Considering I thought it was Friday two days ago, I think we can all agree it’s been a week. And speaking of weeks, I’ve spent this one testing Apple’s new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. More on my love for it below.
Plus, the latest installment of our Wired Headphone Watch (the cords just keep coming!), how to make GIFs with ChatGPT and a really Old Thing that punches above its weight. Pun intended.
📆 Calendaring note: We'll be in your inbox next Thursday instead of Wednesday. See you then!
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After six days of using the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display as my main laptop, I went back to my 14-inch MacBook Pro and…eww.
Eww the duller screen. Eww the bigger notch housing the webcam. Eww the Apple logo on the lid not glowing. Even eww to the lack of touchscreen.
Let me preface this review by saying my old laptop is totally fine. I am not about to replace a perfectly good computer just because Apple dangled some shiny new pixels in front of me. But if I were in the market for a new MacBook Pro, I’d spend the extra $400 on a PROLED XDR model for one simple reason: It’s the ultimate laptop.
It reminds me of 2012, when Apple redesigned the MacBook Pro around its new Retina display. Those gorgeous Retina screens instantly made every other Mac display look blurry and gross. Once you’d seen one, you couldn’t unsee it.
If you’re considering a new MacBook Pro PROLED XDR, here are my biggest takeaways after nearly a week of testing.
1. The screen is the reason to upgrade.
Forget the touchscreen for a moment. The biggest deal here is the OLED display itself. Everything looks richer, sharper and more vibrant. Blacks are actually black. Photos look fantastic. Videos pop. Even boring things like the Apple Music app or my to-do list look more luxurious.
Once you spend six days looking at the new screen, returning to the old one feels like going back to standard-definition television. Do you need it? No. Will you want it after seeing it? Yes.
There’s also the smaller Dynamic Island, replacing the old webcam notch. It’s a welcome change, especially when you get used to app shortcuts and controls popping out of it.
2. The touchscreen is fine.
The touchscreen is a welcome bonus, absolutely not a reason on its own to buy this MacBook.
Just as I’ve found with touchscreen Windows laptops, I only occasionally reach up to scroll through websites, zoom into photos or tap a button. Most of the time, my hands stay planted on the keyboard and trackpad.
Watch my quick video on the touchscreen!
But don’t get me wrong, it’s still very nice to have the option. And while I’m no illustrator, it seems pretty crazy that Apple’s first touchscreen Mac doesn’t support the Apple Pencil.
Which brings us to the crime scene. Yes, fingerprints get all over this beautiful display. Yes, they’re especially visible when the screen is dark or catches the light at just the right angle. And yes, Apple should absolutely include its $9 polishing cloth with a laptop that costs this much.
3. Less weight, same muscle.
The PROLED models are slightly lighter, though I can’t say I noticed. Apple sent me the 16-inch version, and since I normally use a 14-inch MacBook Pro, the whole thing felt like lugging around a food court tray. A beautiful, extremely well-made food court tray.
Apple’s M5 Pro and Max chips deliver the sort of performance you’d expect from a high-end MacBook Pro. (My review unit came in at $3,999 with an M5 Pro chip, 48GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.)
The one key spec I still wish Apple would add? 5G cellular connectivity. Apple has long argued that the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot is good enough to get a laptop online when Wi-Fi isn't available. But anyone who's relied on that connection knows it can be flaky, frustrating and prone to not connecting at the worst possible moment. Sometimes I just want to open my laptop and be online without having to negotiate with my phone first.
For my work—writing, heavy browser multitasking and photo editing—the machine has felt fast and responsive. And David, our head of video here at New Things, uses an M5 Max MacBook Pro for heavy-duty video editing, so I can vouch for its muscle there, too.
And there’s the important distinction: You don’t need to buy the fancy OLED version just to get a powerful MacBook Pro. The other Pro models can be configured with the same internal specs. The extra money for the PROLED model is primarily about the experience of looking at that display and touching it.
And yes, a glowing Apple logo that serves absolutely no practical purpose but brings me immense joy.
Make GIFs in ChatGPT
Earlier this week, OpenAI released its latest image model, Images 2.6. The biggest update? GIF making.
All you have to do is type in a prompt describing the GIF you want. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
All AI: For this one, just punch in your most ridiculous idea and let AI do the rest. For example: “Make a GIF of a tiny computer cursor running for its life across a desktop as a giant, swirling Apple rainbow beach ball of death chases it.”
Upload photo: “Take this attached photo of my dog and make a GIF of him typing furiously on a laptop like he’s on a tight deadline.”
Upload video: Take this attached video and turn it into a GIF that’s no more than 3MB.
Bonus tip: You can save and name reference images (like people or pets) and reuse them in future images or GIFs without having to upload them again. Just upload a photo to ChatGPT, type “Save this as a reference image for future image generation,” and give it a name, like “my dog.”
CREDIT: Sony
We know, we know. You’re tired of hearing us preach the gospel of wired headphones. But when you’re right, you’re right.
Further proving my point that corded headphones have made a full comeback, Sony released the $60 MDR-3R headphones on Thursday. They look like they are straight out of the ’80s Walkman era. Except it’s 2026 and they have a USB-C plug and a microphone, and some other subtle changes that reflect the 40-some years that have passed since the product’s inception.
Name: Bert Glenn
What's your old thing? IBM punch cards
What year is your old thing from? 1970
Why do you love your old thing? In the spring of 1970, I took the first-ever computer programming class at my high school (Lowell HS in San Francisco). We programmed in Fortran. We handwrote our lines of code (like 10 or 15 lines), then went to the punch card machine and created the punch card deck by entering one line of code per card. We put a rubber band around our stack and put it in the box. At the end of the day, someone drove the cards down to the school district HQ downtown. They would run the cards on their mainframe—when they had time—and then, a day or two later, send the cards and the printouts back. We would examine our printouts, find our errors, correct them with new punch cards, put them in the box, and the process would begin anew. Time-consuming, but new and exciting.
Still loved: These are great for labeling old boxes filled with hard drives and cords, cords, cords.
Fun fact: The GIF, which stands for “graphics interchange format,” was created by Steve Wilhite while working at CompuServe in 1987. In 2013, Wilhite himself settled the debate over how to pronounce the word: “jif,” like the peanut butter.
This newsletter was written and curated by Joanna Stern and Adele Lowitz.
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