does macs support touch screen monitors free sample

I see you posted this a long time ago, but wonder if you are still using this setup and how it has coped with all the situations you have thrown at it over the last year and a half? Have touch-base been keeping all the drivers up to date for Sierra etc.?

Really I"m most interested in finding out if the Adonit Jot or some other Bluetooth stylus you have found designed for capacitive touch displays has MacOS/OSX drivers so I can use the side buttons to do right and middle click.

For me I just want a decent size UI screen for my video editing and finishing applications like Assimilate Scratch and DaVinci Resolve to replace my current Wacom Cintiq 13HD which I have enjoyed using for some time but find just too small for many of my most often used applications. With it and a keyboard I can do everything I want, fast and efficiently, I just end up hunched up a bit too close to the screen to see and accurately hit the UI buttons. Unfortunately the next step up in size from Wacom to a 22"HD is £1400 GBP (Approx $1750 USD at current exchange rates)! This I find extremely hard to justify cost wise, but I do find going back to a mouse or magic pad so slow by comparison (though I do miss the multitouch swipes from my MacBook). I have looked at similar pen displays from other manufacturers and even bought a Huion GT-185 but just found the quality of the display (only 6bit panel with dithering to approximate 8 bit) and software drivers to be too poor for general use, with pointer accuracy impossibly bad near the edges of the screen. A newish kid on the block is the Asus PT201Q which has a mac driver, is available for the £600 price of my Wacom Cintiq 13HD, has multitouch and pen with buttons, is an ideal size and reports suggest a decent screen, but the latest OSX drivers are dated early 2015 so likely don"t support Sierra and may not be due to be getting any updates to do so if they haven"t already at this stage. These are all products for artists looking to sketch with pressure sensitivity though and, whilst it can be fun to play with, I don"t need that for my work, I just need hover, click, right click and middle click. Swipes and gestures can be very helpful too. Frustratingly it seems that Microsoft have seen this particular set of commonly useful elements and built them in to their Surface devices and even have the 3 button surface pen which seems ideal if only it had MacOS drivers. I am very close to moving to Windows to have this option and the kind of hardware flexibility for the top end that is missing these day from Apple computers. The only things holding me back are some MacOS only software tools that are essential to my work.

Apple continue to re-iterate how multitouch on computers is something they have looked at and decided they aren"t interested in. Unfortunately, as with many decisions from Apple, this decision leaves those with specific use cases where it can be extremely beneficial or even essential (e.g. for artists painting or drawing on a computer), out in the dark. I can appreciate that it wouldn"t work well for many desktop apps without a redesign of the UI, and iMacs would need new lay flat and tilt stands to make them comfortable to use like this, but there are many situations where it works very well indeed and provides enormous productivity gains. Maybe the stylus with buttons is the missing link here, for me it really is what helps bridge the mouse/trackpad pointer paradigm to enable direct on screen interaction for conventional desktop software, I wonder if they looked at multitouch on desktop in context of a stylus with buttons? Anyway, for me it works brilliantly to have a stylus and a number of applications I use are designed around either a stylus or touch screen and I want to be able to drive my high powered workstation with one. With the Apple pencil and iPad Pro they have demonstrated how they could make brilliant products that satisfy this niche, leaving those of us occupying it frustratingly tantalised by the possibilities. The new 4K and 5K LG / Apple partnership displays and their wide colour gamut beautiful displays also tantalise. I want those with multitouch and a stylus!

Anyway, for now I hope that a solution can be cobbled together to make a 3 button pen and multitouch display setup work on OSX/MacOS, with a decent quality 8 or 10 bit 22" IPS display of at least 1080P HD resolution (ideally higher)! Or if it can"t be done with existing products on the market then I hope a company comes along and makes one!

While the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro updates have been broadly well-received by reviewers and consumers alike, there are still questions about missing features like a touchscreen and Face ID. Speaking to the

While Chromebook and Windows PC manufacturers have broadly adopted touchscreens in laptops, Apple has not. Instead, the company is focusing on “indirect input” on the Mac and saving touchscreen technology for the iPad. John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, said in the interview:

“We make the world’s best touch computer on an iPad. It’s totally optimized for that. And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We haven’t really felt a reason to change that.”

What about Face ID? With the MacBook Pro now sporting a notch in the display, it seems like Face ID could come sooner rather than later – but Apple seems to think that Touch ID is better suited for the laptop form factor. Tom Boger, Apple’s VP of Mac and iPad product marketing, said in the interview that “Touch ID is more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard.”

For years, Apple has been against the idea of having a Mac with touchscreen support. Instead, the company has always argued that the iPad and Mac should be separate devices – even though the iPad now basically functions like a Mac when attached to a keyboard and mouse. But according to recent rumors, Apple is finally considering bringing touchscreen to the Mac, and we want to know what you think of that.

This story is supported by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates five different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing businesses and schools to easily and automatically deploy, manage, and protect all their Apple devices. Over 35,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily.

Back in 2010, after the iPad was announced, Steve Jobs said that the company wouldn’t launch a touchscreen Mac because touching a vertical surface for long periods of time would make users feel tired. “It’s ergonomically terrible,” Jobs said during a keynote. Apple’s CEO then said that the trackpad gestures introduced with OS X Lion would be a better way to bring the Mac closer to the iPad experience.

As noted by 9to5Mac’s Chance Miller, Apple marketing executive Tom Boger explained in 2021 that the iPad is the world’s “best touch computer” and the Mac is “totally optimized for direct input.” And for years, Apple has insisted that iPad and Mac offer different experiences. But every year, both devices become closer, and there’s a group of users who want to have macOS running on iPad.

Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that Apple has engineers working on touchscreen Macs. The first computer with touchscreen support would be a new MacBook Pro with an OLED display expected to be introduced in 2025. More details are unclear at this point, but the report mentions that Apple still has no plans to merge the iPad and the Mac.

Despite what Apple says, the iPad came to show how touchscreen is extremely intuitive for some interactions. For example, after using the iPad for long periods of time, I constantly try to zoom in using the pinch gesture on my Mac’s screen. Scrolling through a video editor timeline is also more interesting with a touch screen.

But Apple can take this experience even further, similar to what Microsoft has done with Surface Studio. Imagine a touchscreen iMac that can recline and has Apple Pencil support. That would be killer for professional designers.

Of course, from a sales standpoint, Apple is right to keep the iPad and Mac as separate devices. This way, most professionals end up buying both devices – but not because each is better for a particular task, but because Apple limits what users can do with each device. Even so, there’s still room to bring touchscreen to at least some of the Macs.

With all this in mind, would you buy a touchscreen Mac? What do you think about this idea? Let us know in the poll and also in the comments section below.

Apple is working on Macs with touchscreens, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While it’s uncertain whether the devices will actually come to market, Gurman says in a tweet that we could see a touchscreen MacBook Pro as early as 2025. The report also notes that the screens may use OLED technology, as opposed to the Mini LED displays that are currently in the 14- and 16-inch models.

The project seems to be in relatively early stages, with engineers being “actively engaged,” according to the report. Gurman says that there are no final plans for launching touchscreen Macs and that plans could always change — we’ve seen Apple scrap projects before, and the company has made prototype Macs with touchscreens that never saw the light of day, according to Craig Federighi.

Gurman says the rumored MacBook Pro would include other updates but would more or less retain the same form factor as current models; you’d just be able to tap and gesture on the screen.

If this product does end up on store shelves, it would be a major reversal for the company. Apple has famously avoided adding touchscreens to its macOS devices, even as iPadOS flourished (and as it brought apps meant for touchscreens to its desktops). Steve Jobs famously criticized computers with touchscreens — as well as devices that use styluses — saying that they were “ergonomically terrible” when announcing the iPad.

Instead of adding touchscreens to laptops, Apple pursued a Touch Bar for Macs from 2016 until starting to phase it out with the release of redesigned 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros in 2021.

Since then, though, the tech has become commonplace on many Windows laptops, and a plethora of iPad accessories have basically turned the tablet into a MacBook. I’m unaware of any reports that people’s arms have fallen off from heavy touchscreen use but have found laptops with them to be convenient in many situations. With that said, I do think macOS will probably need a heavy refresh if it’s going to be used with a touchscreen; I can’t imagine trying to hit the current traffic light window controls or navigate the menu bar with my finger.

Apple’s M1 Macs look like they could be a real revolution, providing a huge quality-of-life boost to long-suffering Mac owners who have had to scrape by with middling performance on their expensive machines for far too long. But amid all the plaudits, there has been one complaint that just will not die: That Apple has failed by not giving its latest Macs a touchscreen. But not only is this idea wildly optimistic, it is also completely out of touch with both the way Apple thinks and what its users want. So can we all just put this idea to bed, please?

There is a very good reason why Apple will never make touchscreen Macs: They would be an ergonomic nightmare. Constantly reaching up to smear greasy fingerprints all over your screen not only breaks with your workflow as you move your hand away from your keyboard or trackpad, but it is tiring and deeply uncomfortable in the long run.

But don’t just take my word for it. Apple has said repeatedly that it is a bad idea. Here’s Steve Jobs speaking in 2010: “We’ve done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives great demo, but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible.”

Too long ago? How about this from Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, a few days ago: “I gotta tell you, when we released Big Sur and these articles started coming out saying, ‘Oh my God, look, Apple is preparing for touch,’ I was thinking like, ‘Whoa, why?’ We had designed and evolved the look for MacOS in a way that felt most comfortable and natural to us, not remotely considering something about touch.”

Apple’s belief has not changed here. It is still of the firm opinion that vertical touchscreens suck. It knows smartphone touchscreens can be ergonomically flawed and has managed to avoid their pitfalls, so why would it take the opposite approach for Macs? If you think the company’s point of view is changing any time soon, you are kidding yourself.

So why do we keep hearing all these talking heads berating the company for not doing a U-turn and opening the way for the inevitable pain-related lawsuits? I think the answer is rather simple: The tech press simply does not understand Apple, nor does it understand Apple users.

And that seems to be what is happening here. If Mac users really, deeply desired a touchscreen Mac, don’t you think they would be more vocal about it? Don’t you think Apple would have done something by now? After all, it has been 10 years since Steve Jobs struck down the idea of a touchscreen Mac — if demand for one had increased in the intervening years, we would surely have seen the results in new Apple products. Apple is not covering its ears and yelling over a tide of demand here — it does user testing and gathers feedback all the time, yet never has it found a strong desire for change. It simply ain’t happening, folks.

OK, so maybe the title of this article was a little presumptuous. There are a couple of possible routes that Apple could take to a touchscreen Mac, but they are niche and narrow and by no means guaranteed. In fact, I would say they are downright implausible.

The first is that Apple brings out a 2-in-1 laptop with a touchscreen. After all, many of the company’s rivals have done this, and it (partially) eliminates fears of arm strain as you can use the touchscreen portion of the device as a tablet.

Yet I would be extremely surprised if Apple ever brought out a 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop. The company’s execs have said many times that if you want a touchscreen device, there is already a product for you: The iPad. Apple’s tablet is already basically a computer itself thanks to its incredibly powerful chip and range of Mac-like accessories. Why muddy the waters and confuse your customers further by bringing something out that wedges itself snugly between the already-close Mac and iPad?

The second option is that Apple emulates Microsoft and launches a large, artist-focused Mac that looks and feels like the Surface Studio. A moveable, slanting display is much more amenable to touch input because you do not have to hold your arms up at painful angles.

After hearing clueless pundits claim for the millionth time that Apple is wrong, wrong, wrong for not bringing out a touchscreen Mac, it starts to get a little tiring. Of course, I know we will be doing it all over again at the next Apple event, when the commentary class whips itself into another righteous fury at Apple’s supposed “arrogance.” None of it is of much consequence, not to Mac users and certainly not to Apple’s bigwigs.

If you want touchscreen Apple devices, there are already some fantastic options. The iPad can do more than ever before and easily blows away the competition. And if you want a touchscreen laptop, there are plenty of excellent options out there, including the superb HP Spectre x360 13.

But sometimes you just have to let an unrealistic dream die. For the remaining few who are clinging to the idea that Apple will pull a rabbit out of its hat and release a touchscreen Mac, now is probably a good time to move on.

A new patent describing the use of applications across multiple screens, such as iPhone and MacBook Pro, suggests that Apple hasn"t completely eliminated the possibility of a touchscreen MacBook Pro.

Despite Apple continually saying it won"t bring touchscreens to the Mac, a new patent includes one description that explicitly refers to touchscreen laptops. It is most likely an example of a patent attempting to cover every possibility, but the description is clear and specific.

"In some embodiments, display 5012 is also a touch-sensitive display," it says. "In one or more of such embodiments, the user optionally performs a variety of finger inputs over display 5012 to enter user inputs via display 5012."

"We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do," he said. "I don"t think we"ve looked at any of the other guys to date and said, how fast can we get there?"

The patent refers to situations where the screen of one device may be positioned over the other, though it does not give many examples. One possibility is when the user has a MacBook Pro but is also using an iPhone which he or she moves in front of the laptop.

In what may be another example of merely attempting to cover every future possibility, the patent refers to using a user"s gaze, voice commands and screen touches to determine where their attention is focused. It may be, for instance, that a user is watching something on a larger screen while controlling playback via their phone.

The four inventors credited on the patent include Chang Zhang, whose 50 previous patents include one for "Multifunction input device with an embedded capacitive sensing layer" - meaning an Apple Pencil with a touch-sensitive interface.

Although Apple refuses to make a touchscreen Mac, the Espresso Display V2 is ready to fill in the gap. There are 15.6-inch and 13.3-inch versions of the very slim external display, and both support touch and an optional stylus.

I tested the screen with a MacBook and iPad to see how well it performs in ordinary use. And I also tried out the stylus as well as the stand for desktop use and the case for taking the display on the go.

Beyond that, the LCD in this screen is gorgeous. And rotatable. Plus, Espresso offers a range of accessories so you can use it in the office or while traveling.

The Espresso Display V2 is a very stylish piece of kit, even before you turn it on. Most of the exterior is a single piece of aluminum that the screen is set into. All the rival screens I’ve tested have plastic casings, so this one really stands out.

The backlight maxes out at 300 nits. I found that easily bright enough to use in my office. It’s also sufficient for using the screen outdoors, in the shade. Direct sunlight isn’t recommended.

Beyond the specs, I used the Espresso Display V2 side-by-side with a MacBook, and the two looked great together. The struggle in using external screens with Apple laptops is the MacBook’s display is of such high quality that cheap LCDs look extra terrible. That’s at all not the case with Espresso’s product.

What truly sets the Espresso Display V2 apart from the pack is its touchscreen. Plug it into your Mac and you have the touchscreen Mac you’ve always wanted.

macOS isn’t designed for touch, though, so Espresso had to write an app to enable the feature. Espresso Flow is free, and there are both macOS and Windows versions. With it, you can use your finger as a mouse, or set up gestures to control your Mac apps.

I tinkered with the touchscreen functionality quite a bit, and it works very well. I found the display to be as sensitive as an iPad. But you have to get accustomed to using it because macOS is not iPadOS. I know that seems obvious but it really affects how Espresso’s product works. It works fine… once you get used to it. And configure it as you want.

Touching the screen is optional. Display V2 also acts as a standard external screen that you can use with a mouse pointer. And note that a mouse or trackpad is really the only option with iPad.

Both the 15.6-inch version and the 13.3-inch one are available with touch support. In addition, Espresso offers a 13.3-inch version without a touchscreen.

All it takes to turn the Espresso Display V2 into a portrait-oriented screen is rotate it 90 degrees. [As demonstrated here] That’s a bonus when working with long documents.

The accessory has a pair is USB-C ports, and that’s it. But that’s all you need to connect your Mac or iPad to the screen. And Espresso provides the necessary cable.

No external power supply is needed, so you can easily set the external screen up when you’re on the go. But the Display V2 has a second USB-C port so you can bring in power if you wish.

You can use Espresso’s screen with computers and gaming consoles that don’t have USB-C, but there is no direct support for HDMI or Mini Display Port. To get those, you’ll need to purchase adapters. The HDMI one is $39, while the Mini DisplayPort version is $29.

On three sides, the screen bezels are relatively slim: 0.25 inches. But, like the iMac, Espresso Display V2 has a considerable “chin” at the bottom. It’s 2.2 inches wide, and is the secret to its slim design. Rival external displays are thicker, but don’t have the chin.

And it leads to one of the rare downsides of the Display V2: it’s wider than will fit in many laptops bags. Not thicker — wider. Consider the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It is 9.8 inches wide. This screen is 1.3 inches wider than that.

I have a backpack with a slot designed to vertically hold 16-inch notebooks. This external screen won‘t fit in it. But I have another that holds laptops horizontally, and Espresso’s product does fit in that one… barely.

Espresso built a pair of speakers into the bottom edge of the accessory. In my testing, these were about to put out as much as 75 dB a couple of feet from the front screen.

Espresso Case — For carrying the Display V2 around the office or the town, there’s the $39 flip-cover case. It attaches magnetically, then covers and protects the display when you’re on the go. When you’re ready to get to work, flip it behind the screen and bend it into a stand.

This is one of the best-looking external screens I’ve ever used, and the design is top notch too. The fact that it’s also a touchscreen puts it in a category almost by itself.

The Espresso Display V2 is a top-quality product that’s loaded with features. And it’s priced to match. The 15.6-inch touch version is $499. The 13.3-inch one with touch support is $439, while a version without the touchscreen is $339.

You can definitely find a nice-looking portable display for less. Like the InnoView Portable Monitor INVPM001, which is $199. But this isn’t a touchscreen, and it has a plastic casing — you have to pay more to get more features.

Portable Monitors for Mac enable a boost in your productivity, whether you are using MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, or other Mac series products. UPERFECT external screen will always be your best Mac partner.

Absolutely, depending on which screen you buy. (TouchBase) is the key to getting it to work. Once at the website, join and log in first. Then follow simple instructions that they give you... Pay for the (drivers) then download and install...

I do music production, needless to say it sped up my work flow by far... And it was worth the 90 bucks.... Oh and finger gestures work as well, I"m still learning that part. Also TouchBase"s control panel allows you to alter configurations within for an ultimate experience... I"m running a Mac mini (2018) i7, 16gb... with AZUZ ZenScreen Touch MB16AMT

There have been a number of issues with Apple’s MacBook models over the years. In some cases Apple has service programs where it will fix your MacBook for free, in other cases the Macs have been recalled by Apple due to safety issues.

reports of cracked screens from M1 MacBook owners. Some users have claimed that the screen of the computer has inexplicably and all of a sudden cracked. Reports have been shared on

Unfortunately, users have been told by Apple support that they are responsible and that the damage is not covered by the warranty. However the company has published a support document detailing how to avoid cracked screens. More here:

As for the 13in MacBook Pro, the issue is with non-Touch Bar units manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017. You can enter your serial number on Apple’s

The specifics of the problem are unclear, but Apple’s solution seems to be to replace the logic board. While Apple doesn’t have an official program for this issue, it should replace the logic board for free if its personnel determine that it is affected by the issue. This should be the case for four years from the purchase date – so it could run until 2022.

According to Apple affected laptops may:Display backlight continuously or intermittently shows vertical bright areas along the entire bottom of the screen

Non Touch Bar models of the 13in MacBook Pro sold between June 2017 and June 2018 could be affected by an issue with the SSD that might cause you to lose valuable data.

Apple has stated that “a limited number of 128GB and 256GB solid-state drives (SSD) used in 13in MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) units have an issue that may result in data loss and failure of the drive.”

You’ll know if you’re affected by this issue because, obviously, you’ll hear the noises described above should you boot into Windows. Interestingly, if you access Windows via virtualisation software like VMware Fusion or Parallels then the issue does not arise.

noted in a hands-on review (warning: includes significant bad language!) that some USB-C adapters not only slowed down his 13in non-Touch Bar 2016 MacBook Pro but also appeared to slow or entirely kill the MacBook Pro’s Wi-Fi connection. The adapters worked perfectly with a Dell laptop.

Apple might provide a future update to macOS Sierra to include support for non-compatible USB-C/Thunderbolt hardware but knowing Apple like we do – and coupled to the fact they have their own range of adapters – we wouldn’t hold our breath waiting for a fix. To be honest, if you’re affected then we reckon it’s best to bite the bullet and get new Apple-approved adapters.

On its support page, Apple revealed it has determined “that a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video or unexpected system restarts”.

The specific symptoms described by Apple include distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen, no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on, and the computer restarts unexpectedly.

Eventually, many users found that their MacBook boots to a blue or grey screen. Currently, the only permanent resolution is to get a replacement logic board, but that can prove quite costly without Apple Care. It’s believed that overheating is to blame for the issue.

Some of the readers who’ve been in touch have said that Apple has replaced their 2011 MacBook Pro’s logic board thanks to Apple Care, with some customers even claiming to have had their logic board replaced multiple times.

offered replacement hard drives for iMacs containing 1TB Seagate hard drives that have been known to fail, replacement MagSafe adapters, iBook logic board replacements back in 2004, and, most recently, a MacBook Air

Note, however, that if there is other damage to your MacBook Pro that “prevents the repair” such as a cracked screen, they’ll charge you for the replacement of that. Aside from that, though, the repair program is completely free (and so it should be!).

Although touch screen technology has been around for a long time, it became mainstream when Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007. So, why doesn’t Apple add that tech to their own MacBook lineup? There are many logical reasons for keeping MacBooks touch-free, including control scheme, precision, and user comfort.

Hi, I’m Devansh. I’ve always noticed that with every MacBook refresh, “Why haven’t they added a touch screen yet?” is a question that pops up every single time. In this article, I’ll walk you through the three main reasons why and then answer some common questions.

Apple has brilliant touch screen functionality in most of their devices, so why don’t they just slap one on the MacBook? If you often wonder about this, keep reading!

Many people feel like MacBooks having touch-sensitive displays is the next logical step. But there are many reasons why this isn’t such a great idea. Let’s discuss the three main ones.

In an interview, John Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, said: “We make the world’s best touch computer on an iPad. It’s totally optimized for that. And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We haven’t really felt a reason to change that.”

In a nutshell, what he means is that MacBooks have been left touch-free because they are designed for indirect input. On the other hand, the iPad has been designed for direct input.

Lift your hand and look at the finger you use most on a touchscreen device. It’s probably a bit fat and round, isn’t it? And what’s a mouse or trackpad like? It’s precise and accurate.

Precision is the significant difference between a mouse pointer and a finger. As a result, a user interface that works properly with a mouse doesn’t work well with a finger, and one that works well with a finger removes the need for the preciseness of a mouse.

As Craig Federighi, the SVP of software engineering at Apple, said in 2016, “Grafting touch on something that fundamentally was designed around a precise pointer really compromises the experience.”

“We’ve done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives a great demo, but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible.” These are the words of Steve Jobs from back in 2010.

We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.

Even though this might seem pretty mundane, it’s a huge factor in everyday life. For proof, just ask any friend who owns a Windows laptop with a touch screen. They’ve probably only used it a couple of times—a scroll here, a tap there, maybe. Of course, this depends on their specific use case, but you get the point.

This is yet another question many Apple fans have. I’ll let Tom Boger, VP of Mac and iPad product marketing at Apple, answer it for you: “Touch ID is more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard.” So, it’s unlikely that they’ll add it anytime soon.

A now-obsolete device named AirBar set out to do just this, but it didn’t catch on. Besides buying a Modbook, many with technical expertise have tried their hand at modifying their MacBooks to add touch sensitivity. For example, Mac Address added an Espresso Screen to a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s worth trying out, but at your own risk.

Apple has already tried adding a touch screen to a MacBook: the Touch Bar. Introduced in 2016, it’s a 60-pixel-high OLED display strip running across the top of the keyboard and provides contextual controls depending on the app you use. But since they essentially discontinued it in 2021, it’s obvious that it didn’t take off with users and developers.

Everybody’s seen all those crazy, futuristic concepts for MacBooks and other Apple products. Even if these concepts rarely ever come to fruition, it’s exciting to get a glimpse of what could lie ahead in tech. But do you think touch functionality on a MacBook falls into a ‘futuristic’ category, or is it just the next logical step?

We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out. For now, if you want to add touchscreen functionality to your MacBook, you have a few options. You can opt for a MacBook model with a Touch Bar, connect an external display, or pair your MacBook with your iPad using Universal Control.

Apple"s 2016 MacBook Pro upgrades introduced the Touch Bar—an interesting piece of hardware that didn"t quite make its way in the world. In fact, it was so unpopular amongst power users that the company removed the Touch Bar from its newest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, bringing back the traditional function keys.

The Touch Bar is still available on the 13-inch Macbook Pro (for now), but the biggest question still looms—can the Touch Bar improve productivity or is it just a gimmick as some users made it out to be?

For a long time, Microsoft and Google have been sold on the idea of putting touchscreens on laptops. Microsoft"s own Surface Laptop has it, and Google"s Chromebook Pixel had it too. Beyond these two, several laptops running Windows 10 or Chrome OS have displays that accept touch input as well.

On the other hand, Apple has long been against the idea of putting a touchscreen on computers. During the iPad announcement in 2010, Steve Jobs talked about how vertical touchscreens can be painful to use after a while, and will "make your arm fall off."

In recent times, Apple has warmed to the idea of touch screen computers, as per the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard cover, which does require you to interact with a vertically mounted touchscreen.

Nonetheless, for the Mac, Apple stuck to its belief and built on an idea that Lenovo had toyed with years before. By putting a tiny strip of a touch screen right above the keyboard, Apple believes this is a better implementation of touch input on a computer, rather than making the entire display touch-enabled.

The Touch Bar dynamically changes functions depending on the app in the foreground. For example, when a Safari browser window is open it will show shortcuts for Back, Forward, New Tab, and more. Putting the focus on Finder (the file explorer) will show shortcuts for Quick Look, Tags, Share Sheet, and so on.

Because of its position on the top of the keyboard, it"s technically easier to reach the Touch Bar than having to lift up your hand and touch the computer display.

A Control Strip is persistently shown in the right corner of the Touch Bar. By default, this includes Siri, Brightness, Volume, and Mute controls, but they can be swapped with control you prefer instead. I use Play/Pause, Screen Lock, Brightness, and Volume controls.

Tapping the arrow button to the left of the Control Strip reveals the remaining functions you"ll typically find on other Macs (like keyboard backlight and Mission Control). If you"re wanting to use actual function keys, you can also press and hold the Fn button to show the F1 to F12 keys on the Touch Bar.

In System Preferences > Keyboard, there are a few settings you can use to tweak the Touch Bar behavior, including keeping a fixed set of toggle keys (pictured above) instead of dynamic ones.

Being a capacitive touchscreen running software made by Apple, you can trust that the Touch Bar will be accurate in responding to your taps. I seldom hit the wrong button and, for the most part, the animations and operation are smooth enough.

I am particularly fond of enhanced media playback controls on the Touch Bar. For instance, when playing a song on a music app, I can scrub to any part of the song without bringing the app to the foreground. Or, when a YouTube video is playing full screen, on either sides of the timeline you"ll see a time elapsed as well as a time remaining counter.

If you open the Calculator, commonly-used arithmetic symbols (like addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and percentage) occupy the Touch Bar. I got used to tapping on the Touch Bar when doing long calculations.

The first gripe I have with the Touch Bar is its default brightness—it feels low when you"re sitting underneath a bright light source. To make matters worse, the matte finish makes content even harder to see in such lighting conditions. Unfortunately, there"s still no way to change the Touch Bar brightness, despite it being released several years ago.

The next problem is that the Touch Bar goes to sleep if you don"t use the trackpad or keyboard for roughly a minute. Meaning, the computer display timeout and the Touch Bar display timeout aren"t synced.

Remember how I loved seeing the time elapsed or time remaining counters during full-screen video playback? Well, if you"re watching a video past a minute, the Touch Bar isn"t helpful in showing you that information unless you touch the trackpad. As of today, there is no way to change the Touch Bar screen timeout either.

Most importantly, barring the niche use cases I talked about above, the Touch Bar in its current form does not dramatically improve the usability of a Mac. For example, when using Finder, you"ll see a shortcut for Quick Look. The problem is that Quick Look is faster to access by simply hitting the space bar rather than raising your index finger towards the Touch Bar. There"s a New Tab shortcut when Safari"s open, but my brain is hardwired to use the Cmd + T shortcut already.

For Apple"s own apps, the Touch Bar just ends up showing elements that are either a familiar keyboard shortcut away or easily visible on the computer display. For example, when manipulating images in Preview, you"re presented with the Rotate Left and Rotate Right shortcuts, among others. Again, using the Cmd + R keyboard shortcut just felt easier to use.

The keyboard autocorrect suggestions are probably the most pointless feature on the Touch Bar. When you type, you"re typically looking at the screen, not underneath. There"s almost never a time when you"ll comprehend those autocorrect suggestions to be able to use them. The only silver lining? One-click access to your frequently-used emojis, which is certainly nicer than using the complicated Control + Cmd + Space keyboard shortcut.

Finally, depending on which version MacBook you"re using, there"s some re-training required when using the Esc key. On the current MacBook Pro 13-inch model, the Esc key is a dedicated key, whereas on models prior to it, the Esc key is a virtual button in the leftmost corner of the Touch Bar.

Even for repetitive tasks, like changing the screen brightness or volume, you have to look at the virtual buttons before using them—something you didn"t have to do with the tactile nature of physical keys in the past.

The Touch Bar experience has not been entirely a bug-free one for me. And although I"ve faced only a couple of freezes up to now, others have reported more frequent occurrences of buggy behavior.

Since the Touch Bar is software based, and it"s used to control useful functions like volume, brightness, and media playback, a Touch Bar crash can put certain aspects of macOS completely out of reach.

Currently, Apple sells three models of the MacBook Pro. Only one of them (the 13-inch model) includes the Touch Bar, whereas the 14-inch and 16-inch models have the familiar physical function keys instead. I can confidently say that the Touch Bar is not a reason to avoid the 13-inch model, it looks cool and can be customized to your liking. You"ll get the hang of it in due time.

However, if you were hoping that the Touch Bar will drastically improve your workflow, then I"m afraid you"ll be left disappointed. In its current form, it"s a cool, experimental feature at best. If you"re looking to use the traditional key functionality instead of the Touch Bar functionality adapting to each app, you can use the default key setup. It has the same functions as the traditional physical keyboard row on a MacBook.

Whether you should buy the MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar ultimately comes down to personal preference. If you"re buying directly from Apple, your only current option to avoid the Touch Bar is to update to a 14-inch MacBook Pro (which costs around $600 more), or downgrade to an M1 MacBook Air (which is $200 cheaper but lacks power).

However, if you"re going for a used MacBook Pro, I wouldn"t hold off on a MacBook due to the Touch Bar only. You"ll most probably end up using it with the traditional key functionality, which isn"t too bad after all.