Touchscreen MacBook '100% Confirmed,' Says Reputable Leaker

[Darth Tulhu]

I don't know about a MacBook, but an iMac with touch & Pencil capability would be awesome.

Obviously, the hardware design would have to change (on both, I think).

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Steve's dead, with a 100% chance of remaining dead into this evening. If we look at the map, we can see that he will continue to be dead into next week, followed by an extended period of being dead well into the rest of summer and fall. Long range forecast models show that he will remain dead.

Steve's NOT dead. He just went home. 😉

 

[DHf1]

Apple's first touchscreen MacBook is now "100% confirmed," according to the prolific Chinese leaker known as Instant Digital, who appears to have insider information from sources in the supply chain. The leaker made their definitive statement this morning in a Weibo post.

Instant Digital has a good track record for Apple rumors and has provided some strikingly accurate information in the past, so it's always worth noting what they have to say about Apple's plans. The claim is also backed by several recent reports.

Recurring rumors about Apple's touchscreen MacBook development actually go back a few years. In January 2023, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that a MacBook Pro with an OLED display would be the first touchscreen Mac. The machine was initially slated for 2025, but that timeline never played out.

Since then, reports have become more frequent and assertive. In September 2025, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the first touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro would enter mass production in 2026. Gurman has also repeatedly stated that the next 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will have touchscreen and are slated to launch in late 2026 to early 2027 – with the global memory chip shortage potentially making 2027 more likely.

Touchscreen support is expected to be one of several major upgrades coming to Apple's next-generation high-end MacBook Pro models. Other rumored features include M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, an OLED display, a Dynamic Island (i.e., no notch), and a thinner design. The new laptops could also adopt MacBook Ultra branding.

Notably, macOS 27 Golden Gate also introduces a more touch-friendly interface, since Apple's Sidecar feature now allows users to tap and interact with macOS interface elements using a finger on their iPad.

Apple apparently is not going to advertise the ‌new MacBook Pro‌/Ultra as a touch-first device like the ‌iPad‌ – it will be "touch-friendly, not touch-first," according to Gurman. In that sense, Apple will let customers use touch and mouse gestures interchangeably for all functions.

Apple has long rejected the idea of a touchscreen Mac, so moving ahead with one would be a major shift in the company's thinking. In 2010, Steve Jobs argued that "touch surfaces don't want to be vertical," citing the arm fatigue that comes from repeatedly reaching up to a screen.

More than a decade later, in 2021, Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus – soon to be Apple CEO – said the Mac was "totally optimized for indirect input" and that Apple saw no compelling reason to change that approach.

Are you looking forward to touching a future MacBook's screen? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: Touchscreen MacBook '100% Confirmed,' Says Reputable Leaker

Not interested tbh. My work laptop is touch screen and I don’t use it.

 

[routine_analyst]

Give me the option to spin my monitor around and snap the lid shut to conceal the keyboard under the lid.
With the monitor facing upward, have the machine switch to touch mode.
Let me use my MacBook on occasion as an iPad.

Not a new concept. Would be a wonderful update.

 

[kharys415]

Didn't Ternus already hint it's not happening?

 

[TechRunner]

I'm glad Apple is venturing into this space for those who've wanted a touchscreen MacBook, but having tried Windows laptops and monitors that were touchscreen I never found a use for them.

 

[AriaAmaris]

Unnecessary. Cant think of any time that I wished i could reach across my laptop to touch the screen. Another thing influencers push Apple into doing.

 

[Luftkopf]

I really hope that it is an optional feature!

 

[AppleWes]

Didn't Ternus already hint it's not happening?

I think Gruber confirmed it may or may not happen so he's right 100% of the time. 😉

 

[Techwatcher]

Not for me. Just as I've avoided touch screen Windows-based laptops, I will avoid touch screen Mac-based laptops.

But choice is always good for those who do like them.

Don't think you can avoid them if the plan is to include the MacBook Pro lineup to receive touch screens in addition to the Ultra.

 

[Ethosik]

For the love of god let it merely be an option that I’m not forced into.

Not only that, don’t cause an entire OS design change to piss off your mouse and keyboard folks. Like Windows 8 and Server 2012.

 

[starlabjump]

Hopefully, a touch-friendly Mac will allow me to use handwriting input directly in Office applications.

i have been using wacom tablet for this.

 

[maknik]

I'd love a touch screen if it comes with a 360 degree hinge. I use my laptop both for work and for fun, and it would be nice when just goofing around to flip the screen and thereby bring the whole thing a little closer to my face, as well as allowing me to turn it into portrait mode occasionally for browsing, reading, comic books, etc.

 

[Risco]

Steve Jobs right now….

 

[snipr125]

1. Is factually woefully inaccurate. First of all, ALL M series macs use NAND storage. In fact nearly every USB drive / SD card in the world, if not 100% of them are all NAND storage. It has nothing to do with formatting or anything.

2. Lack of active cooling has NOTHING to do with memory pressure. Apple has released MULTIPLE macs with ZERO active cooling, including shoving an intel chip in the tiny 12" macbook. The answer is and always will be they don't want to canabalize their sales, and they don't want to give up control on the ipad.

Yep this is it, the App store made 1.4 Trillion dollars as shown in a recent MR article. No way Apple is giving that up. We all know any M series iPad Air/Pro can run Mac OS better than the Neo or 12” Macbook.

 

[jjudson]

I use my Magic Keyboard on my iPad Pro specifically to NOT have to touch the screen.

Who is begging for this on a Mac?

 

[HVDynamo]

Apple apparently is not going to advertise the ‌new MacBook Pro‌/Ultra as a touch-first device like the ‌iPad‌ – it will be "touch-friendly, not touch-first

As i mentioned in a previous post, MacOS will NEVER work on an iPad.

1. iPad's use NAND Flash storage. users would never be able to format a drive as they would on MacOS
2. Due to the fact that iPad used 16GB of RAM with no active cooling, users would see severe red memory pressure, lag and slow-down. Even with a vapor chamber, the 5.1mm thickness would not help.

The list is endless

Stop asking for MacOS, as it will never work as intended. Start asking for iPadOS to be better.

1. All SSD's are NAND flash... This isn't an argument in any way shape or form and makes no sense. The SSD in a mac is just faster, it's otherwise basically the same. A great example of this would be the Macbook Neo, which shows that even the phone hardware can run MacOS.

2. What on earth does 16GB of RAM and no active cooling have to do with anything. The Macbook Neo has half that RAM, and runs MacOS. Also, the Macbook Air with the M series processors also does not include active cooling and runs MacOS fine.

Your arguments make zero sense and do not support your claim in the slightest...

 

[HVDynamo]

I really wish Apple would allow for BTO options on Macbook screens.

I'd like a 15" MBA with an OLED screen.

Someone else may want a MBP with a normal high quality LCD

And the next person may prefer an MBP with a touchscreen OLED.

It feels so outdated to be selling these all as totally predefined appliances still, given all the screen choices and amazing options and various preferences that exist.

Yeah, they used to do that way back when. I remember getting my 15" Mid 2012 macbook Pro with the "Hi-Res" 1680x1050 resolution because the standard resolution was worse than that. Honestly, they were abysmal with their resolutions pre-retina. I would vastly prefer a non-touch, non-OLED display on my laptop. I just don't want OLED on a computer. I know it has gotten much better with respect to burn in, but it's still susceptible to it, and I prefer to be able to just leave my screen on and not worry about it over the improvement OLED brings. I do agree OLED looks better, but I just don't think the trade-off is worth it for a computer that shows static images ALL the time.

 

[HVDynamo]

I use my Magic Keyboard on my iPad Pro specifically to NOT have to touch the screen.

Who is begging for this on a Mac?

100%, this was a game changer on iPad. I almost never use my iPad without it.

 

[JohnC1959]

For anyone that thinks this is a dumb idea or doesn't want fingerprints on their screen there is good news. You don't have to use the feature. Furthermore, all these rumors point to zero UI changes to support touch unless/until you actually touch something. For example, the main menu would look the same but only if you touch a main menu item will you see a larger pulldown menu. I personally don't see using touch much or maybe at all but I do know many right here have wanted it so why not permit it for those folks.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

So much gnashing of teeth over something that doesn't yet exist.

Look, if you don't want it... don't buy it when it comes out.

Let's see what actually comes out first, though.

 

[macguy167]

The only viable option for a touchscreen MacBook would be one that folds open to use as a tablet, and we all know Apple would NEVER allow this to happen due to the iPad franchise!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Yeah, they used to do that way back when. I remember getting my 15" Mid 2012 macbook Pro with the "Hi-Res" 1680x1050 resolution because the standard resolution was worse than that. Honestly, they were abysmal with their resolutions pre-retina. I would vastly prefer a non-touch, non-OLED display on my laptop. I just don't want OLED on a computer. I know it has gotten much better with respect to burn in, but it's still susceptible to it, and I prefer to be able to just leave my screen on and not worry about it over the improvement OLED brings. I do agree OLED looks better, but I just don't think the trade-off is worth it for a computer that shows static images ALL the time.

For whatever it’s worth, I have adapted to having menu bar and dock hidden and a pretty short time to screensaver. I also have beautiful wallpapers rolling through every minute.

I also keep my desktop hidden (all still available through the finder)

At first, I didn’t like it but now I absolutely love it and do it this way, even if I’m not using OLED.

It helps with focus immensely

 

[DVD Plaza]

What I want to see if full API support for macOS touch. It is horrendously embarrassing that when a Windows machine connects to a touchscreen in a classroom it is beautiful multi-touch - but a Mac any interaction is just making the mouse pointer jump and click to where you tapped.

eg Windows you can SLIDE a page on the classroom screen, Mac you need to go tap the side of the page for the scrollbar to appear and then TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP down the scrollbar.

My teachers and students are around 90% Mac, but the 10% Windows get a far superior experience with this. It's infuriating because iOS is built upon macOS so there's literally no reason the functionality can't be there - it's obviously will be now, but will third party API access be supported?

 

[johnsawyercjs]

I'm always constantly wiping my screens to keep any smudges off of them and don't really want to have to do that with a laptop. It's bad enough with my phone!

Same here. Hopefully there will be a function key or some other simple way to temporarily disable touchscreen input, so the user can use their fingers to remove debris and smudges while the Macbook is still running. Maybe just putting the Macbook to sleep will be how this is done, if touching the screen can be set to not wake it.