Apple MacBook Rumors: New M5 MacBook Pros Could Arrive Sooner Than You Think
If rumors are to be believed, 2026 will be marked by an unusually large harvest of Apple Products. This is shaping up to be a banner year for MacBooks, and we may only be a week or two away from seeing the first new models.
The MacBook Pro is expected to be the first MacBook update of the year, with Apple bringing the most powerful version. M5 Pro and M5 Max chips to the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro lines later this month or in March. Apple could then move to the other end of the spectrum and release its rumored $599 budget MacBook. Also in the first half of the year, the MacBook Air is expected to receive an M5 chip refresh. And before the end of the year, we could see the first MacBook Pros with OLED touchscreens.
Internet speculation has given way to more concrete evidence of these MacBook releases, as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman cites internal Apple communications that reveal “a remarkably busy 2026 with a slew of product releases over the coming weeks.”
According to Gurman, M5 updates for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air could be imminent, and the budget MacBook might not be far behind. Let’s take a closer look at the timing, pricing, and details of the MacBook refreshes expected this year.
MacBook 2026 release schedule announced
While rumors swirl around expected MacBook releases this year, we don’t have exact dates for when the new models will be announced. Based on what I’ve gathered online, here’s my best guess for when we might see new MacBooks this year.
- February or March: MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Air M5
- First half of 2026: Budget MacBook (estimated price $599)
- Second half of 2026: Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro
Read on for a closer look at the timing, pricing, and details of the MacBook refreshes expected this year.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 was released in October, so we’re expecting the rest of the lineup very soon.
M5 Pro and M5 Max updates for MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro was the first MacBook to receive Apple’s latest M5 processor when the 14-inch MacBook Pro was released last October. Now, Apple is expected to expand its M5 offerings and bring the more powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max chips to the MacBook Pro.
THE 16-inch MacBook Pro is still waiting for its M5 update and should also receive the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips at the same time as its little Pro brother.
CNET’s Lori Grunin tested the M5 chip and noted that it offers big performance improvements over the M4 “in the narrow areas where it applies, namely GPU processing for AI and ray tracing graphics.” Still, the MacBook Pro M5 struggles to keep up with the world of AAA games.
THE M5 Pro and M5 Max processors will likely follow in the footsteps of the previous M-series Pro and Max chips, with additional CPU and GPU cores and higher memory allocations.
MacBook Pro models equipped with these high-end chips are priced higher and aimed at processing-intensive tasks such as video rendering, 3D modeling, and AI workloads. If prices remain stable, which is not a sure bet with the Global RAM shortagethe 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip will likely start at $1,999 and the 16-inch Pro with an M5 Pro chip will likely start at $2,499.
As with the last MacBook Pro update last October, these M5 updates will be internal upgrades without any significant changes to the laptop’s design. According to Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, these M5 Pro and M5 Max updates will arrive with Apple’s next major Mac software update, MacOS 26.3, in February or March. If you’re considering buying a MacBook Pro, it probably makes sense to wait and wait for the new models to arrive.
Finally, a real economical MacBook?
Apple reportedly plans to enter the budget laptop market with a cheap model that will be much more affordable than the current cheapest model, the MacBook Air M4, which starts at $999. This new model will abandon Apple’s M series in favor of an A series chip – the same processor that powers the iPhone and could cost as little as $699 or $599 with Apple’s education discount.
Apple already claims that the A19 Pro chip which debuted on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air offers “MacBook Pro levels of computing.” But according to industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it’s possible — even likely — that a budget MacBook would instead use an A18 Pro chip (the chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro).
A budget laptop with an A18 Pro chip would likely offer diminishing returns over the MacBook M4’s chips, running about 40% slower than the current generation of Macs. The A18 Pro also doesn’t support Thunderbolt ports, so the budget MacBook would likely come with less capable USB-C ports.
The new budget MacBook is said to be even more compact than the smaller M4 MacBook Air model.
The other way Apple would keep the prices of this new budget MacBook low would be to reduce the screen size. Kuo said the laptop will feature a “around 13-inch screen,” a claim Gurman corroborated. It could feature a 12.9-inch display, which would be a bit smaller than the 13.6-inch MacBook Air. But it should also be a bit lighter than the Air at 2.7 pounds, making it not only the most affordable MacBook but also the most portable.
This new budget MacBook will compete with Chromebooks and entry-level Windows laptops, which would be a new market segment for an Apple laptop. Gurman wrote that the device is intended for “people who primarily browse the web, work on documents, or do light media editing.” This could be the new MacBook for students. The timing is a little more vague for the release of this economical MacBook, but I hope it will arrive before the next school year.
M5 comes to the MacBook Air
Just as Apple is reportedly preparing to refresh its high-end MacBook Pros with new, more powerful chips, the thinnest and most portable MacBooks are also expected to get an upgrade. It’s quite common for the MacBook Air to get a spring refresh, and the MacBook Air M4 was released in March 2025.
Gurman said we’ll likely see a MacBook Air M5 release in the first quarter of the year, so we can expect a refresh in the same time frame this year. As with the MacBook Pros, we don’t expect a redesign of the M5 MacBook Air. A new look Air is at least a few years away, according to Gurman.
The 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage built into previous versions of the MacBook Air will likely be standard for any M5 MacBook Air. (Fingers and toes crossed that the minimum storage will be moved up to 512 GB.)
The MacBook Air M4 starts at $999 and I expect the price to remain unchanged for the M5 Air.
The first OLED MacBook Pros
Would Apple release two different sets of MacBook Pro laptops in the same year? It’s more likely than you thinkand it would not be unprecedented.
Apple launched two generations of MacBook Pro in 2023, starting the year with MacBook Pro M2 and ending with MacBook Pro M3. So we know that if Apple deems a breakthrough significant enough, it will release several updates in the same year.
An OLED line of MacBook Pros would certainly be considered one of these advancements. According to Gurman, OLED MacBook Pros would achieve several firsts for Mac computers, incorporating an entirely new generation of chips and a touchscreen. Like previous MacBook Pros, the OLED MacBook lineup is said to include 14- and 16-inch models.
The first Macs with OLED displays are also rumored to borrow the Dynamic Island camera cutout from the iPhone.
Apple has been catching up with the rest of the industry by integrating OLED panels into more products, including some of its previous iPhone and iPad Pro models. But as Gurman noted, this will be “the first time this high-end, thinner system has been used in a Mac.”
Touchscreens have been common on Windows laptops for some time, but this design would be the first time Apple has integrated them into a MacBook. “The company took years to formulate its approach to the market, with the goal of improving current designs,” Gurman wrote. “[Apple] has developed a reinforced hinge and screen hardware to prevent the screen from bouncing or moving when touched.
The design would still incorporate standard MacBook Pro keyboard and trackpad functionality. What will apparently change, however, is the camera cutout at the top of the screen. Gurman reported that Apple was removing the iconic “notch” in favor of a “so-called punch-hole design that leaves a display area around the sensor”, similar to the dynamic island introduced on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
OLED MacBook Pros could be the first Mac computers to use next-generation M6 chips, according to Gurman. They will also feature thinner and lighter bezels that will make them more portable than current MacBook Pro models.
If the MacBook Pro adopts a touchscreen design, the computer will be the Closest merger between Mac and iPad we’ve seen so far. Industry analyst Kuo believes the change “reflects Apple’s long-term observation of iPad user behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios, touch controls can improve both productivity and the overall user experience.”
As it stands, however, the OLED MacBook Pro will still offer a more traditional computing experience than other Apple products – just don’t expect the fully convenient touchscreen navigation of an iPad just yet. A trackpad and keyboard control system will remain important pillars of the MacBook experience.
More expensive OLED components and panels will likely cause the price of the MacBook Pro OLED to increase. OLED models will likely cost several hundred dollars more than their current Liquid Retina display counterparts. The current 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the 16-inch Pro starts at $2,499.
THE MacBook Pro OLED It is rumored to go into production this year. While Gurman previously reported that OLED MacBook Pros could hit shelves in early 2027, more recent internal reports suggest that Apple is targeting late 2026 for a potential release.
