Apple’s next high-end MacBook Pro could bring one of the biggest redesigns to the laptop in years, with a significantly lighter body reportedly joining the already-rumoured OLED display and touchscreen support.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has reworked the internals of its upcoming MacBook Pro, miniaturising parts and rearranging components to make the laptop considerably easier to carry. The report doesn’t reveal an exact weight, but describes the reduction as “significant”. That could be particularly noticeable on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which has traditionally prioritised performance, battery life and cooling over being especially light.
A bigger MacBook Pro redesign
The reduced weight isn’t expected to arrive on its own. Apple is reportedly preparing an OLED display for the new high-end MacBook Pro, replacing the Mini-LED technology used by current models. More surprisingly, the display is expected to support touch input, which would make this Apple’s first touchscreen Mac.
Touchscreen laptops have obviously been common on the Windows side for years, but Apple has continued to rely on the MacBook’s keyboard and trackpad while reserving direct touchscreen interaction for the iPad.
There are already potential signs of touchscreen Mac support appearing within macOS 27.2. The latest beta reportedly contains new gesture-recognition references across apps including Photos, Notes, Safari and Quick Look, alongside a new long-press animation for Dock icons.
Previous reporting has also suggested macOS could dynamically make some controls larger when users interact with the display using touch. Importantly, touch isn’t expected to replace the keyboard or trackpad, but rather provide another way of interacting with a Mac.
OLED would be another major change. The MacBook Pro already has an excellent Mini-LED display, so Apple would need to offer more than simply putting an OLED panel into the laptop. Reports suggest Apple will use Tandem OLED technology, while the redesigned display could also replace the familiar notch with a Dynamic Island-style area.
Combined with a thinner and significantly lighter chassis, this could make the upcoming model feel considerably different from the MacBook Pro Apple has been selling since the major 2021 redesign. That 2021 generation actually moved in the opposite direction in some respects. Apple made the MacBook Pro thicker and brought back useful connections that had disappeared from previous models, prioritising functionality over its earlier pursuit of thinness.
Gurman currently expects Apple to introduce the new high-end MacBook Pro as early as October 2026, although the launch could slip into November. Apple is reportedly testing the machines with macOS 27.2, further suggesting that a release is getting closer.
There is still some uncertainty surrounding exactly where these machines will sit in Apple’s increasingly broad MacBook range. Recent reports suggest the OLED touchscreen models could be positioned above the regular MacBook Pro rather than simply replacing every existing model immediately. Even the possibility of different branding, such as “MacBook Ultra”, has been floated, although that remains unconfirmed.
Either way, if the reports are accurate, this is shaping up to be much more than another processor refresh. A significantly lighter and thinner chassis, OLED display and touchscreen support would represent substantial changes to a MacBook Pro design that has remained broadly familiar for the past five years.
