Apple has booked a showcase in Los Angeles for October 28, and according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the headline act will be a MacBook Pro that finally has a touchscreen. It's also expected to bring an OLED display, a thinner body and a cutout at the top of the screen that mirrors the Dynamic Island on recent iPhones.
That would be new ground for Apple, which has kept touch input off its Mac laptops for as long as the MacBook Pro has existed, leaving it to the iPad. The redesigned models are tipped to arrive in the usual 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, with the shape staying familiar even as the body gets lighter.
The move to OLED should mean deeper blacks and sharper contrast than the mini-LED panels on the current lineup. But the upgrade isn't free. Gurman's reporting points to starting prices climbing by as much as $500 over today's figures, which begin at $2,499 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro and $2,999 for the 16-inch model in the US.
There's no chip jump to go with the redesign. The new OLED machines are expected to keep the M5 Pro and M5 Max processors that Apple introduced back in March, so the pitch here is screen and design, not raw speed.
Apple isn't expected to pull the mini-LED MacBook Pro from shelves right away either. Those models should stick around as a cheaper option for buyers who don't want to pay extra for the touch panel. Gurman's report also points to a separate entry-level MacBook Pro showing up on the same day, built around an M6 chip but keeping a conventional, non-touch display.
Software has to catch up too
Adding touch to macOS isn't just a hardware problem. Apple is reportedly reworking parts of the operating system so tapping the screen doesn't feel like using a stretched-out iPad app. The interface is said to shift behavior depending on whether someone is using a finger or the trackpad, so tapping a button, for instance, could pop up a larger set of controls clustered around where the finger landed rather than the tiny target built for a cursor.
The iMac is getting its own refresh the same day. Apple is expected to move the 24-inch all-in-one to an M6 processor, replacing the M4 chip that's powered the current design since 2024. New color options are also on the table, though which shades haven't leaked yet. Beyond the chip and the paint job, don't expect much else to change on the iMac's design.
Further out, Gurman's reporting mentions an OLED iMac is also in Apple's plans, but that one is said to be years away rather than something tied to this week's event.
None of this is official yet. Apple hasn't confirmed specs or pricing for anything beyond the October 28 date itself, and until the company actually puts these machines on stage, the display tech, the price jump and the chip choices remain Gurman's reporting rather than Apple's word.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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