macOS 27.2 Further Hints at MacBook With Touch-Enabled OLED Display - MacRumors
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macOS 27.2 Further Hints at MacBook With Touch-Enabled OLED Display

The latest macOS 27.2 beta released this week further hints at the long-rumored MacBook with a touchscreen, which is expected to be unveiled by next month.

M5 MacBook Pro
Specifically, when you click and hold on an app icon in the Dock on the third developer beta of macOS 27.2, the icon gets a little bit larger. A similar animation occurs when you long press on an iOS or iPadOS app, so the fact that the animation now extends to macOS could be another subtle clue that a touch-enabled MacBook is coming.

The new animation can be seen in videos shared by @madeby_ldt and @craigapplecom.


The latest macOS 27.2 beta added other new touch gestures as well, so it seems pretty clear that Apple is gearing up for the first touch-enabled Macs. In particular, Apple reportedly plans to release new higher-end, higher-priced 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro or "MacBook Ultra" models with touchscreens in October or November.

In addition to a touch-enabled OLED display, these Macs are expected to feature M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, a thinner-and-lighter design, a Dynamic Island, and potentially Apple's C1X or C2 modem for built-in cellular connectivity.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, macOS Golden Gate
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Caution)

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Top Rated Comments

2 weeks ago
Nobody touches my screen
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2 weeks ago

What’s the overall benefit of a touch screen laptop. Never used one so genuinely curious.
I had one years ago (my employer provides Windows devices). To be honest, most of the time I just forgot that the feature even existed.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2 weeks ago

I think it's that an entire generation has grown up using devices with multi-touch screens. I don't see Macs becoming touch-first for all the reasons Steve Jobs mentioned in 2010, but being touch-enabled makes the experience between iPhone, iPad, and Mac more consistent.
I am only afraid that they will go the same path as Windows and design the whole OS around that mantra. With Windows I hated having those huge buttons taking up a lot of space if I have such a small and precise curser.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghostface147 Avatar
2 weeks ago
I can't say that I'm a fan of laptop or desktop touchscreens. I know this is something some people have been clamoring for years about, so more power to y'all.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2 weeks ago

Have Mac owners suddenly developed gorilla arms? Steve wouldn't allow this so neither should JT.
Not sure how many times this needs to be repeated, but…
Just because Steve said something two decades ago does not mean that it is good business policy two decades later.
Steve said that you’d never want to read books on an e-reader, you’d never want to browse a photo gallery on a smartphone, and that there would never be an iPod with video.
And then he introduced the iPod video, the iPhone, and the iBooks Store.

A lot of things have changed in the 17 years since Steve made those gorilla arms comments.
Resolutions have gotten significantly higher, the Mac has things like iPhone mirroring and directly running iPhone and iPad applications, multitouch displays have become significantly more prominent in society, most websites are designed touch first, something that wasn’t the case when he made those comments…
Someone who was born when Steve made those comments about gorilla arm touchscreen laptops, is 17 years old today. It’s very possible that person grew up knowing absolutely nothing but touchscreen interfaces.

Putting a touchscreen on the Mac is smart. It’s smart business, it’s smart from an accessibility standpoint, it’s smart for developers who will now be able to test out their iPhone and iPad applications directly on the touchscreen of the Mac.
and for anyone who doesn’t like it, guarantee there will be a terminal command on day one, if not a setting directly within the system, to completely disable it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
irrg Avatar
2 weeks ago
I personally don't want this for my device nor do I think there's a massive market for this, but, the “Steve wouldn't have allowed this” thing feels, literally, like it's getting old. It's been 15 years since Jobs died. You can't tell me that he would've kept all his old opinions on standby if he'd lived into 2026. He would've reevaluated his beliefs.

The idea that Steve's beliefs from 2011 are going to always be accurate as time progresses feels as naive as US Constitution purists or, I dunno, fear of the horseless carriage.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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