MacBook Pro with PROLED review roundup: the best laptop screen yet and a lighter body, but the same M5 chips

The first reviews of Apple's MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, the first Mac with an OLED screen and the first with a touchscreen, landed on November 5, the day before it reaches buyers. Five major outlets agree on three things. The tandem OLED panel is the best laptop display they have used. The lighter body matters more in daily use than touch. And there is no speed gain, because the laptops use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips Apple shipped in March.

That last point is why this matters if you're buying. Apple still sells mini-LED MacBook Pros with identical chips, and the OLED versions cost $400 more, according to Tom's Hardware, 9to5Mac and Six Colors. So you're mostly paying for a screen, about half a pound less weight, and touch.

Prices

Review units ran much higher. Tom's Hardware and TechRadar both tested a 16-inch M5 Max with 128GB of memory and 2TB of storage at $7,399. Tom's Guide's 16-inch with 4TB and the nano-texture glass came to $8,549.

The display: what reviewers measured

Tom's Hardware's Andrew Freedman called it "the best laptop screen I've ever seen." Tom's Guide said it sets a new bar for laptop brightness and color. The lab numbers back up the HDR claims, while everyday SDR brightness stays near 550 nits:

Apple's claimed peak is 2,000 nits, and per 9to5Mac, SDR can reach 2,000 nits outdoors. 9to5Mac also found that blooming around bright objects is gone and viewing angles are better. Tom's Hardware noted color coverage was slightly below the mini-LED model's.

The notch is replaced by a Dynamic Island that shows Live Activities, Now Playing, Spotlight and Siri. 9to5Mac and Six Colors both liked it better than the notch's dead space.

Touch: good, but not the reason to buy

Every reviewer found touch responsive. Tom's Guide said it felt comparable to an iPad Pro, with no input lag. macOS 27 spaces out menu items and enlarges window controls when you touch the screen. But the reviews call it a secondary input:

• 9to5Mac called it a nice-to-have, found that the traffic-light buttons take two taps, and reported a few accidental touches.
• Six Colors called it tasteful but niche.
• TechRadar said the touch features feel undercooked and that macOS still suits a keyboard and mouse.
• Tom's Hardware found it most useful in Blender and in touch-optimized iPad apps, and no better than a mouse in Final Cut Pro, with arm fatigue limiting long use.

There's no Apple Pencil support and no fold-flat hinge. Touch can be switched off in Accessibility settings.

The weight cut is the sleeper feature

Reviewers report the 14-inch model drops to about 3 pounds, roughly 0.5 lb lighter than before, and the 16-inch drops to about 4.0–4.1 lb, roughly 0.7 lb lighter. 9to5Mac called the lighter weight the most significant day-to-day change, and Six Colors called it the "other killer feature."

Battery and performance

Battery results vary widely because each outlet tests differently:

Apple claims up to 17 hours of web browsing for the 16-inch, per Tom's Hardware.

On speed, Tom's Guide measured 4,323 single-core and 29,219 multi-core in Geekbench 6.7 on the 14-inch M5 Pro. Its earlier mini-LED 16-inch M5 Pro scored 4,306 and 28,586, a gain the reviewer called "minor at best." 9to5Mac found Geekbench results virtually identical to the March models. Six Colors and 9to5Mac both cite reports that Apple is skipping to M7 chips next year.

Or the cheaper M6 model?

Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M6 chip, a mini-LED screen and a $1,999 starting price was reviewed the same day. Its price is up from $1,599 for the M5 model, per Engadget and Tom's Guide. Tom's Guide measured 18% higher multi-core performance than the M5 and 19h 05m in its web test. Engadget scored it 9/10 but recorded smaller Geekbench gains of 4,458 single-core and 19,077 multi-core. Tom's Guide and Engadget both called it a modest update. Engadget suggested that buyers weighing a $2,499 M5 Pro mini-LED model may be better off with the $2,899 PROLED.

Who should buy

If you edit HDR video or photos, or you carry a laptop all day, reviewers say the OLED model is a real upgrade. If you want more speed, Tom's Guide and Six Colors both suggest waiting for the next chip generation. Touch alone isn't a reason to pay $400 more.