MacBook Pro M5 next year might be disappointing as rumor suggests the real fireworks are coming with MacBook Pro M6 with OLED in 2026

MacBook Pro 2026 could be fully redesigned and thinner with OLED – and much faster with M6 chip

News By Darren Allan published 4 November 2024

Apple’s MacBook Pro for next year isn’t going to be particularly groundbreaking, at least not compared to the fully revamped version due in 2026, rumored to come complete with that major OLED screen upgrade, and a serious uplift for performance with the M6 chip, too.

Mark Gurman’s latest instalment of ‘Power On’ is the source of this juicy MacBook rumor, but if you check the online newsletter at Bloomberg, you won’t see the speculation, as only subscribers get to peruse the answers to Gurman’s post game Q&A at the end of the piece.

One of the questions pitched to the leaker is: “Should I wait for next year’s MacBook Pro to upgrade?” And the short answer is that if you’re expecting a revamped model for 2025 after a relatively modest overhaul for the 14-inch and 16-inch flavors this year – mostly based on the new M4 SoC – you may be disappointed.

Gurman replies to the question to note that “the MacBook Pro probably won’t get another true overhaul until 2026,” with Apple looking at a five-year cycle for redesigns of the laptop (rather than four years as has been the case in the past).

The MacBook Pro 2026 will likely be the move to OLED (finally) and a thinner chassis.

So, Gurman tells us that he believes the MacBook Pro for next year will be “mostly about the chip (again)” except in this case, we’ll obviously be looking at the M5 and its Pro and Max versions. Apparently, development of those CPUs is already nearing completion, the leaker informs us.

With the M6 chip in 2026, Apple will shift to a 2nm process, and we can expect a major boost from that, whereas the M5 will represent a modest uplift in performance compared to the M4.

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