Hands-On With Apple's New OLED Touchscreen MacBook Pro

Apple has released new touchscreen MacBook Pro models featuring an OLED PROLED XDR display alongside a legacy-designed 14-inch model powered by the M6 chip. According to Tom's Hardware, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and continues to use an IPS display with mini LED backlighting, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6 connectivity via the Apple N1 chip. The M6 review unit, featuring a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU with 16GB of LPDDR5x memory and a 1TB SSD, measures 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches and weighs 3.4 pounds. Tom's Hardware reported that the M6 model finished a 4K to 1080p Handbrake video transcode in 2 minutes and 50 seconds, outperforming the previous-generation M5 version which took 3 minutes and 31 seconds. Engadget noted that Apple's new touchscreen MacBook Pro lineup tops out at $15,000. On the pricier touchscreen models featuring the PROLED XDR display, Apple has reintroduced the nostalgic illuminated Apple logo. Because the new OLED panel lacks a traditional backlight, Apple engineered a separate lighting system. As reported by Apple Must, Apple Vice President of Mac and iPad Product Marketing Tom Boger stated, "We wanted to bring it back in a much more elevated way. And so, the magic here is, like, if you look at that logo, it's still reflective. It's still got that mirror-like finish." An iFixit teardown revealed that the glowing effect is achieved using four LEDs and a one-way mirror, with light passing through reflection and diffusion layers. iFixit rated the touchscreen MacBook Pro repairability at 5/10. Because macOS automatically adjusts the logo brightness based on ambient light with no user-facing slider, Amsterdam-based designer Juan Buis created a lightweight menu-bar utility called Backglow. MacDailyNews reported that the free app allows users to control the logo's brightness independently, toggle it on or off, and use modes like Breathe, Steady, and Battery, while a Pro version unlocks Music visualization and Claude Code agent status indicators.