For years, the professional creative community has been waiting. We’ve seen the perfect, inky blacks and vibrant colors of OLED on our iPhones. We saw it make the stunning leap to the iPad Pro in 2024. And we’ve all looked back at our incredibly good but not quite perfect MacBook Pro screens and asked, “When?”

Well, we finally have an answer. But like all things Apple, it’s a bit complicated.

According to the latest “Power On” newsletter from Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, a man whose Apple predictions are practically gospel, the company is gearing up for a major MacBook Pro revamp. This update, slated for late 2026 or early 2027, will bring OLED screens to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro… but only if you buy the high-end M6 Pro and M6 Max models.

That’s right. The “base” 14-inch model, which will presumably run the standard M6 chip, is getting left behind. It’s set to stick with the current (and still excellent) mini-LED display technology.

The great display divide

Let’s be real: this move, while frustrating for some, makes perfect sense from Apple’s perspective. It’s the escalation of a strategy we already see today.

Right now, Apple sells three “Pro” laptops:

1. A 14-inch “starter” model (currently M5).
2. A 14-inch “pro” model (M5 Pro/Max).
3. A 16-inch “pro” model (M5 Pro/Max).

While they all share the “Pro” name, the starter model is already nerfed. It has fewer ports, a single fan instead of two, and, of course, a less powerful chip with less memory bandwidth. Apple is now planning to draw an even starker line in the sand by making the display—the single most important component you interact with—the key differentiator.

By reserving OLED for the real pro-grade machines, Apple is making the upsell clearer than ever. They’re no longer just selling you more cores and memory (which are invisible); they’re selling you a visibly, dramatically better screen.

Why OLED is the upgrade we’ve been waiting for

So, what’s the big deal? Is the current mini-LED “Liquid Retina XDR” display bad?

Absolutely not. It’s one of the best laptop displays on the market. It uses thousands of tiny LEDs for its backlight, creating “local dimming zones” that allow for fantastic brightness and deep blacks.

But it’s not perfect. Anyone who has watched a dark movie scene with bright subtitles has seen its one, tiny flaw: blooming. It’s a faint “halo” of light that leaks around bright objects on a pure black background.

OLED, or “Organic Light Emitting Diode,” fixes this. With an OLED panel, there is no backlight. Each individual pixel is its own tiny light source. This means:

• Perfect blacks: To show black, the pixel just… turns off. Completely. This results in an infinite contrast ratio that makes mini-LEDs look gray by comparison.
• No blooming: Zero. None.
• Thinner panels: Without that complex backlight assembly, the entire display lid can be thinner and lighter.
• Faster response times: Pixels can change state almost instantly, leading to even less motion blur.

It’s the same display tech that makes the new iPad Pros so stunning, and having it on a Mac will be a game-changer for video editors, photographers, and graphic designers.

The bombshell buried in the report: touch screens

Oh, and there’s one more thing.

Gurman’s report doesn’t just mention OLED. It says Apple is working on a “revamped M6 Pro and M6 Max MacBook Pro with an OLED display, thinner chassis and touch support.“

Yes, you read that right. Touch support. On a Mac.

After more than a decade of Apple executives, and Steve Jobs himself, dismissing the idea of a touch-screen laptop (famously coining the “gorilla arm” argument), it seems they’re finally ready to do it. This isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a massive philosophical shift for the Mac, one that could fundamentally change macOS and further blur the line between the MacBook and the iPad. Other reports have even suggested Apple is developing a reinforced hinge to keep the screen from wobbling when you poke it.

This M6 Pro update isn’t just a spec bump. It’s shaping up to be the biggest redesign, both in form and function, that the MacBook Pro has seen in years.

What about the rest of us?

If you’re not planning on shelling out for a top-tier M6 Max machine, you’ll have to wait. The report implies that the base M6 MacBook Pro will get OLED… eventually. Apple’s strategy is almost always “cascade,” meaning pro features trickle down to cheaper models over time.

We’re seeing the same story with the MacBook Air, which Gurman and other analysts have said is also in line for an OLED upgrade, but not until 2028 at the earliest.

For now, the message from Apple is clear: if you want the absolute best, you’ll have to pay for the “Pro” or “Max” chip to get it. Starting in late 2026, the “Pro” in MacBook Pro will be defined not just by its power, but by the perfect, touchable screen you’re staring at.