Apple Is Expected to Launch These Four MacBooks in 2026

[capamac]

Touch = smudged display.
Touch = arm gets tired.
Touch = can't see display, cos your arm, hand, and fingers are blocking visibility of the display.
Trackpad is the way.

 

[capamac]

Apple’s tandem OLED in their iPad Pros produce 1000-1600 nits. That would not be a downgrade.

I already find myself being blinded on my M1 Air when I get to a web page with a lot of white on it.

500 nits is kinda like these new LED car headlights that are like driving with your high beams on constantly.

 

[capamac]

Can we finally get OLED ProMotion everywhere please?

It's 2026 for god sake.

I want a mac with a 24 fps mode, coz that's the cinematic look.

Say no to "soap opera effect"!

 

[capamac]

I wonder if they will apply QC and sell these Macbooks WITHOUT micro dents and scratches.

Yeah but if you use anything it's bound to get scratches and dents. I bought a new 2012 Honda Civic Si. I park far away from everyone. Regardless, I've collected one door dent. I've got bumper scratches from parallel parkers. I had new tires put on and the shop scuffed the wheels. And now, 13 years later, I don't worry so much about door dings. It's just life, man. Plus, honestly, wear kinda looks cool. I saw Richard Stallmans old Thinkpad and it had some paint wear on the edges ... it's a good look, honestly! LIkewise, the old Nikon F3 SLR with paint wear ... man it looks great.

 

[richinaus]

I’m intrigued to see how much thinner and lighter the new 16 inch MacBook Pro will be I usually get the 14 inch but might be tempted to go big if it light & thin enough 🙃

These have been my exact thoughts.
You only need to look at the newly announced Dell XPS 14 & 16 for a decent reference on weight, screen etc.

 

[transpo1]

No need for a touchscreen laptop.

But also no reason not to have one ;-)

 

[Westside guy]

... so the new MacBook would likely have a starting price of between $699 and $899.

You can certainly say that's a "lower-cost MacBook". But, given that $200-300 laptops exist, you really can't call it a "low-cost MacBook".

 

[capamac]

You can certainly say that's a "lower-cost MacBook". But, given that $200-300 laptops exist, you really can't call it a "low-cost MacBook".

Yeah plus there have been sales on base Airs in the $750 range. Which makes me think if they have a cheaper Macbook that's $699 to $899 perhaps there will be occasional sale prices of mebbe $550 or whatever.

Also ... this holiday my mom gifted me her old laptop. It's a 2019 HP 14". I did some research on it; apparently it was one of the cheaper laptops on the market when it came out and man, does it show! The keyboard is too springy. The display is TN type and thus the display consistency varies depending on my head position. The display colors are not great. i3 cpu with 4GB RAM. Other than the display and keyboard it's not bad; I've put Debian Gnu/Linux on it.

I would say this HP laptop is _too_ cheap. There is definitely a point where one should stop looking to cut costs. And HP went past that line. XD

 

[AriaAmaris]

I’ll take a 12 inch MacBook with an iPad level OLED display, 16gb RAM, Touch Bar, butterfly keyboard, and mobile data.

 

[bombardier10]

Yes, we now have a MacBook with a touchscreen )

 

[Mac Overdose]

Once Slack Jaw Tim Apple leaves expect massive improvements as Apple gets back to Jobbing once again.

 

[matteman50]

Matte display is totally different than a ProMotion OLED

Even us former matte display evangelists aren't really that plussed about that anymore.

True.

 

[JohnC1959]

I already find myself being blinded on my M1 Air when I get to a web page with a lot of white on it.

500 nits is kinda like these new LED car headlights that are like driving with your high beams on constantly.

View attachment 2594706

For those that use their MacBooks outside a lot the extra brightness can help. And for everyone else, just don't turn the brightness all the way up.

 

[reyesmac]

Touch screen on MacBook Pro is pretty useless for pros, should have been a consumer model thing but you cant jack up the price for the pros without some gimmick to blame it on.

 

[Solve4X]

Mac user since 1985. I've usually bought the highest-spec Mac. Only exception was my first Macintosh in 1985, which I had to upgrade to 512K because initially I didn't get the Plus version.

Now I'm waiting for the full-spec M5s. I no longer do CPU-intensive work tasks, except for using onboard LLMs for transcription (MacWhisper) and LMStudio...

I still cannot get anything other than media consumption, browsing, and light email on an iPad. So I really hope they won't mess up by turning MacOS into iPadOS.

 

[Juggernaut510]

Apple will find an excuse to say and release it early 2027. I’ll hold out till this new version comes out. One thing I loathe about Apple is they always hold on to present tech only to sell it to you many years later at a higher cost and call it “revolutionary”

I hate that Apple does this. Why do they do it? Because they know they can always sell you a stripped down version with OK tech and it will still sell like hotcakes.

So whose fault is it? Ours or Apple?

 

[ipsedixit]

Does anyone know how popular touchscreen laptops are, generally? For the entire laptop market?

I just don't get the sense that there's much demand for touchscreen laptops, maybe I'm wrong tho.

 

[NatalieJuneW]

Why a 13 inch on the low cost MacBooks? should have been 12 inch.

 

[SanderEvers]

But also no reason not to have one ;-)

There is, it costs money, adds more layers to the screen (affects repairability), takes up system resources, etc.

 

[sotosoul]

Do I need a new 16” M5 Max MBP. No.

Do I really want one? Hell yes.

I'm suffering from the same bug, my friend. The doctor said there's no cure 😄

 

[Originalblez]

Can we finally get OLED ProMotion everywhere please?

It's 2026 for god sake.

100% The iPad mini would shine like a star with a decent screen from this decade.

 

[asdfjkl;]

Touchscreen? Count me out. Added cost, no doubt, and for what? Stupid idea all around.

 

[capamac]

Touchscreen? Count me out. Added cost, no doubt, and for what? Stupid idea all around.

My theory is Apple really doesn't like macOS and would prefer iOS in everything.

I wonder if iOS is preferred by the "normie" computer user. The average iPhone user, for example, I wouldn't consider to be especially computer savvy.

 

[punkwood]

The other market I see is existing MacBook Pro users who might want a lighter and more portable alternative for times when they want to pop to a coffee shop to get a change of scene while checking emails and doing light admin during their work day, maybe go across town for a meeting where they only really need to access/take notes etc, and other light duties. For some of those people perhaps they can't justify the price of a MacBook Air on top of their existing MacBook Pro, or maybe they can justify the price but don't consider the MacBook Air to be that much smaller and lighter than their MacBook Pro (especially if the MBP is a 14" model) so don't bother getting the second laptop.

It saddens me to think that there are people with a Macbook Pro, an extremely thin, light, capable and (by design and definition) portable laptop, who would spend another $600-$800 to have a very marginally thinner, lighter and much less capable laptop, to bring to the coffee shop or business meeting instead of the laptop that they already own.

Imagine spending 3/4 of a thousand dollars to lose an inch and a few grams for a lower specced machine to use in place of the expensive machine you have already bought to meet all of the same use cases and more.

 

[Sami13496]

To be honest, I’m absolutely furious that Apple has forgotten all of its core principles and the design of genuinely useful solutions. They’ve started releasing gimmicks like Samsung and others, with the goal of selling toys to people who are bored and just want to buy something new simply for the sake of it being new. I mean, a touchscreen MacBook? There’s no sense in that at all. Except if you want to say that the feature exists on the spec sheet.