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Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro Coming in 2026 With Dynamic Island and Redesigned macOS Controls
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JeffPerrin
macrumors 6502a
MBP M6 will probably start out as a premium $$$ release w/touchscreen and M6 CPU trickling down to M6 base model and M6 Pro models in early 2027. Just a wild guess...
I don’t want touch screen without haptic feedback. I want my whole laptop to vibrate when I long press an icon.
Could you imagine a bullpen of workers on laptops with haptic feedback? It would sound like the office was constantly being electrocuted.
Could you imagine a bullpen of workers on laptops with haptic feedback? It would sound like the office was constantly being electrocuted.
JeffPerrin
macrumors 6502a
That's exactly what I intend to do—go with a tried-and-true time-tested design. I've had to deal with a butterfly keyboard so... once bitten, twice shy!
Tell me you didn’t read the article without telling me you didn’t read the article.
A: Directly from Gurman:
“If users touch a button or control, the interface will bring up a new type of menu surrounding their finger that provides more relevant options for touch commands. The software will also display the most appropriate set of controls based on users’ prior interaction. And if a person taps an item in the menu bar at the top of the screen, the set of controls will enlarge to be more easily selectable with a finger.”
Hear that? The interface changes, depending on the input you are using, meaning that if you are using the traditional keyboard and trackpad it will work the same as it always has.
B: from the supply chain reports about this MacBook Pro:
The OLED MacBook Pro, expected to enter mass production by late 2026, will incorporate a touch panel using on-cell touch technology.”
“On-cell touch” literally means that there is no separate touch layer, meaning no degraded display quality, no extra thickness, none of that.
No place can fear monger quite like a Mac Rumors thread.
What is the use case for touch on a laptop? For some mindless doom scrolling of media perhaps while lying on your back eating crisps with the laptop on your belly?
For having middle management finally mess with the content on the screen when showing up at a programmers desk?
For bashing the screen when your voice driven agentic AI goes haywire?
I am at a loss here
For having middle management finally mess with the content on the screen when showing up at a programmers desk?
For bashing the screen when your voice driven agentic AI goes haywire?
I am at a loss here
anthony13
macrumors 65816
This is why I feel like this can't come out at some random time, but rather more likely near the launch of a new Mac OS in the fall. It all just seems so at odds with the M5's supposedly imminent launch in MBP's. I feel like something has been off in these rumors from the beginning. Like maybe this touch MBP represents a new tier of laptop for Apple and won't even be called a MBP? Just theorizing over here.
I have never - not once - been using a laptop and thought "...this would be easier if I could just touch the screen."
The last thing I want is to push things around on my screen, so I'm hoping that Apple has some creative way to "invent" a way that doesn't suck for touching screens on laptops.
The last thing I want is to push things around on my screen, so I'm hoping that Apple has some creative way to "invent" a way that doesn't suck for touching screens on laptops.
I'd totally forgotten about the "cutout" on my MacBook Pro. I use it all day, every day, and it's completely invisible to me 🤷♂️
Yr Blues
macrumors 68040
Starfia
macrumors 68000
I'm wincing and bracing.
It feels like one of two things:
• At best, it's a supplementary, as opposed to fundamental, feature for Macs that support it, similar to the cursor on iPadOS.
• Apple's whole vision for the future is "in the future, all stuff is in front of you, and around you, and you touch it to interact with it." To me, that's the only thing that fully explains how Liquid Glass pervaded so far – it was an attempt to implement that vision across all current hardware devices, including screens that have to stay where the laws of physics hold them, and screens that can and can't be touched directly; necessarily the worst implementation of that vision with the hope of less badness each year (with this Mac being one more little step).
But that second guess, if not both, swivels from the traditional Apple idea that each device should excel at what it is, according to its own soul, its own "reason for being," not try to do everything, and leave it to other devices to excel in their own areas. It's been tough enough with the "26" OSes to suspect the laser-focus on that is fading even slightly.
It feels like one of two things:
• At best, it's a supplementary, as opposed to fundamental, feature for Macs that support it, similar to the cursor on iPadOS.
• Apple's whole vision for the future is "in the future, all stuff is in front of you, and around you, and you touch it to interact with it." To me, that's the only thing that fully explains how Liquid Glass pervaded so far – it was an attempt to implement that vision across all current hardware devices, including screens that have to stay where the laws of physics hold them, and screens that can and can't be touched directly; necessarily the worst implementation of that vision with the hope of less badness each year (with this Mac being one more little step).
But that second guess, if not both, swivels from the traditional Apple idea that each device should excel at what it is, according to its own soul, its own "reason for being," not try to do everything, and leave it to other devices to excel in their own areas. It's been tough enough with the "26" OSes to suspect the laser-focus on that is fading even slightly.
Let me try to understand you:
A) Apple will not use this new „feature“ as a reason to put a premium on the product?
B) 60 bucks is in any way justified for some universal remote I could pickup at Best Buy for 12.95, just because it has a touchpad? That - according to you - costs nothing?
Is that really what you believe?
Tell me you don’t know anything about macOS without telling me you don’t know anything about macOS.
If you are oblivious to the increased spacing, padding, larger UI elements, toggle switches, etc. that began with the release of macOS Big Sur to pave the way for a touchscreen environment in macOS, than I don’t think we have anything to talk about.
But now you’re moving the goal posts.
First it was “But they will require you to use a worse version of macOS that is designed to accommodate big greasy fingers”.
Now it’s “actually this version of macOS has been the norm for the last 6 years”.
So which is it? Is it a worse version of macOS that they *will*, meaning at some future date, force you to use? Or has it been the norm since Big Sur 6 years ago and this is just business as usual?
I didn’t say that it costs “nothing”, but no, adding multitouch support to the display, something that even sub-$100 Walmart branded tablets have, is not going to be the reason the new MacBook goes up in price.
The tandem OLED display and the first 2 nm chips absolutely will be, the multi touch display will not.
Even more evidence of this is Kuo saying that touch support could come to the sub-$1000 MacBook as early as 2027. If it was truly that expensive of a component, they wouldn’t already be talking about bringing it down to their budget conscious models.
You can argue if it’s a good remote (I think it is), and you can say you dont like it (to each their own), but come on, it’s not the same as a $12.95 remote at best buy, dude. There’s a lot more baked into the remote, not to mention better materials, than what you’re comparing it to. Dont be absurd here.
Vincent Hanna
Suspended
chaosbunny
macrumors 68020
I needed a new 16" mbp back in November for work, glad I have a tried and tested design, that I like very much. The last thing I want to do with my mbps screen is to touch it. Then again, people don't have to use the touchscreen if they don't want to. As long as it doesn't make the device significantly more expensive, it's good for those who want it. In my opinion it should be optional.
The bill of materials for the first Apple TV Remote from 2010 (also with a trackpad) was estimated at $6.10.
If we assume that BOM has doubled for the 3rd generation, it is still a markup of ~400%.
Which is absolutely absurd.
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That's a fair point.
To be precise, I wasn't talking about what the technology actually costs. My thoughts are that Apple will use this as a "reason" to jack up the price. And as you can see in this thread the reactions are somewhat (mostly?) negative. But that is expected of MR folks who are clearly not the target audience for touch screens on laptops.
But if Apple really brings touch to all the laptop models in the near future, then maybe my fear of price hikes are unfounded. (TBH I missed the Kuo tweets from 2025, so: good catch!)
aberdeenmeadows
macrumors regular
Appreciate the heads up to skip the 5th and go with the 6th. It's amazing that it's 2026 and we still don't have a Mac in a tablet form. I am hoping that the engineers at Apple will hold their precious new "invention" of a touch screen and think.... what if... what if we put the screen on a swivel and have it... oh, I don't know, rotate around and be able to flip it to make it... uh.. have the same form factor as a tablet!!!! Whoa! Touch screen Mac Tablet! Oh!!!! Oh!!!! We can make another version with that has a detachable keyboard/trackpad!!!!
What name should we give it? FlatMac? MacTab? MacTablet? MacFlat? MacSlab? Oh!!!! I got it!!!! We can make it like a book, you know, flat with the touch screen and all - and we can call it a MacBook! It will look like a book! It will behave like a book!!! MacBook!
What name should we give it? FlatMac? MacTab? MacTablet? MacFlat? MacSlab? Oh!!!! I got it!!!! We can make it like a book, you know, flat with the touch screen and all - and we can call it a MacBook! It will look like a book! It will behave like a book!!! MacBook!
aberdeenmeadows
macrumors regular
100% - I would have made another version of the iMac with touch-screen capability. There are a lot of small mom & pop shops that use an iMac for a POS. This would be a perfect OPTION to have a KIOSK or POS version of the iMac or for those with children where they have a simple iMac in their room and the screen has touchscreen and drawing capabilities. When I had a computer for my daughter back in the early 2000's, I just got her a drawing pad for her Windows PC and she liked having the drawing pad lower, in her lap at a comfortable angle.
When I use a Window's laptop, having the touch screen is useful when I am touching hyperlinks or going through a survey. When touch screens came out for Windows Laptops, I always made sure to get my employees one, including myself. Then years later I realized that I had forgotten the screen is touch and I hadn't touched the screen for nearly a year! Even after that realization, I just couldn't find any need or use for it.
aberdeenmeadows
macrumors regular
I am sure they will release the M5 Pro and Max, along with the M6 in 2026 followed up in 2027 with M6 Pro and Max and then the M7.
aberdeenmeadows
macrumors regular
How about a "shock" when it detects a finger coming from the right or left side of screen? You know, like when your family, boss, or co-worker touches your screen?