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MacBook Pro Likely to Get OLED Display and Thinner Design in 2026
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Frankly the current machines are just incredibly good already. Display is great, keyboard and touchpad as well. Durability and battery duration perfect for a day out without charging. The notch I frankly don't care. Has never really bothered me.
The *one* thing I would really want is mobile connectivity. To constantly have to use the iPhone hotspot while working on a train or abroad is the most annoying part. I have a mobile plan with 4 e-Sims included anyway. So just would want decent connectivity.
Second wish would be to have the possibility to lay the screen flat and allow for touch/pen. To scribble things, comment things, I love to use a pen. Also to just sketch stuff. Nothing beats a pen there. Currently I need to use iPad and Laptop, which kind of spoils the portability part. I know this is never going to happen as it would require (ideally) to be able to flip the screen completely and cannibalize iPad.
The *one* thing I would really want is mobile connectivity. To constantly have to use the iPhone hotspot while working on a train or abroad is the most annoying part. I have a mobile plan with 4 e-Sims included anyway. So just would want decent connectivity.
Second wish would be to have the possibility to lay the screen flat and allow for touch/pen. To scribble things, comment things, I love to use a pen. Also to just sketch stuff. Nothing beats a pen there. Currently I need to use iPad and Laptop, which kind of spoils the portability part. I know this is never going to happen as it would require (ideally) to be able to flip the screen completely and cannibalize iPad.
Macs are the only products I am still interested in getting from Apple. But definitely not the Pro ones. Specifically purchased M1 Air due to lack of fans, right now I haven’t seen area or app where it HEATS, not even lags. Tho I keep it on Monterey right now, lowing the almost unchanging battery life. Also I am not an Adobe subscriber, knowing their crappy software you gotta upgrade every single year for Lightroom to keep working nicely🤣
Two products that I will probably be looking at in the timeframe of 2025-2032 are iMac and Mac Mini, one of them to be precise. My 2012 iMac served me well and still continues to work but I guess I will need to upgrade to something beefier. One of the major Mac Mini plus points is portability, and for someone like me who often moves that would be surely better option
Two products that I will probably be looking at in the timeframe of 2025-2032 are iMac and Mac Mini, one of them to be precise. My 2012 iMac served me well and still continues to work but I guess I will need to upgrade to something beefier. One of the major Mac Mini plus points is portability, and for someone like me who often moves that would be surely better option
Thank you Apple for giving me hope again when it comes to being the tech brand who prioritize hardware design. Really looking forward to 2025 with the rumors of an iPhone Air which will be thin and if that then can be complemented with a thinner MBP then it feels like Apple is leading the way again.
Currently having a MBP 2020 with Intel and battery is really bad so I probably need to upgrade but why should I accept a more bulky design by choosing a MBP M-chip or a MBA without a 120Hz display? I think that Apple finally figured out that you can take premium high prices for a laptop without the absolutely fastest and premium M processor but instead a product which prioritizes screen, battery, design and portability. A MacBook Air Pro
Currently having a MBP 2020 with Intel and battery is really bad so I probably need to upgrade but why should I accept a more bulky design by choosing a MBP M-chip or a MBA without a 120Hz display? I think that Apple finally figured out that you can take premium high prices for a laptop without the absolutely fastest and premium M processor but instead a product which prioritizes screen, battery, design and portability. A MacBook Air Pro
Ive's designs valued thinness at the cost of functionality to an absurd degree.
Making the MBPs lighter and thinner is a good goal assuming they don't put it as priority number 1 like Ive.
I disagree with your disagreement
most companies buy MBPs for all their employees, and those things are pretty big and heavy to lug around everywhere for employees on their travels and commutes. I'm just not sure how much weight they can lose without getting rid of the aluminum chassis, as my M2 MBA is beautifully thin but sure as heck isn't light.
We've been through this already: MacBook Pros suffered during the thin phase! The current design is a huge upgrade thanks to the extra space it provides for its components.
Not right now, but LGs 13" panels are already shipping (to Dell and Apple), and it would be strange if 14" and 16" panels aren't close to coming of production lines, well in time for Apples next MBP update.
I thought we'd been able to crowbar Apple away from their fanatical thinner and lighter obsession.
Lighter is always good, but we've already seen the bad that Apple's "thinner" can get us.
I would accept thinner as long as it didn't...
Impact key travel
Impact device rigidity
Impact battery life
Impact port selection
Impact thermal performance (the Airs already perform worse than the Pros with the same chips inside due to their lack of active cooling and reduced chassis space).
Lighter is always good, but we've already seen the bad that Apple's "thinner" can get us.
I would accept thinner as long as it didn't...
Impact key travel
Impact device rigidity
Impact battery life
Impact port selection
Impact thermal performance (the Airs already perform worse than the Pros with the same chips inside due to their lack of active cooling and reduced chassis space).
I don’t get why people are complaining if it gets thinner and lighter without impacting performance or battery life.
The pro weighs a friggin tonne it could do with shaving off some weight.
The pro weighs a friggin tonne it could do with shaving off some weight.
Funny to read all the snarky comments about “thinner“. Apple should innovate, but please not touch my personal comfort zone.
With that mindset, we would still carry mobile computers in carry-on-luggage size, like in the good old times when ports had a manly size with plugs that even big hands could grab and silicon was still huge and could be soldered by hand. Monitors would still be trusted CRT’s (that’s what carry-on-sized computers are built for after all) and not those newfangled contraptions called ‚flatscreens’, which will easily break if handled a little bit roughly. Glory days …
With that mindset, we would still carry mobile computers in carry-on-luggage size, like in the good old times when ports had a manly size with plugs that even big hands could grab and silicon was still huge and could be soldered by hand. Monitors would still be trusted CRT’s (that’s what carry-on-sized computers are built for after all) and not those newfangled contraptions called ‚flatscreens’, which will easily break if handled a little bit roughly. Glory days …
Either a thinner and lighter Pro or a proper display in an Air, idc which.
(I didn't read all the comments, but).
OLED panels in general are bright if the bright spot is small, but the brightness reduces considerably as the bright spot area increases. I think the benefit iof mini-LED screen is actually the brightness: it is very bright no matter how big the bright areas are. I doubt there will be an OLED which could match the brightness of the current mini-LED displays.
IMO the currect mini-LED displays are great in many ways: very bright, no image burn, still capable of showing deep blacks (though with less resolution than OLED). Ie. great for many kinds of content. And Apple also made them very thin.
OLED panels in general are bright if the bright spot is small, but the brightness reduces considerably as the bright spot area increases. I think the benefit iof mini-LED screen is actually the brightness: it is very bright no matter how big the bright areas are. I doubt there will be an OLED which could match the brightness of the current mini-LED displays.
IMO the currect mini-LED displays are great in many ways: very bright, no image burn, still capable of showing deep blacks (though with less resolution than OLED). Ie. great for many kinds of content. And Apple also made them very thin.
Those panels (used in iPad Pros) are matching the brightness of what Apple is using in laptops. My original comment was simply pointing out that the article’s mentioning that OLED are brighter is not necessarily accurate. If Apple switches to OLED screens in MacBook Pro models in 2026, there is no guarantee the screens will be brighter than LED screens Apple might use instead.
There are also other potential limitations of OLED relative to LED (e.g., lifespan).
I've seen these claims and know how they are able to get there, the only problem is to get that much battery life requires a usage scenario (or more correctly stated non-usage senario) that no one that is actually using the thing will do. I get about 3 hours or so usage on my '21 MBP under light usage of writing a paper or grading assignments using a web browser before I have to plug it up or turn it off. If I am doing photo editing or working in lightroom it burns through it even faster. A thinner MBP will have to come with less battery, couple that with a more powerful processor that would be used when doing process-intensive work would not last as long. More power = more better regardless of how you use it. Give me more power (battery) over thinner any day of the week. Otherwise, we will all have to start carrying around portable battery packs just to make it through the day, and that will equate to more weight than just having a bigger/better battery inside the laptop.
I find it hilarious how people complain about the weight of a current Pro. It is not heavy, it’s fine for a laptop that provides:
well-built hardware
great battery life
great power without any heat issues (I’m on a MacBook Pro M2 Pro and I’ve yet to hear the fan go off ONCE after using video editing and design software daily for over a year)
ports that don’t require dongles
great key travel
excellent speakers
excellent screen
The current design brought a tonne of improvements over the past three generations of thinner MacBook Pros.
If you need something portable, then perhaps you can get an Air and be done with it.
It would be interesting to know how the ratios of repairs of the latest design compare to the previous thinner models. As far as I remember the models from 2017 to 2019 had some major design flaws.
well-built hardware
great battery life
great power without any heat issues (I’m on a MacBook Pro M2 Pro and I’ve yet to hear the fan go off ONCE after using video editing and design software daily for over a year)
ports that don’t require dongles
great key travel
excellent speakers
excellent screen
The current design brought a tonne of improvements over the past three generations of thinner MacBook Pros.
If you need something portable, then perhaps you can get an Air and be done with it.
It would be interesting to know how the ratios of repairs of the latest design compare to the previous thinner models. As far as I remember the models from 2017 to 2019 had some major design flaws.
I won't be upgrading my M2 Mac until we get OLED and maybe Face ID in that notch or a Dynamic Island.
As for a redesign, I imagine a thinner design is all we'll get once OLED arrives, and OLED is long overdue as well.
As for a redesign, I imagine a thinner design is all we'll get once OLED arrives, and OLED is long overdue as well.
They’d have to redesign Face ID to make it thin enough to fit into a thinner lid. The current lid of laptops is too thin for the Face ID hardware
I like my current M1 14“. But I don’t love it. It’s so bulky and looks so „reasonable“ and un-sexy. It’s a very good machine. But not aesthetically pleasing.