Apple May Keep OLED Exclusive to Premium MacBook Pro Lineup
Moritz Kindler
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Rumors have been circulating for several months now that Apple has a big redesign in store for its MacBook Pro lineup later next year. However, it now appears that Apple may be planning to use that redesign to further distinguish its higher-end models from the entry-level version.
At least, that’s what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is hinting at in this week’s Power On newsletter. Gurman doesn’t come right out and say that the base MacBook Pro will lack the redesign, but he conspicuously omits it when mentioning the game-changing models:
…two Macs on the road map do mark major shifts. I previously wrote about the first one: a revamped M6 Pro and M6 Max MacBook Pro with an OLED display, thinner chassis and touch support.
Mark Gurman
Gurman does note that Apple plans a “new low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro” with the base M6 chip, but his description of the OLED redesign refers only to the M6 Pro and M6 Max versions.
Such a move would mark a return to the M1 and M2 era, when Apple left its lowest-priced MacBook Pro behind with the legacy design from its Intel era. That wasn’t too surprising for the initial M1 version, which arrived a year before its pricier siblings — the redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch M1 Pro and M1 Max models. However, it repeated that with the M2 MacBook Pro, which was little more than a chip refresh in the same chassis.
Apple’s lowest-end MacBook Pro has always been an odd stepchild in the family, often equipped with a lower-power CPU and fewer ports during the Intel years. It also conspicuously lacked the Touch Bar for most of its life, which debuted on the premium MacBook Pro models in 2016 and didn’t arrive on the entry-level model until 2019 — an ironic twist considering that Apple discontinued it on the redesigned Apple silicon models in 2021, making the entry-level M2 13-inch MacBook Pro the last to offer it.
Still, the early Apple silicon years were the first time in recent memory that the MacBook Pro family had a more radical design split, with 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch models all coexisting simultaneously. In fact, the M1/M2 MacBook Pro had much more in common with the MacBook Air than it did with its Pro siblings.
Apple finally rectified that in 2023 when it debuted a unified M3 MacBook Pro lineup, with all M3 models featuring the same 14-inch design. The base M3 model still lacked some of the features of its more powerful Pro/Max-equipped siblings, but those were a function of the chip itself, rather than artificial limitation based on the design. In every other way, Apple had welcomed its entry-level MacBook Pro in as a full member of the family.
Sadly, if this latest report is true, Apple may once again leave the M6 MacBook Pro out in the cold, at least initially. However, with the MacBook Air expected to move to OLED as early as 2027 when its own M6 upgrade arrives, it raises the question of how long Apple intends to keep the base MacBook Pro behind.
[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.]
