2026 is shaping up to be the year of the Mac
The holiday shopping season is upon us and it’s a popular time of year to buy a new Mac. Apple’s selection is currently as good as it’s ever been; However, if you buy a Mac more because you want and less because you need tothere are very good reasons to wait until next year.
The latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reiterates Apple’s big plans for the Mac in 2026. In the first half, Apple plans to ship the MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Max. Apple typically ships these premium laptops with the base M-series MacBook Pro, but it changed its release cycle this year when the M5 MacBook Pro came out about three weeks ago, without the Pro and Max models.
According to a previous report, the delay was due to Apple’s redesign of the M5 Pro and Max, which separates the CPU and GPU blocks, allowing for greater customization of the cores. The M5 MacBook Air will also be released, although it’s unclear whether it will be released at the same time as the new MacBook Pro. And then there’s the rumor that the affordable MacBook uses an iPhone chip, designed to compete with Chromebooks and cheap Windows PCs.
Gurman then says that in mid-2026 (we’re thinking between May and WWDC26 in June), Apple will update two desktop Macs. The Mac mini will receive the M5 and M5 Pro, and the Mac Studio will receive the M5 Max and M5 Ultra. Then, around this time next year, the M6 MacBook Pro will be released.
That’s a pretty big release schedule for Mac, but Apple has even more ambitious plans. Previous reports indicate that Apple is planning a major redesign of the MacBook Pro, with an OLED display, a slimmer design and a touchscreen in the M6 Pro and M6 Max models. Gurman believes these laptops will be released late next year or early 2027.
The iMac and Mac Pro are noticeably absent from the calendar. Both of these machines are low volume sales for Apple, so it’s no surprise that they follow longer update cycles. The iMac currently has an M4, so it seems possible that Apple will upgrade it to an M5 or skip a generation and wait for the M6; no reports have been made of an iMac chip or design update.
The Mac Pro, however, features an M2 Ultra chip, which has been eclipsed by the M4 Pro, M4 Max, and M3 Ultra in terms of processor performance. We haven’t heard any solid reports about the Mac Pro, although perhaps the aforementioned revamp of the high-end M5 chipset will play a role in the Mac tower’s release.
