Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions, including M4, M4 Professional, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end fashions, show adjustments, and extra. That is numerous updates in a single go, however there may be one other main refresh coming to the MacBook Professional – though when it would arrive has now been thrown into doubt.
In line with Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple is rethinking its unique plan to minimally refresh the MacBook Professional lineup with M5 chips later this 12 months. As a substitute, the refreshed M5 fashions, providing solely a small efficiency increase, at the moment are anticipated to reach within the first half of 2026.
Gurman beforehand suggested {that a} extra substantial redesign or “true overhaul” was scheduled for 2026. However now that the M5 refresh itself seems to be delayed till 2026, the possibilities of a significant redesign touchdown in the identical 12 months appear much less seemingly. Gurman has up to now saved quiet on whether or not the redesigned MacBook Professional timeline has shifted as effectively.
To recap, listed here are the most important adjustments rumored to be coming to the overhauled MacBook Professional, following the M5 refresh early subsequent 12 months.
OLED Show
Goodbye, mini-LED
A number of rumors have indicated that Apple is growing MacBook Professional fashions with OLED shows. Analysis agency Omdia in Might 2024 claimed Apple is “extremely seemingly” to introduce new MacBook Execs that includes OLED shows subsequent 12 months, whereas show analyst Ross Younger in September 2024 stated that Apple’s provide chain is anticipated to have adequate notebook-optimized OLED show manufacturing capability in 2026 to bring the technology to MacBook Pro. In comparison with present MacBook Professional fashions that use mini-LED screens, the advantages of OLED know-how would come with elevated brightness, greater distinction ratio with deeper blacks, improved energy effectivity for longer battery life, and extra.
Thinner, Lighter Laptop computer
Main Redesign
The change to OLED shows may enable future MacBook Professional fashions to have a thinner design, and rumors recommend that’s certainly what Apple intends. When the M4 iPad Professional was unveiled in Might 2024, Apple touted it as the corporate’s thinnest product ever. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman subsequently known as the iPad Professional the “starting of a brand new class of Apple units,” and stated Apple was working to make the MacBook Professional thinner over the “subsequent couple of years.” Apple is reportedly specializing in delivering the thinnest attainable machine with out compromising on battery life or main new options.
Notably, the MacBook Professional received thicker and heavier with its most up-to-date redesign in 2021. A significant spotlight was the reintroduction of a number of ports that have been eliminated in earlier iterations in favor of chassis thinness. How Apple will make its redesigned MacBook Professional thinner with out eradicating the performance it reintroduced pretty just lately is the massive query.
Punch-Gap Digital camera
No Extra Notch
In case you are fed up of the notch intruding in your Mac show, this is some excellent news. Apple plans to take away the notch from the redesigned MacBook Professional, in keeping with a roadmap shared by analysis agency Omdia. The roadmap signifies that redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions can have a hole-punch digicam on the high of the show, moderately than the notch we have develop into accustomed to. A MacBook Professional and not using a notch would supply further seen pixels on the display screen, making a extra uninterrupted and cohesive show design.
5G Modem
Mobile Connectivity
In 2025, Apple launched the C1 modem, its custom-built 5G chip that it is had within the works for years now. The modem chip options within the iPhone 16e and is alleged to be coming within the iPhone 17 “Air,” giving Apple a chance to check the know-how earlier than rolling it out to flagship units. In line with Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple will then contemplate bringing cellular connectivity to the Mac lineup for the primary time. The corporate is alleged to be “investigating” the opportunity of including a second-generation C2 modem chip to a future Mac as quickly as 2026, teasing the potential for a mobile MacBook Professional in the identical 12 months. The C1 modem chip is proscribed to sub-6GHz 5G speeds, however the second-generation version will help sooner mmWave know-how, in keeping with Gurman.
M6 Collection Chip
2nm Course of
Earlier than the MacBook Professional’s main redesign, Apple plans to replace the lineup with M5 sequence chips. The chips might be manufactured with TSMC’s third-generation 3nm course of, generally known as N3P, leading to typical year-over-year efficiency and energy effectivity enhancements in comparison with the M4 sequence of chips. M6 chips, then again, may undertake a totally new packaging course of for Apple’s overhauled MacBook Professional fashions.
In line with one rumor, Apple’s A20 chip in subsequent 12 months’s iPhone 18 fashions will change from the earlier InFo (Built-in Fan-Out) packaging to WMCM (Wafer-Stage Multi-Chip Module) packaging. WMCM integrates a number of chips throughout the similar package deal, permitting for the event of extra complicated chipsets. Elements such because the CPU, GPUs, DRAM, and Neural Engine would subsequently be extra tightly built-in. Whereas we do not know for certain, this might see Apple develop the M6 utilizing the 2nm course of whereas making the most of WMCM packaging to make much more highly effective variations of its {custom} processor.