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OLED MacBook Pro Could Launch as Soon as 2026

If this goes alongside the next redesign, which has always been the case in the past, sounds like they have moved from a 4 to 5 year cycle with MacBook Pros? I guess that's to be expected as all their other product lines are now going years between significant design updates, even the iPhones.
 
neuropsychguy said:
  • OLED also don't last as long as mini-LED. I'm not sure if the lifespan is shorter enough to really be an issue, but it's another possible consideration.
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Exactly what TC wants. More people buy AppleCare+. More people try and then buy the next models sooner.
 
While it would be nice for this year's MacBook Pro generation to have OLED, it is unlikely. Remember when the first M1 Pro MacBook Pro was announced? The iPhone 13 Pro, several weeks earlier, got a smaller notch. What did the new MacBook Pro have? It had the larger, old notch. Apple's teams are compartmentalize. The outcome of this is that products lack feature parity. The new OLED iPad displays is the work of the iPad team.
 
cmChimera said:
That Dell has a max brightness of 400 nits. It’s not in the same league.
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What league? Doubtful there will be an OLED in a laptop with 1000+ nits brightness. I've got 3 laptops, all with OLED, and 400-500nits is plenty bright. No one is clamoring for 1000 nits. They are, on the other hand, wanting the inky blacks and vivid colors of OLED and 120Hz refresh which can be done for cheap. The problem with Apple is while they're off chasing some distraction that costs their customers years of disappointment, everyone else is selling what people really want.
 
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OLED is cool, but I worry about burn-in.

Is there a way to turn off the internal display completely when the lid is open, without workarounds such as reducing the brightness to zero and mirroring another display when using an external display?

I still need to use TouchID and the laptop's camera, that's why I keep the lid open.
 
I'd be fine with more dimming zones.
Twice the current dimming zones would be an excellent solutiuon for work computers that have to wrestle with static UIs.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
There's no "bewilder." Competitors usually have thinner profit margins, creating the cost space- even within lower pricing- to take advantage of newer things like OLED vs. protect "our big fat cut," first & foremost mentalities. Apple drags in later because all that volume of sales by the others eventually drives down the costs of things like OLED panels enough that Apple can finally include it too and get their margin. Modern Apple is profit target first and then go from there.

Why still clinging to 8GB RAM? Because going 16GB as base probably adds $10 or $15 to each unit cost AND undercuts very lucrative profit in selling that $10-$15 cost item at $200.

Why are we always calling for "instead of thinner, how about more battery?" Certainly Apple decision-makers have heard that broad want for over a decade now. More battery adds to cost-per-unit sold while thinner doesn't involve paying a bit more for something to go inside. Thus "same great battery life."

Why headphone jack jettison with plans to offer lossless & spatial audio only a few years later and Bluetooth not having the bandwidth for it? $20 buds don't have the margin of $100-$200 buds or $500 headphones. And wired can last for towards forever while wireless wears out every few years and needs a very lucrative re-purchase. The real trick in this: the DAC is still in every single device that used to have a headphone jack that could tap it... else you can't have audio our ears can hear coming out of the speakers. The jack was probably a 40-60¢ bit of materials at most.

Why kill iMac 27" when it is obviously quite a popular Mac (had a few myself)? My guess is that it had too much consumer value for it's "starting at under $2K" pricing. So kill it, strip the Mac out of it, leave the keyboard and mouse out of the box and ship the rest at the "starting at..." price that used to buy the very same monitor with those things inside. That fixed the profit margin problem.

Isolate anything that "does not make sense" through a consumer lens and then think about the money and you can probably logically see the rationale. As long as consumers will just roll over and pay... even post passionate support vs. other consumers who question such moves... Apple is thoroughly rewarded for making such decisions. Shareholders rejoice! 💰💰💰
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I don't disagree. It's just sad. Sad for the Apple customer. In the meantime, throw in a chip that is faster than any reasonable person needs and make it a millimeter thinner and call it "NEW".
 
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USB-Adapter said:
OLED is cool, but I worry about burn-in.

Is there a way to turn off the internal display completely when the lid is open, without workarounds such as reducing the brightness to zero and mirroring another display when using an external display?

I still need to use TouchID and the laptop's camera, that's why I keep the lid open.
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I believe with Mac you can have different wallpapers on each screen, right? If you use an external screen but want your MacBook screen open to use the camera and TouchID, then set your MacBook wallpaper to a totally black wallpaper....burn-in issue gone!
 
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I wonder if they will set the dock and menu bar to auto hide without the possibility of disabling it for the oleds :)

Other than that, I want! But I'm an old cautious fart so I'll queue... for the second hardware revision, not the first.
 
Because of burn in. OLED is flawed tech still. Until burn in is resolved it will still be a problem.

Computer is not like tv as most of us work from home or have computer on for 8-12hours each day. Static elements like icons, menu etc. will get burnt in. Who wants that?

rosuna said:
The question is why they are so late in the use of OLED technology.
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neuropsychguy said:
Here are some possibilities. Only people at Apple can provide answers.
  • Brightness of the screen is one factor. Larger OLED monitors cannot get anywhere close to as bright as Apple's current monitors. The OLED iPad Pros are at 1000 nits / 1600 HDR peak now, but it's not clear if that brightness can be hit and maintained yet with the larger screen in MBPs. I'm not aware of any laptop with 14+ inch screens with OLED brightness of 1000+ nits. Anyone know of any?
  • Risk of burn-in is another factor. That's greatly reduced now with newer OLED technology, but it's a consideration for devices like laptops/desktops rather than phones or watches.
  • OLED also don't last as long as mini-LED. I'm not sure if the lifespan is shorter enough to really be an issue, but it's another possible consideration.
  • Production costs are a factor, considering Apple's quality requirements.
  • It's probable Apple wanted to switch to micro-LED instead of OLED, but clearly that hasn't panned out yet with any sort of mass-production yields.
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  • Dell have just put the same tandem OLED into their XPS 13.4inch Laptops. To be released in a few weeks. Therefore there are differing sizing.
  • OLEDs have been in use on Laptops since 2016. No matter the tech, burn-in will still occur over-time. In year 2 or 3, ghosting will happen especially for 8+ hours a day of use.
  • OLEDs are relativity inexpensive these days. Including the Tandem OLED. Material costs should not be a major factor in their decisions. Only burn-in and what impact that will have on returns, apple care etc. Apple are probably extensively testing OLED in the MBP sizes right now.

MicroLED is the best IMO for computers where you have a static image on for days and months is the better option.
 
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I really hope this means the iMac will have OLED eventually... hopefully sometime this decade... 😞
 
2026? Damn. Seems kinda wild considering the iPad Pro just got it. I'd figure it would happen with the M4 upgrade.
 
Koni17 said:
My girlfriend still uses my old 2015 MB Pro... a 9 year old machine that's still going strong!
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Hanging on with a 2016 13” and 15” MBP. Looks like I’ll be waiting until 2026. At my age, 2026 is only months away.
 
2027: some corporate-funded health NGO publishes a research that OLED causes blindness;
2028: Samsung makes new displays because of EU sanctions;
2029: MacBook adopts new display technology. People sell away their OLED MacBooks for cheap;
2030: ???????
2031: Profit. Apple 4 trillion dollar company now
 
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