5 Cheaper Touchscreen Laptops Worth Buying Instead Of The New OLED MacBook Pro

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After years of rumors regarding Apple's all-new MacBook Pro with OLED, the company finally unveiled its first MacBook with touchscreen support. While this technology is no stranger to Windows users, it's a big reversal for the Mac maker, which has continually argued that touchscreens provided no real benefit for laptops. Now, it's here, and it starts at $2,899 on an equivalent of a mid-range MacBook Pro. You can, of course, add memory and storage, bringing a fully maxed-out MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display up to a staggering $14,549. 

If that eyewatering price is too steep, there are touchscreen laptops with sometimes lower specifications that can be worth buying rather than Apple's latest offering. Those include Dell's XPS 14, Asus' Zenbook 14 OLED, and Samsung's Galaxy Book6 Ultra. Each of them, even after some price hikes amid continued component shortages, offers customized specs that can come in below Apple's asking price.

The devices listed below are intended to be high-end alternatives for Apple's MacBook Pro with touchscreen capabilities. While they are not necessarily more powerful than Apple's option, they can be the perfect Windows replacement for anyone who also wants to be able to reach and touch their displays whenever they're working on a new 3D modeling product, testing an app, or — as Apple showed in one ad — playing a digital piano on a laptop display.

Admittedly, it's hard to compare any non-Apple computer with the new MacBook Pro, as customers are usually more focused on a specific platform, meaning that a macOS user is less likely to switch to a Windows-powered computer and vice versa. Still, whatever your need is, here are some touchscreen laptop alternatives.

The Dell XPS 14 is one of the most interesting Windows laptops on the market thanks to its cutting-edge internal hardware and a beautiful design. Made with a CNC aluminum chassis and a glass palm rest with an invisible haptic touchpad, this laptop aims to match Apple's premium MacBook designs. Dell's machines are powered by Intel Core Ultra processors alongside optional dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics that help with customer workflows, video editing sessions, software compilation, local AI tasks, and more. In addition, Dell's laptop also has a thermal system that is designed to help the computer run at peak efficiency without excessive fan noise or overheating.

All of these features combine with a 14.5-inch 3.2K OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR, and full DCI-P3 spectrum support. For creative professionals, this Dell laptop can be an exceptional alternative, as it delivers a similar premium aesthetic with a high-end OLED display and native touch interactions.

Users looking for a touchscreen laptop will find greater flexibility with the XPS 14 model's internal configurations and software compatibility, especially for those who use Windows-native engineering or design apps. It starts at around $2,550 from Dell's website for the lowest-spec version of the laptop with a touchscreen. Some XPS 14 variants with more memory or other features can be found on sale on Amazon and other places.

When competing on specs, including between Apple's M5 Pro chip and Intel's Core Ultra, the XPS 14 costs $3,300 compared to Apple's $2,900 machine. That shows exactly how expensive premium parts can get. It also highlights the downsides of Apple's unwillingness to sell a MacBook Pro without lower-performance chips.

Asus is another top brand of premium OLED touchscreen notebooks. While we're not talking about the company's unique models with two screens, the Zenbook series highlights how premium features can come in an ultra-thin form factor built for Windows. The Zenbook is designed with lightweight and durable aluminum, including a ceramic-like finish called Ceraluminum. 

The Zenbook 14 OLED includes the latest-generation Intel Core Ultra processors, or AMD Ryzen AI processors, with integrated neural processing units designed for on-device AI tasks and improved power efficiency. These are key selling points of Apple's MacBook Pro as well, of course. With a 14-inch 3K OLED touchscreen, Asus Zenbook 14 customers get a similarly impressive display, with a touchscreen layer. This laptop also offers a great keyboard and a spacious touchpad.

The Asus laptop starts at $2,000 for its Intel variant, including 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, though its Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU is not as capable as the one in Apple's MacBook Pro. The AMD version can even come cheaper, with an MSRP of $1,500, though it also offers comparably lower performance.

Samsung frequently aims to compete directly with Apple, and its Galaxy Book6 Ultra offers some of the closest specs against the touchscreen MacBook Pro. It includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 chip, which is slightly less performant than the Core Ultra 9 that competes with Apple's chips. It also includes an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 for graphics performance, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The Galaxy Book6 Ultra chassis is also made from lightweight dark gray aluminum.

With a larger 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X touchscreen with anti-reflective glass, this display offers support for input from fingers and pens — something the OLED MacBook Pro doesn't support. Besides that, just like Apple, Samsung's ecosystem integration allows the laptop to link with Galaxy tablets and smartphones for second-screen functionality, like quick file share and unified cross-device clipboard management.

While Samsung's option can be expensive — Amazon currently has the 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage option for $3,481 – it's just slightly more expensive than Apple's $3,399 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro OLED with the M5 Pro chip. However, Samsung's option features more RAM than Apple's 24GB baseline, or 48GB upgrade for $600 more. Amazon sometimes has steeper discounts for this model, according to Amazon's price history, taking it below the $3,000 range.

Another competitive Windows laptop is the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i. The name can be long, but just like the others, it includes an impressive glass screen with a lightweight aluminum frame. It features an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor with integrated graphics. This hardware also combines 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage — twice the space of the others.

The laptop features a 14-inch 4K OLED glass touchscreen display and touchscreen, with an edge-to-edge glass cover. Like the other options, customers praise Lenovo's keyboard for tactile key travel and comfortable spacing.

The Yoga Slim 9i is currently available at Amazon for $1,999, though its Core Ultra 7 processor doesn't directly compare to Apple's M5 Pro. However, to get the MacBook Pro up to 2TB, it's $3,399, and it still comes with 24GB memory, not 32GB. The new Mac weighs 3 lbs while Lenovo's is 2.7 lbs, which may seem like a small difference but it's still 10% lighter.

Last but not least, LG's gram touchscreen laptops weigh slightly under three pounds, but LG says they've passed military-grade durability tests. As with other competitors, the LG gram comes with processors either from Intel or AMD. 

Its business line goes up to 17-inches, but its consumer-focused laptops stick to 15-inch touchscreen panels. The business variants also include a full numeric keypad for those who enjoy that, and it also features a generous port selection.

LG's gram 15 with an Intel Core Ultra processor retails for $3,100, while the AMD variant is $2,300. The LG gram 17 business laptop has a sticker price of $2,200 but can be found on Amazon for as much as $300 cheaper. At that asking price, you are paying $1,000 less than the base OLED MacBook Pro model, while getting more RAM — with 32GB of memory — and a larger screen.