Apple’s MacBook Professional simply acquired an M4 replace, and there’s an M5 model anticipated in late 2025. However it’s the mannequin coming in late 2026 that sounds particularly compelling. This new MacBook Professional may even be the largest Mac improve ever. Right here’s what’s coming.
‘Whole redesign’ that’s thinner and lighter
The MacBook Professional final acquired an enormous redesign in 2021. That replace restored previously-removed ports, mounted longstanding keyboard points, and was largely seen as Apple’s apology for prior missteps.
In accordance with a number of studies, the MacBook Professional will get its subsequent massive revision in 2026. This ‘complete redesign’ will makes the system thinner and lighter.
These phrases could ring alarm bells for MacBook Professional customers who lived by means of the butterfly keyboard period. However with Apple Silicon, Apple has to date confirmed it’s capable of make units thinner and lighter with out compromising on energy.
I’m curious to see what the port state of affairs is on the brand new MacBook Professional. My hope, although, is that Apple can slim the system down with out sacrificing any ports it not too long ago restored.
OLED show with no notch
One other key espect of the MacBook Professional redesign can be its show, which is predicted to ditch the notch as a part of a change to OLED.
The brand new show is predicted to function related OLED tech to what’s discovered within the M4 iPad Professional. And instead of the notch can be a smaller ‘gap minimize.’
Does that imply we’ll get a Dynamic Island on the Mac? We’ll have to attend and see, however OLED on the iPad Professional is unbelievable, so it is going to be nice to see it come to the Mac too.
M6 chip line
The M4 has been out there lower than a 12 months, and solely simply arrived on the Mac two months in the past, so there’s nothing concrete recognized in regards to the M6 but.
Nonetheless, Apple is predicted to ship an M5 MacBook Professional in 2025 with the identical fundamental design out there now, which implies 2026’s massive replace ought to include M6, M6 Professional, and M6 Max configurations.
5G mobile connectivity
Apple’s new in-house 5G modems are launching this 12 months in choose merchandise, and a second model of the modem is set to debut in 2026, with the MacBook Professional a probable recipient.
I’ve lengthy advocated for including mobile to the Mac, and recognized Apple’s in-house modems because the subsequent finest probability for this to lastly occur. Per Mark Gurman, it feels like that’s what Apple is pondering too.
Wildcard: Contact help
Contact on the Mac has been rumored on and off for so long as the iPad’s existed. It hasn’t occurred but, and maybe it by no means will.
Nonetheless, there’s strong proof that the 2026 MacBook Professional is perhaps Apple’s goal for the primary touch-enabled Mac.
Again in early 2023, Mark Gurman reported {that a} touchscreen MacBook Professional was in improvement. He stated on the time that 2025 was the focused launch window. In the identical report, Gurman wrote:
As a part of the MacBook Professional revamp, Apple can be planning to maneuver its shows to natural light-emitting diode, or OLED expertise.
So contact and OLED had been, a minimum of at one level, deliberate to go collectively in a brand new MacBook Professional.
The projected 2025 date was additionally reportedly when Apple needed to ship OLED within the MacBook Professional, and that’s now been pushed to 2026.
It appears, then, that Apple’s plans to ship an OLED contact show within the MacBook Professional haven’t modified—simply the timing.
All of that is reiterated by a newer Gurman trace that Apple’s near-term plans for the Mac contain ‘quicker chips, thinner designs and contact screens.’
I may very well be studying the tea leaves too carefully, however it sounds rather a lot to me like 2026’s massive MacBook Professional redesign may lastly carry contact help to the Mac.
MacBook Professional 2026 improve: wrap-up
We’re nonetheless a strong 20+ months away from when Apple is predicted to launch its massive MacBook Professional redesign. Consequently, most of the above particulars may change.
That stated, if Apple is ready to ship all of those new options in a robust, redesigned MacBook Professional, it’ll undoubtedly be the only finest improve the system has ever seen—and maybe the most effective Mac improve ever.
Do you count on to see these MacBook Professional modifications occur in 2026? Why or why not? Tell us within the feedback.
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