Apple’s touchscreen MacBook Pro pushes laptop pricing to a new extreme

Wed, Oct 28, 2026 10:47 PM

In Brief

Posted:

3:47 PM PDT · October 28, 2026

Apple has officially entered the touchscreen MacBook Pro era, and apparently, it wants to drain your wallet while it’s at it.

The new touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899, which is already a hefty price tag in this economy. But if you want the absolute top-of-the-line model with every possible upgrade, prepare to cough up around $14,549.

As MacRumors first reported, Apple’s configurator prices the fully loaded 14-inch model at $14,249 and the 16-inch version at $14,549. Both come equipped with Apple’s top-tier M5 Max chip, featuring an 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU.

You can blame the ongoing memory shortage and AI’s seemingly endless appetite for hardware for some of the pricing pressure. Moving to a 4TB SSD costs an additional $1,000, while upgrading to 8TB adds $3,000. Want the new 16TB option? That’ll set you back another $7,000.

Another $2,000 gets you 128GB of memory, while nano-texture glass adds $150.

For some perspective, the previous 16-inch MacBook Pro topped out at $10,149. The new model raises that ceiling by a whopping $4,400.

Absurd prices aside, the launch marks a significant shift for Apple, nearly a decade after it first experimented with the Touch Bar. The company eventually abandoned that feature, but now it’s ready to embrace a touchscreen MacBook Pro.

Preorders open October 30, with availability beginning November 6.