The reviews of Apple’s MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display are out, and the testers agree on two things. The OLED screen is the best they have used on a laptop, and the touchscreen is a nice extra you will mostly forget about. The Verge gave it a 9, Engadget an 8.8 out of 10, and Gizmodo 4.5 out of 5.
We read the full reviews from nine outlets rather than the summaries. Here is what the testers measured, where they disagree, and what it means if you are deciding between this $2,899 model and the cheaper mini-LED MacBook Pro.
Reviewers agree the PROLED XDR panel is the best laptop screen they have tested
Apple rates the tandem OLED panel at 2,000 nits peak, and the lab numbers came close. Tom’s Guide measured 1,980 nits on the 14-inch and 1,949 nits on the 16-inch with a 10 percent HDR window, with a Delta-E color error of 0.19. Tony Polanco called it “the finest laptop I’ve had the pleasure of testing.” Tom’s Hardware got 1,964 nits in its 40 percent HDR test, and Andrew E. Freedman wrote that it has “the best laptop screen I’ve ever seen.”
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Notebookcheck measured a peak of about 2,085 nits and gave the 14-inch 92 percent. It also flagged one catch for sensitive eyes. The panel flickers at 240Hz at brightness settings of 99 percent and below. If OLED phones give you headaches, try this laptop in a store before you buy.
Everyday SDR brightness is lower than the headline figure. Tom’s Hardware measured 542.6 nits and Tom’s Guide 557.5 nits in standard SDR tests. Jason Snell at Six Colors summed up the consensus: “the real story here is the screen.”
Battery tests range from 16 to 24 hours depending on how each outlet measures
Apple claims up to 24 hours of video streaming on the 16-inch M5 Pro model and 22 hours on the M5 Max. Here is how the independent tests compare.
| Outlet | Model | Test | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| TechRadar | 16-inch M5 Max | Looped 1080p video, 50% brightness | 24 hours 21 minutes |
| Tom’s Guide | 16-inch M5 Max | Web surfing over Wi-Fi, 150 nits | 21 hours 24 minutes |
| Tom’s Guide | 14-inch M5 Pro | Web surfing over Wi-Fi, 150 nits | Just under 17 hours |
| Notebookcheck | 14-inch M5 Pro | Wi-Fi browsing, 150 nits | 16 hours 37 minutes |
| Tom’s Hardware | 16-inch M5 Max | Web, OpenGL and video, 150 nits | 15 hours 57 minutes |
| Engadget | 16-inch | Coding benchmark script | 10 hours 15 minutes |
TechRadar‘s Matt Hanson found Apple’s claims “pretty much spot on.” Tom’s Guide’s separate battery test put the 16-inch PROLED model just seven minutes behind the non-touch 16-inch M5 Pro, so the OLED screen and touch layer cost you almost nothing.
Not every lab agrees. Tom’s Hardware wrote that “mini-LED model still lasts longer” in its testing, and Notebookcheck saw the OLED 14-inch run over an hour longer than the mini-LED model on Wi-Fi. The fair reading: battery life is a wash, not a reason to buy either one.
Most reviewers touched the screen a few times a day and went back to the trackpad
David Pierce at The Verge counted “maybe a half-dozen taps on the touchscreen a day.” He called it “a mouse emulator and nothing more” and noted there is no onscreen keyboard and no Apple Pencil support. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar listed “the touchscreen adds little value” as a con. Chance Miller at 9to5Mac liked how macOS adapts menus for fingers but called the ergonomics of touch as a main input “terrible.”
Gizmodo’s Kyle Barr was the warmest, listing an “improved macOS experience with touch” among the pros. We already covered why MKBHD won’t use the touchscreen regularly, and the written reviews land in the same place.
What reviewers did notice every day was the weight. Apple says the 14-inch drops to 3 pounds and the 16-inch to 4 pounds, cuts of half a pound and 0.7 pound. Notebookcheck weighed its 14-inch at 3.04 pounds. Miller said the lighter 16-inch has him rethinking whether he needs the 14-inch at all.
Same M5 chips, a $400 premium and loud fans are the main complaints
The PROLED models use the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips Apple shipped in March, and benchmarks show it. Tom’s Guide measured 4,359 single-core and 30,327 multi-core in Geekbench 6 on the 16-inch M5 Max, against 4,338 and 29,439 on the older 14-inch M5 Max. Polanco called the gains “minor at best.” Engadget’s 14-inch M5 Pro scored 4,217 single-core.
That leaves the price. The PROLED models cost about $400 more than comparable mini-LED models, starting at $2,899 for the 14-inch and $3,399 for the 16-inch. See our full touchscreen MacBook Pro price list for every configuration. Gizmodo and Notebookcheck both flagged fan noise under load, with Notebookcheck measuring 55.5 dB(A) in High Power mode. Pierce disliked the bass-heavy speakers.
If you own a recent MacBook Pro, Engadget’s advice holds: there is no pressing reason to upgrade. If you are buying new and you edit photos or video, the reviews make the extra $400 easy to justify for the screen and the lighter body. Just don’t pay it for touch.
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