Who Is the Touchscreen MacBook for, Exactly?

After many, many, many, many, years, Apple has done what loads of other laptop makers have done before it: put a touchscreen in a laptop. That’s right, folks, the touchscreen MacBook, which is almost unceremoniously dubbed the “MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display,” is real, and we already got to look at it (and fondle it) ourselves. For that level of hands-on nuance, you can read my colleague Kyle Barr’s very thoughtful impressions, but right now, the what of the situation isn’t really the reason for my writing—it’s the why. Or maybe the lack thereof. While laptops with touchscreens on them have existed for nearly two decades (shout out to the HP TouchSmart tx2 that was released in December 2008), Apple has very pointedly kept its distance from the touchy-feely segment. Steve Jobs even somewhat famously (at least to Apple nerds) proclaimed in 2010 that touchscreen laptops are “ergonomically terrible,” adding that they just “don’t work.” A strong stance if there ever was, but clearly not an indelible one. Steve Jobs on Touchscreen MacBook: “It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible” pic.twitter.com/HjYsJz0BBS — Apple Design (@TheAppleDesign) October 28, 2026 Fast forward to basically a few hours ago, and the touchscreen MacBook is a reality, and while it’s banal technologically speaking—we’ve seen a few touchscreens in our day—it also has me asking quite a few questions, such as (notably): who is this even for? I, like Jobs, have failed to see the appeal of laptops with touchscreens over many years and many repeated attempts to use one. On all of the laptops with touchscreens that I’ve ever used for an extended period, I actually ended up forgetting they were touchscreens to begin with until, maybe, I accidentally touch my screen and do something I didn’t mean to. “Oh, right… a touchscreen,” I’d think. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo I find laptops with touchscreens such a non-factor that I would one-up Jobs’ critique of them being “ergonomically terrible” by adding that they are often “functionally terrible” as well. And it’s not that the touchscreens don’t work—they do—but there is often very little reason to actually pick your hand up off the trackpad and use it. Apple has spent years perfecting the trackpad, and it’s done a damn good job. The trackpads on 15-inch MacBooks are massive, infinitely clickable, and almost impossibly intuitive. Most of the people who use MacBooks, myself included, have used them for long enough that putting one beneath our fingers just feels like second nature. Switching back and forth between a trackpad and a touchscreen, however… not so much. Playing piano on the touchscreen MacBook Pro pic.twitter.com/lDlwIeqErd — Chance Miller (@ChanceHMiller) October 28, 2026 Even in Apple’s marketing and demos of the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, it seems to be struggling under the weight of the touchscreens’ frivolity. Can it interest you in fingering a digital piano with GarageBand? How about using pinch gestures? Something that you can very notably already do on… a trackpad. Maybe it’s not that touchscreens suck; it’s that MacBook trackpads are just too good. But my gripes with the touchscreen MacBook aren’t just relegated to the overpowered nature of the trackpad. There’s also the price. While I don’t personally know anyone who was begging Apple to make a MacBook with a touchscreen, I’m sure there are some out there. Even if they were begging for one to be made, though, they almost certainly weren’t begging for it to cost *checks notes* $2,900. Maybe Apple is saying implicitly that the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display’s touchscreen is a tool for creators (it certainly suggested as much in its marketing), but I’m doubtful creators are the real market here. You know who loves touchscreens? The person sending you AI-generated cat videos on Facebook, possibly right now as you read these words. Your parents. Or maybe—on the complete other end of the spectrum—your little brothers, sisters, or nieces and nephews who grew up with iPads in their hands. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo Are your parents really paying $2,900 to achieve that iPad-like experience, though? And if not, wouldn’t it make more sense to have shoved the touchscreen into a more approachable device? As I recall, Apple unveiled the most affordable MacBook ever not too long ago. Seems to me like a missed opportunity. Look, we’ve seen Apple 180s before—Jobs himself turned his nose up at all sorts of things that Apple is now known for and that people genuinely like, like big-ass phones and the use of a stylus. But this one, folks? This one feels off to me. Maybe I’m out of touch with what the people want—I’m always open to being proven wrong—but I think there’s a reason why this is the very first MacBook with a touchscreen in Apple’s existence, and there are plenty of other reasons why it could end up being the last.