The touchscreen MacBook might not be the iPad hybrid utopia you seek
Desperate for the ultimate Apple iPad/MacBook Pro hybrid? It might not be the touchscreen model coming this year
The first touchscreen MacBook laptop will not offer the same touch-based proficiency as an iPad, according to a new report from a prominent Apple watcher.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said touch capabilities will be more of a “bonus” than the standout feature of the device. So, if you were thinking of a macOS device that’s effectively an iPad Pro glued to a MacBook keyboard, that mightn’t be the case. The PowerOn newsletter says the touchscreen will “stop well short” of a Mac-iPad hybrid model.
He writes: “Before anyone gets too excited, the touch-based MacBook Pro will not feel like an iPad. This is the MacBook Pro you’ve known for the past two decades – with touch offered as a bonus.”
The report goes onto say there will be an ability to tap on screen elements, with controls then changing based upon the input method. Gurman uses the example of a user tapping the menu bar to launch a larger control panel designed for touch.
There will still be the option to pinch to zoom and fast scroll using the touchscreen. However, it appears tasks like ultra fine and accurate drawings with an Apple pencil might be beyond this model.
The touchscreen version of the MacBook Pro is expected to arrive later this year and not alongside this week’s expected releases of an affordable MacBook and a MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.
If you’re after a full hybrid of the Mac and iPad, your best bet might be the reportedly-in-development foldable iPad model which Gurman believes is coming in 2029. In the same report, he says Apple had planned to launch the device in 2028, but has met some technical challenges along the way. That device has been dubbed an “all-display MacBook” and a “foldable iPad”
Chris Smith
