An OLED MacBook Pro Is Reportedly Still Coming Next Year
Credit: Federico Orlandi
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Despite reports that the M5 MacBook Pro may not arrive until early 2026, it appears that Apple is still on track to also launch a much more significant upgrade later in the year.
Apple has reportedly been working on a MacBook Pro with an OLED display for a few years now, but news over the past few months suggests that it’s still another generation away. By all reports, the next update, an M5 MacBook Pro, will be another spec bump, following the design language that was introduced with the high-end Apple silicon models in 2021.
Other than the addition of a Space Black finish with the M3 lineup two years ago, the latest M4 MacBook Pro models are visually indistinguishable from the original M1 Pro/Max versions. However, it’s rumored that this will change with the M6 MacBook Pro lineup. Apple is back on a “thinnovation” kick that began with the M4 iPad Pro, found its way to the Apple Watch Series 10, and will continue with this year’s so-called “iPhone 17 Air.”
While some believed the M5 MacBook Pro would get the slim treatment, it now looks like Apple is saving this for the M6 models, when it will also supposedly be ready to switch the screens over to OLED — likely the same Tandem OLED technology that helped make the M4 iPad Pro “impossibly thin.”
When word came along a few weeks ago that the M5 MacBook Pro might miss its 2025 debut, many feared that this would also push the new OLED M6 version back into 2027. However, it seems that Apple’s supply chain is still ramping up to provide OLED panels for this futuristic generation of MacBooks, and they’re still believed to be on target for late 2026.
This means that Apple might release two new generations of MacBook Pro in the same year, but that’s not at all unprecedented. It happened a few times in the Intel generation, but even the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro models, released in January 2022, were superseded only ten months later when Apple unveiled a full lineup of M3 MacBook Pro models at its October “Scary Fast” event.
That event also set Apple on an apparent course of fall MacBook Pro releases. With the M3 MacBook Pro and M4 MacBook Pro models unveiled exactly one year apart, the easy money was on a similar late October announcement for the M5 MacBook Pro. However, last month Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested they’ll be an early 2026 release instead.
According to Gurman, it’s not that Apple is having trouble getting the new MacBook Pro models ready. That would be surprising considering the only significant change that’s expected is the chip inside. Instead, Gurman says, Apple wants to space out its product releases for more consistent revenue growth. Apple’s “holiday quarter” already includes a ton of new products, so delaying the MacBook Pro into January would help Apple bolster its second-quarter revenue, and that may be more important if the rest of Apple’s product announcements aren’t expected to arrive until March or April, when Apple transitions into its third fiscal quarter.
Still, if this year’s MacBook Pro updates do slip into 2026, they likely won’t be far into the year. Our guess is we’ll see a January release, similar to the M2 models of 2022, which gives Apple plenty of space to launch a new ultra-thin OLED M6 MacBook Pro during another fall event.
Still, there’s a risk that some folks might consider the existing design a bit stale and be willing to wait a few more months to see what else Apple has up its sleeve. The OLED display, extremely thin profile, and possibly even a new camera design could make the M6 MacBook Pro much more compelling.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
