Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

[ssbb]

Counterpoint. I bought the 16” M1-Pro when it was released, first generation with added features, all were wanted and/or needed by various people and it’s been spectacular. I would have no problem buying the redesign.

Yeah I don't see a problems with 1st gen too (unless it's a new keyboard 😀). Still happy with my 14" M1 Pro.

But it's different. Personally I had few laptops (Dell XPS I believe) with touchscreens and never used them. OLED - just no. Good for media consuming, bad for non-media work.

So this "don't buy" signal is kind of nonsense anyway because it's not better - it's different. So it's more like If you would like to have OLED screen then you should not buy this non-OLED model and wait for OLED model.

 

[coolfactor]

Can we all just agree how amazing our current bit-matrix screen technology truly is?!? Scroll up and down and the content moves so magically! It's 60,000 (or 120,000) new images being drawn every second! Like, what?

We definitely live in an amazing time.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled rumours... and the next release will be amazing in its own right, so buy it if you need it!

 

[sevoneone]

Reasons why I wouldn't wait: There is a non-zero chance that Apple will raise the price with the release of a redesign given the additional costs of OLED and cellular in combination with rising RAM and NAND prices. Also, it typically takes much longer before the first release of a new design sees any significant discounts. Finally, based on the performance of the base M5 MBP, the M5 Pro/Max should be a monster.

Reasons Why I will wait: I'd much rather have an M5 Max Studio than a MBP. Having an M1 Max laptop these past several years, I've realized that there are very few times I need that much compute power away from a desk.

 

[coolfactor]

If a touchscreen is added to a Macbook running macOS, doesn't that turn iPadOS into an also-ran?

I mean, if macOS is made touch-friendly, why wouldn't/shouldn't it also run on iPad Pros and Airs, turning them into 2-in-1 Macbooks, into the Apple equivalent of Microsoft Surfaces?

And if Apple could do that but doesn't, would it be a purely marketing decision aimed at forcing people to buy two devices instead of one?

Yup, sitting around a table at an employer meeting 20 years ago and a guy with a Windows PC was showing off how he can spin and fold the screen down to turn it into a tablet. 20 years ago, and Apple laptops still can't do that. It's time that Apple avoids the "forced buy" model, because nothing technically stops their devices from transforming into the best form factor for the moment.

 

[nutmac]

If I need to purchase a MacBook Pro soon, a refreshed version with the M5 Pro or M5 Max, a faster SSD, faster RAM, and potentially N1 with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 seems like a good thing.

Of course, if you have a good working Mac, it probably makes sense to wait a bit for the M6 Pro or M6 Max version.

 

[darngooddesign]

...

 

[HappyMBAowner]

To summarize most posts in other threads about these rumors:

Touchscreen - do not want.
OLED - who cares.
Cellular - won't use it.
2nm Chips - marginal performance improvement, the M1 is still fine for most people.

And then there are the people who just think everything apple does is magical and wonderful, who use an iPhone Air and bought a Vision Pro. To them, all of these features are apparently a necessity and apple will do them better than anyone else.

Touchscreen - do not want. AGREE
OLED - who cares. AGREE
Cellular - won't use it. AGREE
2nm Chips - marginal performance improvement, the M1 is still fine for most people. -- Well, I exchanged my M1 for an M4 because Final Cut Pro requires more power. But I'm marginal...

 

[darngooddesign]

Yeah I don't see a problems with 1st gen too (unless it's a new keyboard 😀). Still happy with my 14" M1 Pro.

But it's different. Personally I had few laptops (Dell XPS I believe) with touchscreens and never used them. OLED - just no. Good for media consuming, bad for non-media work.

So this "don't buy" signal is kind of nonsense anyway because it's not better - it's different. So it's more like If you would like to have OLED screen then you should not buy this non-OLED model and wait for OLED model.

I feel like OLED will be an option.

I still doubt touch will be a thing for Mac, and, unless there is some dramatic change to the software, cannot see why I would pay for it. I am not willing to spend a few hundred extra bucks to be able to scroll up and down via the screen.

Touch will be built into the OS so youre probably not going to be paying for it specifically.

 

[Madonepro]

Counterpoint. I bought the 16” M1-Pro when it was released, first generation with added features, all were wanted and/or needed by various people and it’s been spectacular. I would have no problem buying the redesign.

I too bought a 14" M1 when first released, because other than the change in chassis, and the introduction of Apple Silicon, I was confident in the screen, and other built if features, that were rolled over into this. This device, will have a new screen, where the jury is still out on whether it's reproducible in mass scale, and adding in touch screen (and we al remember how it first was in iPhone), and then cellular, (remember antenna-gate), is a potential recipe for disaster. Battery life will take a hit, because it has too. Apple will mitigate that, with some 'distorted reality' marketing. No thanks...

As we so often in these forums, users want consistent, safe, easy to use products, that just work! Yeah sure we'll have the early adopters, who will castrophise within here, if even the slightest thing is wrong. And as someone else pointed out, MR will no doubt publish, in the very near future, another article, espousing the opposite argument.
Sadly we see in most media these days, a drive to publish to increase traffic, ad revenue etc.

 

[Tagbert]

OLED on Mac: say hello to burn-in.
Touch screen: Apple often ends up copying Microsoft or Samsung, usually 5 to 20 years late.

My iPad Pro with OLED is almost 2 years old now and used for several hours a day. No sign of burn in on the tandem OLED as you would expect knowing something about how OLED work. I would expect an OLED screen on a MBP to be at least as good.

Touch is long overdue. Everyone uses touch all the time now and it seems strange that MacBook screens are so dead. Of course, not everyone will use them, but that's OK.

 

[PowerMac5500]

This assumes every rumor lands cleanly and on schedule, which almost never happens.

Buying decisions shouldn’t be frozen by a supposedly 2026 “super refresh” especially when the real-world gains of OLED, touch, or 2nm for many pro users are still completely unclear.

If you need the performance now, an M5 Pro/Max will be excellent at what it’s meant to do.

You could tone it down a bit with the click bait skewed content and titles. Like the post on the 10 upcoming products that was so bad it was slayed in the comments and then deleted. Just a suggestion.

 

[Madonepro]

And then there are the people who just think everything apple does is magical and wonderful, who use an iPhone Air and bought a Vision Pro. To them, all of these features are apparently a necessity and apple will do them better than anyone else.

And these forums will be flooded with their disappointment, embellished within numerous threads.

This. Cellular is way overdue for the Mac and would be a great new feature.

Said no one. Even PC manufacturers are reticent to include cellular capability, approx 5% of laptops in 2026 feature this.

OLED on Mac: say hello to burn-in.
Touch screen: Apple often ends up copying Microsoft or Samsung, usually 5 to 20 years late.

Sometimes true, but the ethos has often been, not copying to get a slice of the market share with a similar product, but reinventing the product category, such as how Tablets and Smart Phones were ubiquitous prior to the iPad and iPhone, but Apple changed the course/category forever. It tried with the AVP, but is failing,

 

[Madonepro]

My iPad Pro with OLED is almost 2 years old now and used for several hours a day. No sign of burn in on the tandem OLED as you would expect knowing something about how OLED work. I would expect an OLED screen on a MBP to be at least as good.

Touch is long overdue. Everyone uses touch all the time now and it seems strange that MacBook screens are so dead. Of course, not everyone will use them, but that's OK.

A few years ago, the Touch Bar was on the MacBook Pro's, and the Mac community was livid. The argument to return to having function keys, and more ports was the loudest, by far, and those that ascribed a touch input feature, were shot down in flames. I doubt their is true appetite for a touch screen, and if their is to be one, the MacBook Air is the device for it. Positioning the MBA as ultraportable, with a M6 chip, touchscreen and cellular capability, would position it, alongside the PC based devices that currently have that feature set. The demographic for the AS M Pro/Max/Ultra series, are developers, coders, videographers etc. Where touch would be a feature not conducive to their workflow.

 

[savantgk3]

After a month of bad rumors and release date speculation this just comes off as sour grapes.

 

[Burbank]

I plan to buy a new M5 Max MacBook Pro BECAUSE there's a new refresh coming out later in the year. I have zero interest in buying a Mac in it's first year of a design refresh. We have no way of knowing if the new design will be an improvement.

 

[Corefile]

I'm not sure what to do. I haven't bought a new MBP since 2015 so I don't know what to do.

 

[izzy0242mr]

Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works being a brainless consumer who just buys the latest product without actually needing it is stupid, environmentally harmful, fiscally irresponsible, and doubly stupid because you can save hundreds of dollars buying a gently used last year's generation for comparable performance given how good Apple Silicon is.

 

[Apple MessagePad]

Y'all been claiming the next MBP will be a redesign for more than 5 years. Advising people not to buy the next MBP because the one after will get a redesign is simply ignorant. Batting a 0 for 20 but somehow you claim the next guess will be spot-on. 🙄

 

[izzy0242mr]

I'm not sure what to do. I haven't bought a new MBP since 2015 so I don't know what to do.

I haven't bought a new one since 2011. I currently have an M1 Pro MBP.

I just don't buy Macs new anymore. Saves hundreds or even a thousand+ depending on the model for quite honestly pretty comparable performance since I'm not the 5% pushing their Mac to the max for their job.

 

[BigDHimself]

Not interested one bit in OLED it adds nothing to my workflow or quality of what I do, it may suit others, but I certainly would not buy or pay extra for it if replacing my MacBook Pro M3 Max. I’m also not interested in a touchscreen laptop or seeing someone else’s dirty fingerprints on what they’re showing me. Ewwww … gross.

 

[Anglagard]

If you got a working Apple Silicon machine once new design and new .2nm tech is released the value of existing machines is going to collapse. Apple users are very conscious of looks and appearance, they wont like exhibting their old models. It is actually a phenomenom studied in marketing.

 

[Jaisah]

MacOS will be ruined if they make a touchscreen mac. Look at what happened to Windows when they tried to make a UI that works for both a mouse pointer and a fat finger? Goodbye elegant UI elements and tightly clustered information and hello huge clunky UI with big buttons etc.

I'm still rocking my M1 Pro 14" MBP and I still don't see any reason to update. I will eventually but I'm in no rush.

 

[87arc]

Personally I do not fancy a touchscreen as I prefer to keep the screen clean

 

[Kygooglenerd]

Cellular MBP is what I've been waiting for, probably will upgrade my M2 to the M5/M6 base model, maybe will wait for the cellular Air.

 

[unomas77]

I’ve been running a maxed out M2 air for over 3 years now, definitely hoping the M5 air is coming in March, I’ll buy the maxed out version. I don’t think the M6 air Will be a big upgrade over the M5 air. The M5 airs GPU is significantly better than the M4 air, and will be much better than my M2 air. I doubt the M6 air gets much of a GPU upgrade over the M5 model.