dynamic Island, much as it hid the notch on older models. On my main desktop, with its transparent menu bar, I think it looks nicer than the notch.

Dynamic Island can also host Spotlight and Siri AI when those features are available and enabled. I’ll still stick to Command–Space to open Spotlight. It’s fine to have multiple options, though Siri AI availability depends on software, language and region.

Touch comes to the Mac carefully

The other headline is touch, and Apple has approached it conservatively. That feels like the right place to start. The familiar Mac interface remains intact rather than being replaced with oversized controls, and I’m glad Apple isn’t turning the Mac into an iPad. The laptop works as I’d expect, with the added option to tap, slide or swipe on the screen.

In the places I tried, smaller controls expanded into larger touch targets when I tapped them with a finger. Think of the traffic-light window buttons, sliders and menus. They stayed familiar when using the mouse or trackpad. The screenshot below compares the menu sizes with trackpad and touch input.

I like this because it doesn’t change the way I work. As much of a trackpad person as I am, I’ve been guilty of occasionally trying to touch my laptop’s screen. We’re so used to doing that on phones and tablets that I’m fine with the MacBook now accommodating it too.

Pinch-to-zoom is an obvious possibility for photo work. I’m also interested to see whether touch makes tasks such as scrubbing through a Final Cut Pro timeline easier in everyday use. I also want to try touch in iPhone Mirroring and see how it works with iOS and iPadOS app simulators. Those are things to explore properly, not reasons to pass judgment this early.

A lighter Pro laptop at a higher price

The OLED MacBook Pro uses the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chip families as the mini-LED models. The 16-inch version starts at AED 14,499 in the UAE, with availability from November 6. That’s the entry price, not the price of the 48GB configuration Apple sent me.

You’re paying a premium for the new display, touch and lighter body. I’m a sucker for a good screen, and I’d happily pay extra for those improvements. If your MacBook spends most of its time connected to a monitor on a desk, though, those benefits may matter much less.

The familiar connections remain: three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC slot, MagSafe and a headphone jack. Other changes include a new hinge for touch use and camera stabilisation intended to keep video calls steady when you tap the display. Apple also says it has tuned the speakers for closed-lid use with an external monitor. I haven’t tested all of those yet.

Configuration limits depend on the chip. The 16-inch M5 Pro model offers up to 64GB of unified memory and 4TB of storage. The 16TB storage option is reserved for M5 Max, doubling that chip’s maximum in the mini-LED model. To reach 128GB of memory, you need the M5 Max with the 40-core GPU.

For the 16-inch M5 Pro, Apple quotes up to 24 hours of video streaming or 17 hours of wireless web use, matching the corresponding mini-LED model. Those are Apple’s figures, rather than results from my own battery testing.

For me, the appeal is straightforward: a better screen and a 16-inch MacBook Pro I’m happier carrying around. The question is whether the display, touch and lower weight solve a problem for you. Battery life, sustained performance and everyday touch use deserve more time before I submit my full verdict. But for the little time I’ve spent with the new MacBook Pro OLED, it’s a mighty fine machine that continues to show why Apple leads in laptops.