Are MacBook Air’s touchscreen?

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Love them or hate them, touchscreens on laptops are here to stay. Whether it’s a hybrid device that can split into a tablet, a foldable with a hinge, or just a normal laptop, manufacturers of Windows laptops have embraced the touch screen as another control interface.

Windows 10 bringing full touch support has been the driving force behind this shift, but what about Apple’s macOS?

After all, the iPhone was the device that cemented the touchscreen into the mobile market in the first place, and the iPad popularized tablets. What about Macs? Does Apple have a MacBook or iMac with a touchscreen?

So, does the MacBook Air (or any other MacBooks) have a touchscreen option?

Short answer: No

There are no MacBooks or iMacs with a full-screen touch interface, and Apple isn’t likely to make one in the near future.

Back in 2016, Craig Federlighi, SVP of Software Engineering at Apple, was asked about touchscreens coming to the Mac ecosystem, and his answer was pretty dismissive. The important section? He says he didn’t anticipate ever wanting touchscreens on his computer, adding, “lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.”

I guess that’s the end of our touchscreen MacBook dreams, although you can never really be sure what Apple will do in the future.

The company did just recently get a patent granted for “Ultra-Think Touch Sensor,” so maybe a touchscreen MacBook isn’t out of the question yet.

What do you think? Would you like to see a touchscreen come to Apple’s computers? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.