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 modifications, and extra. That is numerous updates in a single go, however in the event you suppose this implies an extra main refresh for the MacBook Professional is now a number of years away, suppose once more.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman has mentioned he expects solely a small efficiency increase for the 2025 MacBook Professional fashions with the introduction of latest M5 chips, whereas the “true overhaul” for the laptop computer will are available 2026. So in case you are planning to skip this yr’s MacBook Professional, otherwise you’re simply plain inquisitive about what’s two generations away, listed here are 5 huge modifications rumored to come back to Apple’s premium laptop computer line subsequent yr.
OLED Show
Goodbye, mini-LED
A number of rumors have indicated that the primary MacBook Professional fashions with OLED shows might be launched in 2026. Analysis agency Omdia claims Apple is “extremely doubtless” to introduce new MacBook Execs that includes OLED shows subsequent yr, whereas show analyst Ross Younger has mentioned that Apple’s provide chain is predicted to have adequate notebook-optimized OLED show manufacturing capability in 2026 to deliver the know-how to MacBook Professional. In comparison with present MacBook Professional fashions that use mini-LED screens, the advantages of OLED know-how would come with elevated brightness, increased 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 might permit future MacBook Professional fashions to have a thinner design, and rumors counsel that’s certainly what Apple intends. When the M4 iPad Professional was unveiled in Could 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 mentioned Apple was working to make the MacBook Professional thinner over the “subsequent couple of years.” Apple is reportedly specializing in delivering the thinnest potential system with out compromising on battery life or main new options.
Notably, the MacBook Professional bought thicker and heavier with its most up-to-date redesign in 2021. A significant spotlight was the reintroduction of a number of ports that had been eliminated in earlier iterations in favor of chassis thinness. How Apple will make its 2026 MacBook Professional thinner with out eradicating the performance it reintroduced pretty just lately is the massive query.
Punch-Gap Digital camera
No Extra Notch
If you’re fed up of the notch intruding in your Mac show, here is some excellent news. Apple plans to take away the notch from the MacBook Professional in 2026, in keeping with a roadmap shared by analysis agency Omdia. The roadmap signifies that 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions launched subsequent yr could have a hole-punch digital camera on the high of the show, relatively than the notch we have turn into accustomed to. A MacBook Professional with no notch would supply further seen pixels on the display screen, making a extra uninterrupted and cohesive show design.
5G Modem
Mobile Connectivity
Early in 2025, Apple plans to introduce the custom-built 5G chip that it is had within the works for years now. The modem chip might be added to the iPhone SE, low-cost iPad, and iPhone 17 “Air,” giving Apple a chance to check the know-how earlier than rolling it out to flagship units. In response to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple will then take into account bringing mobile connectivity to the Mac lineup for the primary time. The corporate is alleged to be “investigating” the potential for including a second-generation modem chip to a future Mac as quickly as 2026, teasing the potential for a mobile MacBook Professional in the identical yr. The primary Apple modem chip might be restricted to sub-6GHz 5G speeds, however the second-generation model will assist quicker mmWave know-how, in keeping with Gurman.
M6 Collection Chip
2nm Course of
Assuming Apple follows an identical timeframe to its M4 chip rollout, Apple will replace the MacBook Professional lineup in October this yr with M5 sequence chips. The chips might be manufactured with TSMC’s third-generation 3nm course of, often called N3P, leading to typical year-over-year efficiency and energy effectivity enhancements in comparison with the M4 sequence of chips. M6 chips, alternatively, might undertake a very new packaging course of for Apple’s 2026 MacBook Professional fashions.
In response to one rumor, Apple’s A20 chip in subsequent yr’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 bundle, 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 positive, 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.
