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Future of MacBook Pro

tangfish

tangfish

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 12, 2014
317
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With an M5 MacBook Pro likely coming this week do we think this is a final speed bump iteration ahead of a major redesign next year?

I'm looking to upgrade at some point but also not in a big rush, currently running a still serviceable but older Apple Silicon MBP. I'd upgrade to the M5 but if there's a good chance of a redesign next year I can definitely wait.
 
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From what has been reported thus far, it looks like this low-end 14" MacBook Pro design will stick around for at least one more iteration (M6) next year, whilst the higher-end 14" and 16" get the redesign with all that entails (tandem OLED, thinner design, etc).
 
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ruslan120 said:
I really hope they stick with Mini LED.

OLED will burn in…
Click to expand...

Seems pretty certain that they are switching to OLED with the M6 generation (late 2026 or early 2027).
I'm sure that they are cognizant of the burn-in risk. Not sure what steps they will take to avoid it specifically, but I have not noticed any burn-in in other Apple OLED devices that I have (including my watch with always-on display, which has been displaying the same complications in the same place for years). I think that it is much less of an issue than it was with early OLEDs.
 
I'm going to have MacRumors permanently burned into mine!
 
I think a price increase, tandem OLED screen, bye bye Mini LED, and I believe cellular and well touch screens? And lighter and thinner an more powerful yadda yadda.

And this foldable device they are rumoured to be working on which will become more of a reality if they do give the MB Pro a touchscreen.
 
No one knows for sure, but yes, it certainly seems like all signs are pointing that way. It will have been 5 years since the 2021 MBP current model re-design (and before that, it was the 2016 re-design to Touchbar + 4 Thunderbolt), so 5 year cadence last 2 generations... and all the rumors around OLED are pointing to that timeline as well.

For what it's worth, I had a 2016 13" MBP (day 1 buyer), and a 2021 M1 Pro 14" MBP (day 1 buyer also). My 2021 M1 Pro MBP was completely still good - however, I realized I don't really need the power of the Pro. So I took advantage of the current great Amazon sales for the 15" M4 MBA, got the base 16/512gb model for $200 off. Sold my 2021 M1 Pro MBP on Swappa for a decent price (significantly more than current Apple trade-in value). And am basically going to enjoy this newer, snappier 15" MBA, with the idea that if the new 2026(?) MBP OLED re-design is compelling, I feel better jumping to that (even if it's only been 1.5years).
 
The M6 is likely to have a redesign, but I expect it's pushed to early (or even mid) 2027. This would give Apple time to launch the M5 Pro/Max in Spring, sell through the stock of their existing designs, build a larger supply of 2nm chips, and hammer out any kinks in the new hardware.
 
Think the M5 will be the last version before a redesign. M6 should bring OLED, removal of notch, maybe a bit lighter, cellular connectivity. But the base version of MacBook Pro with M6 chip (not Pro/Max) will most likely not be getting a refresh.
 
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Pezimak said:
Yes, it does. All OLED's are at risk of burn in.
Click to expand...

I'm really wondering how much of a thing this will be. How much has the technology matured? Is burn-in a real risk in this day and age?

Real example: My Apple Watch Series 8 (which has an OLED display) has been running the same watch face and complications for three years. It's an always-on display so it is ... always on. Not at full brightness, mind you, but... three years.

If I switch to different apps, I can't see any evidence of burn-in from the main watch face elements.
 
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I would of thought we might start hearing some more rumours and real specs about the redesigned MacBook Pros in the next 6 months or less given we're about 12 months or a little more away, which is exciting.
 
For the base model 14" which has just been updated, I expect it to lag a year or two behind again before it catches up to the new form factor that the M6 Pro/Max MacBook Pros will get next year. Similar to how the M1 and M2 models retained the Touch Bar design. So likely we will see the current mini LED design also updated with an M6 and probably M7 as well.
 
I am thankful for discovering this topic.

I am having macbook pro 16' 2021.
It is a powerful machine, no doubt. I am quite sure that it can serve well at least for 5 years and even more.
But, in late 2026, one year from now, it will be 5 years old. And I know that at about 7 years from launching, apple drops support for new major os updates, also critical os fixes etc.
So, I do not want to live in such a condition, at least for my main computer, as mbp always is.

So, I have decided to make the leap and go for the mbp 16' with M6 cpu.
It would be a good step, I think, to be again, more future proof with my main machine.
After 5 years, any advancements would be real and not...marketing!

Anyone else on the same stage and thinking?

As far as I can remember, Apple use to show new mbp 16' in autumns each years.
Is this happening now, or new mbp 16' are presented at the start of each year, so it would be possibly, early 2027, for a mbp 16' with M6 cpu?
 
cool11 said:
Anyone else on the same stage and thinking?
Click to expand...

This sounds like a good plan.
Depending on what's going on with Apple's manufacturing, we might see M6 + M6 Pro + M6 Max at the tail end of 2026, or we might have something similar to now where M6 launches in late 2026 (14" only) and M6 Pro + M6 Max launch in early 2027 (14" + 16"). So, you might be waiting a little over a year yet.

I think it will be worth waiting for this iteration because they'll be refreshing the chassis and adding the OLED display.

There isn't really a risk of running out of OS support; it looks like macOS 27 will still support all Apple Silicon Macs (but they will be dropping support for all Intel Macs).

I'm looking at a similar timeline for myself, just one cycle behind. (I currently have an M2 Max system, and I will be probably upgrading for the M7 generation.)
 
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So, in the past, apple use to update macbook pros more likely at autumns.
But I am not sure, may be they changed their annual schedule to the beginning of each years?
I want to make my calculations for the future period of a new purchase.
Will it be, with the current standards, possibly, early 2027 to show M6 versions? Or late 2026?
How it goes now?
 
ruslan120 said:
I really hope they stick with Mini LED.

OLED will burn in…
Click to expand...

DHagan4755 said:
But will it with tandem OLED? Any iPad Pro M4 users care to chime in?
Click to expand...

Pezimak said:
Yes, it does. All OLED's are at risk of burn in.
Click to expand...

PotentPeas said:
I'm really wondering how much of a thing this will be. How much has the technology matured? Is burn-in a real risk in this day and age?

Real example: My Apple Watch Series 8 (which has an OLED display) has been running the same watch face and complications for three years. It's an always-on display so it is ... always on. Not at full brightness, mind you, but... three years.

If I switch to different apps, I can't see any evidence of burn-in from the main watch face elements.
Click to expand...
I use my iPad Pro with the tandem OLED as a dashboard for my server running 10-14 hours a day with zero burn in. I think this is a complete non-issue now. Obviously this is just anecdotal evidence but I am much more of an extreme user/use case so if anything I should have some burn in.
 
I could care less if the already-incredible screen is a little brighter or if the MacBook gets a millimeter thinner.

Upgradable memory and storage? Now you’d have my attention.
 
Alameda said:
I could care less if the already-incredible screen is a little brighter or if the MacBook gets a millimeter thinner.

Upgradable memory and storage? Now you’d have my attention.
Click to expand...
Upgradable memory would never happen. One of the major advantages of the M series chip is since the memory is built into the chip both the CPU and GPU get access to the shared memory and can have insane bandwidth (800 GB/s)+ as well as insane memory amounts (512 GB of RAM) - something not even possible with top end GPUs. Switching back to upgradable memory will mean much slower speeds and reduced bandwidth, and for what purpose?

Apple's RAM prices are currently CHEAPER than DIY upgrade RAM sticks. It makes zero sense in literally every direction. The very few laptops that still have upgradable RAM can't even be upgraded to the level Apple offers (128 GB of ram)

128 GB of laptop RAM on newegg is $1,285
128 GB on the M4 chip is $1000

64 GB of laptop RAM on newegg is $619
64 GB of laptop RAM for the macbook pro is $200
 
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Hajj.david said:
Upgradable memory would never happen. One of the major advantages of the M series chip is since the memory is built into the chip both the CPU and GPU get access to the shared memory and can have insane bandwidth (800 GB/s)+ as well as insane memory amounts (512 GB of RAM) - something not even possible with top end GPUs. Switching back to upgradable memory will mean much slower speeds and reduced bandwidth, and for what purpose?

Apple's RAM prices are currently CHEAPER than DIY upgrade RAM sticks. It makes zero sense in literally every direction. The very few laptops that still have upgradable RAM can't even be upgraded to the level Apple offers (128 GB of ram)

128 GB of laptop RAM on newegg is $1,285
128 GB on the M4 chip is $1000

64 GB of laptop RAM on newegg is $619
64 GB of laptop RAM for the macbook pro is $200
Click to expand...
Why is upgradeable memory slower?
 
Alameda said:
Why is upgradeable memory slower?
Click to expand...
1. Physics, with a SOC like the M series the ram is built into the CPU and GPU so data has to travel much less distance significantly reducing latency and signal degradation

2. Wider memory buses for higher bandwidth, versus narrower interfaces in socked/upgradable setups limited by pin counts and traces.

3. Optimized, proprietary interfaces without socket overhead like inductance or standardized protocols that constrain speeds in upgradeable RAM setups.

Its like a normal engine that is designed for public use and therefore has to support a wide variety of fuels vs a highly tuned engine optimized to a specific fuel (race gas, E85, etc) it can squeeze out way more power but then you are stuck with whatever it is tuned for.

The speed differences are why GPUs have never been able to use the socketed RAM. Its just way too slow for GPU purposes, but with a SOC like the M series the GPU can use the same RAM as the CPU allowing the studio for example to have access to 512 GB of video ram (- some RAM for running the system etc) allowing it to run huge AI models that would require extremely expensive and power hungry GPUs running together to even compete (like 10s of thousands of dollars worth of GPUs)
 
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Still praying the touch screen rumor is a red herring, but perhaps it's just proof we're in an echo chamber and represent a minority of Mac users?

Or at least make it a configuration option, so anyone who doesn't want it can opt out and not pay the premium.
But the OS will still be ensh*tified regardless.
There's no winning here lol.
 
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