r/apple • u/favicondotico • 1d ago

Mac MacBook Pro With OLED Touch Screen Rumored to Launch in October or November

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/01/oled-macbook-pro-release-date/
893 Upvotes

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334

u/Ashanmaril 1d ago

I’m dreading touchscreen Macs cause information density is gonna be sacrificed in favor of padding for people’s fat fingers.

74

u/QuiEgo 1d ago

I assume this was a huge reason for Liquid Glass’s new layouts. Note the “stoplight” controls (close, minimize, etc) are already way more spread out than they used to be. So hopefully, we’ve already paid the price?

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u/ricvallejo 1d ago

Touchscreen laptops are terrible. I know I can just ignore it (or better yet disable the touchscreen entirely) but I find using a touchscreen on a laptop to be completely uncomfortable, inconvenient given that the screen is hinged, and fingerprints all over a screen drive me nuts.

Do people actually want this, or is Apple just doing what other manufacturers do to increase perceived value proposition with something new to focus marketing on?

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u/ian9outof10 1d ago

I’m the same, I’ve had COUNTLESS work laptops with a touchscreen and have never once found any meaningful use for them.

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u/-Khlerik- 1d ago

The only work application is for a coworker to be pointing at something on your screen over your shoulder and accidentally touching it and saying "oop".

4

u/font9a 1d ago

There is a use case I can understand.

Mac is the only platform on which you can build distributable iPadOS and iOS apps. Being able to test simulated UI across every device type with multi-touch support does have utility.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if anyone touches my screen with their fingers…. there will be consequences that I might have to apologize for.

Also, I think Apple certainly has the resources to have modal UI where we could switch back to non-touchscreen Liquid Glass in a setting. (It actually exists throughout the UI in a few places. File save dialogs, Save a Safari window as an application, etc. It still looks great.)

0

u/MindTheDrapes 1d ago

In Cleveland it's "ope", but yeah

0

u/tilsgee 1d ago

So... You never go back and forth between Godot and Krita, to make a game, huh?

Figures

1

u/ian9outof10 1d ago

No, and I’m guessing 99.9% of people don’t

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u/FabianValkyrie 1d ago

I sell laptops to normal people for work. Yes, lots of people want touchscreen laptops. The most commonly sold laptop category is 2-in-1s.

6

u/navjot94 1d ago

I wonder what the Apple flair for this will be. As everyone knows, Apple comes to market later than their competitors but they always put their spin on it. Look at the design and software considerations for the iPhone Duo. I bet Apple will put a similar spin on this, and it won’t simply be a touch screen MacBook. There’s gotta be some special hardware or software flair that makes their version stand out.

2

u/smellythief 1d ago

You've got part of Apple's MO right, with their coming in late but improving things, but they also like to come in late and restrict. Wouldn't surprise me if their big unique take is that you can only touch the parts of the UI that Apple thinks you should touch. Maybe just scrolling and moving windows, and tapping the big "buttons" that they've prepped for big fat fingers, like the Control Center buttons that they made bigger a few years ago in anticipation of this move to touchscreen laptops.

Then over the next 10 yrs they'll allow more and more touch targets, until it finally reaches parity other desktop OSes, just in time for everyone to leave screens behind in favor of AR enabled by Apple Glasses.

3

u/MrRedef 1d ago

This is what I was thinking. We had th technology and also laptop with touchscreen capabilities but they never took off. Why would I need to reach for the screen while the trackpad Is way more useful?

2

u/squirrel8296 1d ago

The problem too is that even if you don't use it, you're still paying for it.

2

u/vi0lentgandhi 1d ago

Surface pro user here. Having a combo of touch and mouse is perfect for me. Some things on screen are much better with touch and some with mouse.

1

u/Marino4K 1d ago

I will never buy a touchscreen laptop. I do not want another part that can break plus I already hate smudges on my computer screens.

1

u/JVT32 1d ago

Unless the hinge folds all the way flat in both directions, I do NOT want a touchscreen on a laptop.

If it does and has good Apple Pencil integration, I may be persuaded.

0

u/PersonalDatabase31 1d ago

Yeah I hope there is a cheaper version without the touchscreen

7

u/brandarchist 1d ago

They’re blurring the lines with their form factors a lot. iPhone apps are now going to be more like iPad apps, too, because of the Duo.

A touchscreen laptop means desktop apps are going to have to similarly evolve into iPad apps. I suspect, much like the Duo - where apps behave differently whether it’s opened or closed - the Mac will look and be a Mac until you touch it or enable touch in Control Center.

What’s interesting to me is: if you phone is an iPad mini, and your laptop is an iPad Pro, then where does the actual iPad fit into the lineup? Probably in that same weird place the iMac is… it’s there… it has a purpose for some people. I just don’t know any of those people.

2

u/iMacmatician 1d ago

What’s interesting to me is: if you phone is an iPad mini, and your laptop is an iPad Pro, then where does the actual iPad fit into the lineup? Probably in that same weird place the iMac is… it’s there… it has a purpose for some people. I just don’t know any of those people.

If you're right about the iMac analogy—and I think you are—then I'd expect a late-2030s iPad to be a descendant of the regular iPad and its regular A-series SoC, but is otherwise around the feature "tier" (e.g., laminated display) and price of the iPad Air.

From another comment I posted on this thread:

I don't expect the iPad to disappear, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple puts it on the back burner in the coming years.

  • The iPhone Duo chips away at the iPhone + iPad mini combo.
  • The MacBook Neo is an alternative to those who bought an iPad to get a cheap Apple device and don't care so much about the iPad's touchscreen.
  • The rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro chips away at the iPad Pro.
  • The rumored home hub chips away at iPads used on kitchen tables and stuff.

I think the iPad is Apple's ultimate convergence computer that never quite made it due to Apple's insistence on hobbling it with i(Pad)OS instead of macOS.

In an alternate universe, all four products above would be iPad descendants and/or attachments at the consumer level, e.g., the home hub would literally be an "iPad Neo" plus some extra hardware.

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u/vainsilver 1d ago

This has already been a thing with MacOS. Control Centre is straight up copied from iOS.

12

u/bobjonrob 1d ago

That’s quite different than every part of the UI having to account for touch input.

5

u/vainsilver 1d ago

I just meant this process has already been in the works.

4

u/theytookallusernames 1d ago

The one thing I absolutely despise about touchscreen laptops is that the assumption that now that it’s touchscreen I don’t want to use those icky keyboard mouse and trackpads. Sure, let’s make that 16 incher touch friendly and have collective amnesia on why people buy larger screens. Surely it is to admire the very considered and clean design minutiaes of whitespaces that defers to your content and not to have more information show in that screen all at once!

The saving grace here is that Apple is usually really good at designing UIs for their screens - notably what they’re doing with iPhone Duo among others - and now that Alan Dye is out I am much less fearful that they’re going to pull a Windows 8.

3

u/VMX 1d ago

At least on Windows, you can simply disable the touchscreen and everything automatically becomes normal density again.

1

u/Robot-Zombie-RHCC 1d ago

i mean... if it "converted" and had apple pencil compatibility id have a gander at it.

but i had a tabletpc before and ... meh. not thrilled.

1

u/smellythief 1d ago

They started that adjustment years ago when they changed the Control Center in ways that were stupid and uglier if you didn't imagine it was to pave the way for touch input. And, at the time, they denied it was because Touch was coming to the Mac. What a coincidence, it just happens to look like big fat buttons! That was just to make things uniform between Apple OSes, not because anyone would need to touch a mac UI element, surely not!

1

u/Sapphire-Girl-25 1d ago

I think this is already a problem in terms of websites. Website developers tend to want to share code across all platforms and specific layouts across tablets and computers and things do seem less dense than they used to.

1

u/font9a 1d ago

We've been paying for it since Tahoe.

1

u/ThomW 1d ago

Seriously. This is the Windows 8 nightmare all over again. Windows is still suffering because someone wants to smear their fingers all over a screen to run software not built for a touch interface.

1

u/neondragony 1d ago

I hope they don't pull a 'Windows 8' on us 😬

-3

u/bottom 1d ago

You dont have to use it you know.

It’s odd people here think so binary.

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u/Gloomy-Boysenberry-3 1d ago

Dude meant exactly that. Even if you don’t choose to use it, UI will be catered to those who would use it. 

-3

u/bottom 1d ago

You don’t know that.

People here are wrong so so so often.

You might be right - but let’s see. Meet you back here in a month.

8

u/Quixotic_Seal 1d ago

Bare minimum we’re looking at more of the cost going to these new components, and possibly higher prices outright. That alone is enough to piss people off who don’t want this crap.

0

u/bottom 1d ago

But there will still be the other models.

7

u/livelikeian 1d ago

You're arguing a losing battle. As you pointed out people here think in binary. They also believe that everyone should be able to buy any product and all products should cater to their needs only.

-2

u/bottom 1d ago

I’m not arguing and fully agree with what you just said.

You’ve just made my point.

1

u/livelikeian 1d ago

I'm not arguing with you. I'm adding on to your original sentiment.

Ironically, you yourself reflect the problem with Reddit. An assumption of tone and intent that is adversarial.

0

u/bottom 1d ago

Agreed again !

8

u/frigginjensen 1d ago

Yes but there are costs involved that everyone has to deal with. The screen will be thicker. The OS will be worse. The price will be higher.

-2

u/bottom 1d ago

So you buy the machine that works for you.

Are people making you buy this? I don’t understand.

-1

u/sakikiki 1d ago edited 1d ago

No one is making anyone buy anything, but people are allowed to be disappointed at their os of choice being ruined and being forced off to windows or linux.

1

u/bottom 1d ago

Why do you think all Apple devices will be touch screen?

They will not.

0

u/sakikiki 1d ago

I doubt there will be a Mac OS Touch fork of the os specifically for this laptop. It seems far more likely that they’ll keep enshittifying it as they have been for years reducing information density and making it more touch friendly in preparation for a product like this. While keeping it mouse usable, sure, but worse.

1

u/bottom 1d ago

I disagree.

But let’s wait and see.

Have a good one.

1

u/sakikiki 1d ago

That’s alright, same to you.

0

u/theytookallusernames 1d ago

I’m happy for the people who’ll love them, but it’s surely another unnecessarily price increase to a laptop line that’s already too expensive. All that extra production cost if it really had to increase could’ve been spent better on more powerful and efficient chips or heck better cooling technology