Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro Could Debut as Early as October [Gurman]

Apple is already testing its first touchscreen MacBook Pro with macOS 27.2, according to Mark Gurman.

"Apple, I believe, will introduce its first touchscreen MacBook Pro this fall, as early as October," Gurman said on the Power On podcast. The announcement could slip to November. He first heard about the project in January 2023.

The new estimate narrows the late-2026 to early-2027 window previously given for the higher-end models. In April, memory shortages had raised the possibility that the redesign would slip toward the later end of that range.

Reports have described 14-inch and 16-inch versions of the redesign, each pairing touch with an OLED display and a Dynamic Island. Both features would be firsts for the Mac. A thinner enclosure is also expected, along with a small webcam cutout replacing the current notch. The Dynamic Island could expand around that cutout to show alerts, media controls and Live Activities.

Touch also means changes to macOS. In Golden Gate, Apple has reworked volume controls, buttons, Control Center and app icons so they are easier to use with a finger. The macOS 27.2 developer beta has been available since September. Apple began laying the groundwork in macOS Tahoe, where Liquid Glass added more space around icons, notifications and Control Center sliders.

Tapping a menu-bar item could temporarily enlarge its controls, while other taps would open contextual menus near the finger. The interface is expected to shift depending on whether the user taps or clicks, with scrolling and pinch-to-zoom also planned. Apple is not building it around typing on the screen.

Apple resisted touchscreen laptops for years. Steve Jobs dismissed the idea as ergonomically flawed. The redesigned MacBook is still not meant to become a Mac-iPad hybrid. It keeps the keyboard and trackpad, with touch as another way to navigate macOS.