Radar: Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro is on pre-order in South Africa from R60,999

Apple's first touchscreen Mac is on pre-order in South Africa. iStore lists the 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display from R60,999 with the M5 Pro chip, and the 16-inch from R71,999. The M5 Max versions start at R94,999 for the 14-inch and R100,999 for the 16-inch.

Apple announced the machines on 28 October and says shipping and in-store sales start on Friday, 6 November, in the first 30 countries and regions. iStore marks the South African models as pre-order but does not give a local delivery date.

The South African question is simple: touch and OLED add about R10,000 to the entry price. The same retailer still sells the existing 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro or M5 Max, without a touchscreen, from R50,999.

What the money buys

The new panel is a tandem OLED display, 14.2 or 16.3 inches across, with touch built into the screen. Apple quotes up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness for both HDR and SDR content, a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a ProMotion refresh rate that moves between 10Hz and 120Hz. It covers the P3 and Adobe RGB colour spaces, and Apple offers an optional nano-texture glass to cut glare.

The chips are the M5 Pro and M5 Max, with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of storage. Apple claims up to 24 hours of battery life on its own September tests. The 14-inch model weighs about 1.36kg (3 lb) and the 16-inch about 1.81kg (4 lb). Ports are three Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, an SDXC slot, MagSafe and a headphone jack, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

Read as a South African price list, there are four touchscreen starting points and one older machine beside them. R60,999 is the 14-inch with M5 Pro. R71,999 is the 16-inch with M5 Pro. R94,999 is the 14-inch with M5 Max. R100,999 is the 16-inch with M5 Max. The 14-inch without the new panel, still with M5 Pro or M5 Max, starts at R50,999. The gap between that R50,999 and the R60,999 touchscreen entry is the "about R10,000" in the lead. It is a starting-price gap, not a like-for-like quote of every option.

In the US, the 14-inch M5 Pro is $2,899 before sales tax and the 16-inch $3,399. At R16.66 to the dollar, the rate IOL used on 28 October, and with 15% VAT added, the 14-inch works out to about R55,500. iStore's R60,999 is roughly R5,500 above that, a gap that covers import costs, currency risk and retail margin. That sum is a conversion of the US sticker, not a South African invoice. The local sticker that can be checked on 3 November is iStore's.

The cheaper Mac sitting next to it

Apple also announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M6 chip, which does not get the touchscreen. iStore lists it from R41,599, also on pre-order. For most buyers that model, or the current M5 14-inch at R38,999 on promotion (normally R40,799), is the realistic choice. Apple's launch images pitch the touchscreen range at photo, video, 3D and engineering work, with Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro, Cinema 4D, Nuke and MATLAB on screen.

The non-touch ladder at the same retailer is therefore three numbers: R38,999 for the current M5 14-inch while the promotion lasts, against a usual R40,799; R41,599 for the new M6 14-inch, which does not get the touch panel; and R50,999 for the existing 14-inch with M5 Pro or M5 Max. The touchscreen range starts above all three, at R60,999.

Touch on macOS is new. Launch coverage reports that existing apps get basic touch support because macOS translates taps into clicks. How well everyday South African business software works with fingers rather than a trackpad will only be clear once machines are in buyers' hands. The apps named on Apple's launch images are the creative and technical set: Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro, Cinema 4D, Nuke and MATLAB. They are not a test of local accounting or government software.

What is still unknown

iStore has not said when South African pre-orders will be delivered, and Apple's list of 30 launch countries is not published in its announcement. The top configuration, an M5 Max with 128GB of memory and 16TB of storage, was priced by Hypertext on 29 October at $14,549, about R241,628 at the time, and the publication expected buyers would have to order it through iStore directly rather than online. As of 3 November, R60,999 is the lowest price for a touchscreen Mac in South Africa.

Two dates should not be collapsed into one. Apple's shipping and in-store date for the first 30 countries and regions is Friday, 6 November. iStore's South African pages say pre-order and do not name a delivery day. The announcement does not publish which 30 places are in that first wave, so a reader cannot check South Africa off a list. The $14,549 figure is Hypertext's price for the top memory and storage pair, converted then to about R241,628, with the expectation of an order placed with iStore rather than a click on the site. It is not the R60,999 entry machine. Until iStore names a delivery day, the only date a buyer can circle is Apple's 6 November for the first wave, and South Africa is not confirmed as one of those 30 places.