M6 vs Touchscreen PROLED MacBook Pro: New Chip or OLED Screen?

Two MacBook Pros Launch in the Same Week

On October 27, Apple announced the M6 chip. On October 29, the "Pro and tell" event revealed the Touchscreen PROLED. On October 30, both models opened for pre-order in mainland China, with simultaneous release on November 6. The price gap is ¥7,000.

Core Trade-off: New Chip vs New Screen

Cheaper M6 (¥15,999+) : uses the brand-new M6 chip (released Oct 27).

Pricier Touchscreen PROLED (¥22,999+) : uses the previous-generation M5 Pro / M5 Max chips.

There is currently no "M6 + touchscreen" combination . M6 Pro/Max have not been released, and the Touchscreen PROLED only comes with M5 Pro/Max. Buyers must choose one or wait indefinitely.

Chip Comparison: M6 Is "New", M5 Pro/Max Is "Beefy"

M6 (14-inch base, ¥15,999+)

12-core CPU + 12-core GPU, every GPU core includes an NPU accelerator , plus dual 16-core Neural Engines.

Memory bandwidth 170 GB/s ( note: 16 GB version only 153 GB/s, same as M5 ; 24/32 GB versions reach 170 GB/s).

Wi-Fi 7.

M5 Pro / Max (Touchscreen PROLED 14-inch starts with M5 Pro, ¥22,999+)

M5 Pro: 12-core CPU base, up to 18-core CPU / 20-core GPU, memory up to 64 GB.

M5 Max option: memory up to 128 GB.

Selection rule : Choose M6 for new architecture and local AI prefill speed; choose M5 Pro/Max for more cores and sustained heavy workloads (rendering, large-model residency). However, M6's advertised 5×/13× AI gains are mainly in prefill; decode speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so local small-model smoothness depends on which bandwidth tier you buy.

Screen: The Biggest Part of the ¥7,000 Difference

M6 (non-touch)

Standard XDR display (mini-LED backlight), notch, no touchscreen.

Touchscreen PROLED

Apple's first touchscreen Mac, using Tandem OLED :

Peak brightness 2000 nits , contrast 10,000,000:1 , 120 Hz.

Dynamic Island replaces the notch; glowing logo returns.

No Face ID, no Pencil support.

Early reviews: Ars Technica says "OLED is great, but touchscreen does things the trackpad already does"; The Verge calls it "useful, not revolutionary." The screen is a genuine generational leap, but ask yourself: will you actually poke a laptop screen?

Weight, Ports, OS

Touchscreen PROLED 14-inch is ~220 g lighter than previous same-size model thanks to thinner OLED stack.

Both share identical ports (Thunderbolt 5, etc.) and run macOS 27 Golden Gate .

Touchscreen PROLED maxes out at 128 GB memory / 16 TB storage ; M6 base starts at 16 GB + 1 TB (configurable limits per official site).

Which Should You Buy?

Buy M6 (¥15,999+) if:

Budget is around ¥16K and you don't want to pay extra for screen/touch.

Want latest M6 architecture + new NPU for local small models, coding, daily office work.

Touchscreen is "nice to have, not essential."

Buy Touchscreen PROLED (¥22,999+) if:

Budget allows, and screen is a must — outdoor brightness, shadow detail, color are OLED generational gains.

You will genuinely use touch (annotation, review, presentation).

You accept "pay more, get last-gen chip."

Third group: want both M6 and touchscreen OLED → that machine does not exist yet .

Either choose now or wait for M6 Pro/Max touchscreen version (unannounced).

Bottom Line

¥15,999 M6 = "newest chip, conservative screen"; ¥22,999 Touchscreen PROLED = "revolutionary screen, previous-gen chip". Less money buys new silicon; more money buys new display — but don't expect one machine to have both. Both go on sale November 6; pre-orders open today. Decide before ordering.

Data as of 2026-10-30 mainland China pre-order page.