Apple's $14,549 MacBook Pro: A Masterclass in Component Markup

Apple has released a redesigned 16-inch MacBook Pro featuring a PROLED XDR touchscreen that can reach a price tag of $14,549, according to Engadget. The vast majority of this cost is not tied to the new display, but to memory and storage upgrades, which together account for approximately 62 percent of the total price.

Engadget reports that a 16TB SSD adds $7,000 to the cost, while increasing unified memory from 48GB to 128GB adds another $2,000. To access the 128GB RAM configuration, users must first purchase the most expensive chip available: the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU.

These price hikes follow a June trend where Apple increased costs across its Mac and iPad lines. Apple attributed these increases to an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage caused by the expansion of AI data centers. Supporting this, analyst firm Counterpoint found that NAND flash storage prices rose more than 90 percent and smartphone DRAM prices rose 50 percent during the first quarter of 2026.

While Apple targets professionals such as developers, photographers, 3D artists, and filmmakers, Engadget notes that most of these users would be better served by lower-capacity models paired with external Thunderbolt 5 drives. The only group that may justify the 128GB memory cost are those running local Large Language Models (LLMs), though the 16TB SSD still represents nearly half of that machine's total cost.