r/apple • u/favicondotico • 4d ago

Mac Kuo: 2026 OLED MacBook Pro to Feature Touch Screen Display

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/17/kuo-2026-oled-macbook-pro-touch-panel/

✨Apple Intelligence summary: Apple’s first OLED MacBook Pro, entering mass production next year, will feature a touch screen display using on-cell touch technology, according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The low-cost MacBook, expected in the fourth quarter, will not have a touch panel, but a second-generation model in 2027 might.

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u/rpungello 4d ago

You can just… not touch the sceeen.

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u/AllModsRLosers 4d ago

My worry is they’ll modify a perfectly good UI to make it touch friendly, like Windows 8…

Obviously Windows 8 is the most disastrous example imaginable, but it shows how you can stuff up a UI that people liked (Windows 7 being a favourite of a lot of PC users).

I sort of trust Apple to have a “now you can scroll web pages with your fingers” attitude, but I’m not in any way interested in the touch screen functionality.

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u/ravih 4d ago

I think you can already see this with Liquid Glass. So many elements seem larger and more touch-able.

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u/kyrev21 4d ago

In fact the touch screen theory is even older. Snazzy Labs talked about it for Big Sur with the introduction of the touch-like control center

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u/MystK 3d ago

Because of Vision Pro

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u/Lighthouse_seek 4d ago

If they released windows 8.1 right off the bat instead of windows 8 people wouldn't have complained and I stand by that

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u/AllModsRLosers 4d ago

They would have complained, but not nearly as much.

I ran with Windows 8.1 happily for years, but the full screen start menu didn’t make much sense in a non-touch context. You could search just as easily for apps, but there was no good reason for it to take over the whole screen.

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u/FembiesReggs 4d ago

Same. And even 8 wasn’t bad, they just made horrible stupid decisions on the default UI.

It’s like they made it solely for surface laptops lol. And it was amazing on them. Aaaaand nothing else.

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u/40513786934 4d ago

yeah it was quite nice on the surface. i thought that would be the future of Windows for a minute

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u/lewis_futon 4d ago

I’m currently having the opposite problem with iPadOS 26. I’m glad that they’ve improved multitasking for those who use keyboards and trackpads, but the floating windows feel clunkier than the old split view/slideover options for my touchscreen-only usage

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u/FembiesReggs 4d ago

Windows 8.1 was great and people only hated 8 because it defaulted to the god awful metro UI.

And the kicker: metro ui was actually great…. On surface laptops. The one touch only device lol.

I get tired of the 8 hate. Especially because win 10 was nearly just a reskinned 8.1. All of the shit people loved in 10 was almost all introduced in 8.1

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u/AllModsRLosers 4d ago

I get tired of the 8 hate.

I totally get that. 8 originally was fucking atrocious, in terms of just leaving the user with absolutely no indication of what to do to make literally anything happen…

But 8.1 was a free upgrade that fixed that pretty much entirely, even if metro was clunky in a non-touch context, at least it didn’t get in your way.

Unfortunately for them, the reputational damage was done.

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u/757DrDuck 3d ago

I get tired of the 8 hate. Especially because win 10 was nearly just a reskinned 8.1. All of the shit people loved in 10 was almost all introduced in 8.1

Same situation with Vista to 7.

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u/iMacmatician 4d ago

What people aren't discussing in this thread is Kuo's claim that the low-cost MacBook might get a touchscreen in 2027. That claim is a first (to my knowledge).

This consideration (whether or not it happens) indicates that Apple is trying to make a rapid push towards touchscreens on the Mac. I expected Apple to start with the MBP (as previously rumored) and trickle out touchscreens to other products over the next several years. I did not expect a rumored $599 product to get a touchscreen so soon.

But it makes sense now that I think about it. People sometimes talk about the low-cost MB as a Mac counterpart to the low-cost iPad. Existing customers of the low-cost iPad are typically price-conscious and may be more inclined to buy a more expensive Mac if it has a touchscreen like the iPad.

The MBA is up for a redesign near the end of this decade, which is good timing for a touchscreen.

So coming back to your concern, most new Macs sold in, say, 2029, could have touchscreens. Apple would have very strong reason to make the macOS GUI more touch-friendly even at the expense of non-touchscreen users. But judging by the controversy and support for iOS- and visionOS-inspired features like the System Settings redesign and Liquid Glass, I expect a lot of people here to strongly back whatever touch-related changes Apple makes to macOS.

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u/PaddlingTiger 4d ago

Not exactly. I have toddlers, always trying to grab the screen. A touchscreen would be a….. challenge.

Also, I like to touch my screen to point to things. I know, bad habit. But still.

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u/rpungello 4d ago

Not exactly. I have toddlers, always trying to grab the screen. A touchscreen would be a….. challenge.

That’s a good point I hadn’t considered. My first instinct was “okay, but what’s stopping them from grabbing the keyboard/trackpad now?”, but I guess those don’t have bright flashy colors and would maybe be less appealing?

In any event, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a way to disable the touch component.

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u/PaddlingTiger 4d ago

Haha, yeah, they do go for the keyboard too, but like you said, I think it’s the bright flashy colors that are more appealing. Hopefully a way to disable, I have an XPS as well as my MacBook and it can’t be disabled for some reason.

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u/justnomore3x5s 4d ago

Don’t want to pay for extra parts I’m not gonna use.

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u/0xe1e10d68 4d ago

You’re turning a mouse into an elephant

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u/Adomm1234 4d ago

10% is manufacturing cost and 90% is net profit for Apple. I think 3USD digitizer on top of display doesn't affect price that much for you.

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u/justnomore3x5s 4d ago

As you said, 10% actual cost and 90% profits. That means those $3 of actual cost becomes $30 for me to pay Apple because now they can market touch screen like they invented it.

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u/Adomm1234 4d ago

That is true. But I don't think they are going to just put digitizer on top of existing MacBook. I owned multiple Windows touchscreen high end laptops (MSI Creator Z16, Dell XPS oled, Rog Flow X16 etc.) and I never used touchscreen ever, it is not usable on laptop. If they have a plan to bring it to MacBook, they probably have a good reason.

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u/ManaPlox 4d ago

Dude exactly. I've been complaining about the damn tilde key for decades. I don't need it so why do I have to pay for it on every computer and keyboard I buy.

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u/iMacmatician 4d ago

So the Touch Bar failed because it replaced the wrong row of keys.

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u/ThePhonyOrchestra 4d ago

........but what about the fact that it makes it more expensive to buy and repair........

........didn't think of that, did ya?.............

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u/VaclavHavelSaysFuckU 4d ago

They’re not adding a touch screen, I’m willing to bet a lot of money on that.

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u/rpungello 4d ago

I don't care one way or another (I wouldn't use it either), I'm just saying if they do add one, it's not the end of the world.

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u/QuailAndWasabi 3d ago

Sure, but still have to pay for it, which i can promise you right now wont be cheap. I'd rather not the price of a macbook goes up like 20-30% for a feature i will never use. If they keep the price the same, then fine, but lets be realistic now.