Best touch screen Apple laptop

The MacBook Pro 2021 (14-inch) and MacBook Pro 2021 (16-inch) are marvellous laptops, but despite their premium price, theyre both missing something that Windows portables have had for a long time: touchscreens.

The big question is why, and thats something that Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal was able to put to Apple directly.

• Apple M1 Pro vs M1 Max: Whats the difference?
• MacBook Air vs Pro: Which should you buy?
• Plus: iPhone 13 orders have annoying delays but Apple is working on it

We make the worlds best touch computer on an iPad, replied John Ternus, Apples senior vice president of hardware engineering. Its totally optimized for that. And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We havent really felt a reason to change that.

At a glance, that feels like an unsatisfying answer: just because you can have a better touchscreen experience elsewhere, doesnt mean you cant have any touchscreen experience on a laptop.

But then again, would Apple really want every MacBook Pro 14-inch review to focus on how ineffective a theoretical touchscreen is, when there are so many positives to cover? Plus, without needing to touch the screen, theres less reason to buy that $19 cleaning cloth.

Personally, as the generally happy owner of a Surface Laptop 2, I can count on one hand the number of times Ive used the touchscreen and most of those have been by accident when Ive forgotten its there. So I have a reasonable amount of sympathy for the argument that says we dont have a touch screen on the laptop because its unnecessary.

While she had Apple on hand to answer design questions, Stern also asked about the lack of Face ID, and here the response was considerably less convincing, given the notch is right there already.

Touch ID is more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard, said Tom Boger, Apple VP of Mac and iPad product marketing. It doesnt take a great leap of logic to point out that if youve just switched on your MacBook, then youre also right in front of the camera.

And anybody disappointed at the lack of waterproofing on the new MacBook Pro shouldnt expect that oversight to be rectified any time soon, either. Both of them stared at me blankly on Zoom when I asked about a water-resistant laptop, Stern writes. That hasnt been on many peoples lists, Boger eventually responded.

Despite these oversights, the new MacBook Pros sit proudly on our list of the best laptops you can buy right now. Theyre expensive, yes, but they are beautifully designed and a thoroughly recommended purchase if money is no object.

• More: Getting AppleCare for my new MacBook Pro 2021 was surprisingly confusing