All You Need to Know About the New MacBook with Touch Display - Prospective Costs and Release Timeline

In This Article

• Release Date Estimate
• Pre-Order Information
• Price Rumors
• Features
• Latest News

A touchscreen Mac combines the power of the iMac or MacBook with one of the most tactile and popular features of the iPhone and iPad: the ability to interact with the computer by touching onscreen icons, menus, and buttons. While not much is known about the touchscreen Mac right now, the rumor mill says it could debut as soon as 2025.

What Is the Touchscreen Mac Release Date?

There could be two touchscreen Mac models: a MacBook Pro laptop and an iMac desktop. According toBloomberg’s Marc Gurman , it’s most likely that the first touchscreen Mac will be the MacBook Pro and that we’ll see it no earlier than 2025. The touchscreen iMac would debut some time after that, but exactly when is still unclear.

Lifewire’s Release Date Estimate

The earliest we expect to see a touchscreen Mac released is 2025.

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Pre-Order Information

Apple will likely open pre-orders once they announce a touchscreen Mac. Check back here for more information once it’s available.

Touchscreen Mac Price Rumors

While there are no rumors about the price of a touchscreen Mac, it’s reasonable to assume that it would retail for a higher price than its traditional equivalents. How much more the touchscreen models would cost is hard to say, but knowing Apple, expect a premium price for a premium product.

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Touchscreen Mac Features

Given that the touchscreen Mac hasn’t been announced, and the rumors are still pretty sketchy, it’s hard to see with much confidence what features the device will deliver. (It’s not even certain that Apple will ever release a touchscreen model. Somecompany executives have said the Mac will never have a touch interface .) We’ll update this article as more rumors and news give us a clearer picture of what a touchscreen Mac might be like.

For now, though, a combination of the information available today and some informed guesses suggest that a touchscreen Mac could deliver both a touchscreen interface for macOS and support for theApple Pencil .

Touchscreen Interface for macOS

The idea of a touchscreen Mac has been around for a while and what it would be is pretty easy to understand. Imagine a MacBook Pro or iMac that, in addition to controlling it with a keyboard and mouse, also lets you tap the screen to interact with the computer. Thinking of the iPad when used with akeyboard case gives a pretty good idea.

One rumor has suggested that a 2023patent Apple received for a folding and pivoting stand for a desktop computer might actually be the basis for a touchscreen iMac.


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Apple / USPTO

Don’t expect the touchscreen Mac to start using theiPadOS . All rumors suggest that this device will run an updated version of macOS that supports touch.

Apple Pencil Support

If a Mac supports touch controls on its screen, it also stands to reason that it could support the Apple Pencil for onscreen drawing and writing. The large screen on a MacBook Pro or iMac seems well-suited to writing and drawing. The ergonomics may be tricky, though: will it be comfortable to lean forward and reach out to write on a screen?

Could that be where the folding and pivoting stand mentioned earlier comes into play? Or perhaps even a new laptop option that lets the user fold the screen back to use the MacBook like an iPad?

The Latest News About the Touchscreen Mac

Lifewire’s desktop and laptop coverage keeps you up to date on all the latest news, rumors, and opinions. Here are a few articles about touchscreen Macs that you might be interested in:

Why Apple Releasing a New Touchscreen Mac Makes Perfect Sense Now

A Touchscreen Mac Could Be More of a Hassle Than a Convenience

How Better iOS Apps on Big Sur Point to Touchscreen Macs

How Vision Pro Is Like a Monumental Touch-Screen Mac