MacBook Ultra OLED Touch Panel to Be Exclusively Supplied by Samsung

[MacRumors]

Apple will exclusively rely on Samsung Display for the production of OLED touch panels for its redesigned upcoming MacBook Pro models, according to a new report from Korea-based The Elec.

Citing industry sources, the publication says that the 14-inch and 16-inch panels will be produced at Samsung's 8.6-generation OLED line at Asan, in Korea's South Chungcheong Province. The estimated initial supply is said to be 2.5 million panels, and mass production is expected to begin around August.

Apple reportedly didn't consider LG Display or China's BOE Technology Group for panel development due to yield and efficiency issues, as well as already-busy OLED production lines, making Samsung the default sole supplier. Samsung is said to have secured the position by working closely with Apple from the outset, and adapting its panel specifications and manufacturing capabilities during development.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly claimed that 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with an OLED touch screen are pegged to launch in late 2026 to early 2027. However, his most recent update on the matter said that early 2027 is now more likely because of the global chip shortage.

An OLED panel with touch-screen support is just one aspect of a major refresh planned for the high-end MacBook Pro models, with other rumored features including M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, a Dynamic Island (i.e., no notch) and a thinner design. The laptops could have "MacBook Ultra" branding, and macOS 27 will include a touch-friendly interface ready for the laptops.

Article Link: MacBook Ultra OLED Touch Panel to Be Exclusively Supplied by Samsung

 

[MrTransistor]

Future Mac — touch screen with the integrated microphone.

 

[phill85]

Sounds all good until you realize it’ll cost an incredible amount… no thanks will stick with my MacBook Pro 16 that I already have!

 

[bingeciren]

Touch screen! Perfect for people with cleanliness OCD.

 

[skir]

Intel already had Ultrabook in 2012:

 

[one more]

Touch screen! Perfect for people with cleanliness OCD.

Tell it to all the iPad owners. 😉

 

[one more]

This makes total sense, as there are only two companies in the world that can make excellent quality OLED screens at scale - LG and Samsung.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Have to wonder how the M5 Max will perform in an even smaller chassis. My 14” Max is already a leg-burner if I run it at full blast (or game).

 

[andiwm2003]

I was thinking about this in the fast few month actually and tried to figure out if I would need or want a touchscreen on my Macbook. In my use cases I did not see many times where i was tempted to touch the screen. Also, the way I'm sitting at my notebook it would be cumbersome or strenuous to lift my arm and do some fine precise movements on the screen that also flexes back when you touch it. i usually have my notebook on a table or desk far back because i have a paper notebook in front of it. I also like to rest my arms fully on the desk when I type, hence the notebook is usually far back on the table and it's a weird reach to touch the screen. I'm much faster and more precise when i use the touchpad. And many times I have a larger external monitor plugged in, in that case the touchscreen becomes obsolete. I would like to hear from people how and why they would use touchscreen. Is it general use or only very specific tasks?

 

[cforbesdesign]

Apple will exclusively rely on Samsung Display for the production of OLED touch panels for its redesigned upcoming MacBook Pro models, according to a new report from Korea-based The Elec.

Citing industry sources, the publication says that the 14-inch and 16-inch panels will be produced at Samsung's 8.6-generation OLED line at Asan, in Korea's South Chungcheong Province. The estimated initial supply is said to be 250,000 panels, and mass production is expected to begin around August.

Apple reportedly didn't consider LG Display or China's BOE Technology Group for panel development due to yield issues, making Samsung the sole supplier.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly claimed that 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with an OLED touch screen are pegged to launch in late 2026 to early 2027. However, his most recent update on the matter said that early 2027 is now more likely because of the global chip shortage.

An OLED panel with touch-screen support is just one aspect of a major refresh planned for the high-end MacBook Pro models, with other rumored features including M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, a Dynamic Island (i.e., no notch) and a thinner design. The laptops could have "MacBook Ultra" branding, and macOS 27 will include a touch-friendly interface ready for the laptops.

Article Link: MacBook Ultra OLED Touch Panel to Be Exclusively Supplied by Samsung

With procreate coming to the Mac I wonder if this will have pencil support. I know that would require a form factor change to be be usable though. And of course you’d have to sell a kidney to afford it.

 

[macaron35]

the touchscreen will only increase the price not improve the experience

at work i have a touchscreen Dell laptop, it's just getting on my nerves when someone is clicking by touching my screen and leaving fingerprints. I disabled it

An iPad is an ipad and a Macbook is a Macbook

even the touchbar on my previous MBP was a disaster and a waste of money on the price paid

 

[wonderings]

So if they come out with a touchscreen for a laptop what is the excuse Apple will use to say why we can't run a full MacOS on an iPad?

 

[MacMan988]

Apple users are being fed with Samsung panels and google's AI, exactly what they were trained to fear for

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Have to wonder how the M5 Max will perform in an even smaller chassis. My 14” Max is already a leg-burner if I run it at full blast (or game).

Since the reports say the HDMI port will be sticking around the base won’t be getting that much smaller.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Apple users are being fed with Samsung panels and google's AI, exactly what they were trained to fear for

do you know the original iPhone used a Samsung processor and Steve literally brought up Google’s CEO at the time to talk about their partnership for Maps and Gmail?
In fact, Apple was using Samsung manufacturing process for processors until, like, the iPhone X I’m pretty sure.
Samsung is literally one of Apple’s oldest supply partners. Even before the iPhone Samsung was responsible for several components inside of the iPod, while producing competitive iPod knockoffs at the same time.
Literally at the same time as Apple being stuck in a lawsuit with Samsung over patent violations from Samsung towards Apple, Apple was still purchasing their OLED displays and making deals for iPhone production with that same company.

 

[hajime]

Have to wonder how the M5 Max will perform in an even smaller chassis. My 14” Max is already a leg-burner if I run it at full blast (or game).

I remember somebody burnt his pen*s while using a laptop.

 

[jdavid_rp]

I could see some usefulness for iMacs, to use it like a surface studio, but quite weird on a laptop.

Or maybe they do a 360 degrees design so you can lay it on a surface and use an Apple Pencil on it.

 

[8KYUP]

Touch screen! Perfect for people with cleanliness OCD.

And the folding phone with an almost invisible crease. Where is the love Apple? Where is the love?

 

[thebellnd]

Sounds all good until you realize it’ll cost an incredible amount… no thanks will stick with my MacBook Pro 16 that I already have!

Price is just a number. Don't allow cost to artificially limit your holistic Apple ecosystem experience.

And the folding phone with an almost invisible crease. Where is the love Apple? Where is the love?

It just ain't the same, old ways have changed. New days are strange, is the world insane? If love and peace is so strong, why are there pieces of love that don't belong? Nations droppin' bombs. Chemical gases filling lungs of little ones. With ongoing sufferin' as the youth die young.

So ask yourself, is the lovin' really gone?

 

[DHagan4755]

If they're just changing the overall design & display tech, whilst keeping the M5 Pro/Max chips & same specs as the current models, I don't understand how memory supply issues would be an issue shipping these this fall?

 

[svish]

Samsung makes excellent displays and will be great to have them on the upcoming MacBook. Waiting to see the redesigned MacBook Pro.

 

[mistymac]

I kind of wonder if a touchscreen panel is partially a side effect of the PC industry offering touchscreens in laptops. What I mean is, maybe Apple (especially since we know Cook is a supply chain master and this happened under his reign) decided it was just cheaper due to an offer from Samsung etc to use a touchscreen panel because that simplifies supply chains and manufacturing lines on their side and resulted in a lower cost for Apple. Combine that with some people wanting a touchscreen Mac and then it suddenly looks like a 'well... we fought against it for years but we might as well just do it now' sort of situation.

 

[wcniedb]

Did I read that the Ultra is actually going to be less performant than the Pro? If so that seems like strange branding since "Ultra" is their highest performing CPU branding. To me personally I would also infer the word "Ultra" to be higher level than "Pro".

 

[deconstruct60]

Did I read that the Ultra is actually going to be less performant than the Pro? If so that seems like strange branding since "Ultra" is their highest performing CPU branding.

On purely single threaded 'drag racing' apps perhaps. However, very few should by buying a Mn Pro/Max SoC in their device if 75+% of their workload is only single threaded apps. You buy those because substantially have multiple threaded apps to run. The number of GPU and CPU cores are just going to be higher on Pro/Max versions so it doesn't mean much if the individual cores are incrementally slower than a M6 versions. The plain M6 is also going to be capped on memory. If workload needed requires more than 32GB of RAM then the M6's is going to be outclassed. Data loaded from RAM is orders of magnitude faster than data loaded from NAND SSD.

If go over the x86-64 space the high core count server chips are all slower than the 'overclocking extreme' consumer stuff. Doesn't mean they don't have "big time workload' branding attached to them.

There was some additional upside to situations where the plain/Pro/Max options all have about the same single threaded performance. But the Pro/Max doesn't loose everything is there is a small gap. The Studio is at M4 Max and M3 Ultra. Again, if really deeply require what the Ulra provides it is a win'. But it isn't a 'bragging rights' option to buy.

To me personally I would also infer the word "Ultra" to be higher level than "Pro".

Apple is going to 'gap' the MBP M6 from the MBP 14/16 M5 Pro/Max with more than just the SoC chip.
These hyper-unidimensional applications of "Ultra"/"Pro" distinction are overblown. Apple sells systems; not narrow chip features.

 

[deconstruct60]

If they're just changing the overall design & display tech, whilst keeping the M5 Pro/Max chips & same specs as the current models, I don't understand how memory supply issues would be an issue shipping these this fall?

Memory supply chains haven't gotten dramatically better. They are not doing 'next day' shipping if select the upper scale build to order M5 Pro/Max options. If the initial demand bubble is higher than an 7-9 month old product then demand will be higher than supply. Part of Apple increasing MBP price points was to slow demand lower to more closely match the supply. If spike demand then simply have 'undone' that; which means back in under supply zone.

There is no 'glut' or oversupply coming to the memory market for intermediate term period. Highly constrained supply is here for the long haul. So any wild fluctuation in demand is going to be a problem.

If Apple expects an upswing even at the higher prices for the MBP Pro/Max models for Nov-Dec holiday buying season then they may wait until after that bubble demand also. ( There are some macrumors front page about discounts Amamazon is throwing at the laptops now. That somewhat pushes back to the old list prices .. but if that is the norm over holiday season across more vendors (but Apple) then demand goes up but memory supply is still capped.)