OLED MacBook Pro Could Launch as Soon as 2026

Apple is "highly likely" to introduce new MacBook Pros featuring OLED displays in 2026, market research firm Omdia claims.

New MacBook Pros Launching Tomorrow With These 4 New Features 2
According to Omdia's Display long-term demand forecast tracker, demand for OLED displays in mobile devices is projected to grow by 37 percent from 2023 to 2031. This substantial growth reflects a significant shift as many tech companies, including Apple, are increasingly incorporating OLED panels into their high-end notebooks and tablets. Ricky Park, Senior Principal Analyst in Omdia's Display research practice, said:

Apple is highly likely to incorporate OLED into its MacBook Pro models as early as 2026. This move could spark a significant surge in OLED demand within the notebook market, potentially reaching over 60 million units by 2031.

OLED panels can individually control each pixel, resulting in more precise color reproduction and deeper blacks compared to other common display technologies. They also provide superior contrast, faster response times, better viewing angles, and greater design flexibility.

Apple's move to offer OLED displays on the iPad Pro for the first time is projected to triple demand for OLED tablets in 2024 compared to the previous year. The company is expected to bring OLED display technology to most of its tablet lineup, including the iPad mini and iPad Air. This decision is expected to influence competitors' OLED adoption strategies and drive tablet OLED demand to exceed 30 million units by 2029.

A report from last week claimed that Samsung has started developing a new 8-inch OLED display panel for the ‌iPad mini‌. The same report predicted that Apple would update the ‌iPad mini‌ and ‌iPad Air‌ with OLED technology in 2026. Last year, Samsung was rumored to be investing $3.14 billion into its facility in Asan, South Korea to produce OLED panels for upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with OLED displays.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tags: OLED, Omdia
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

neuropsychguy Avatar
19 months ago

The question is why they are so late in the use of OLED technology.
Here are some possibilities. Only people at Apple can provide answers.

* Brightness of the screen is one factor. Larger OLED monitors cannot get anywhere close to as bright as Apple's current monitors. The OLED iPad Pros are 1000 nits / 1600 HDR peak, but it's not clear if that brightness can be hit and maintained yet with the larger screens in MBPs. I'm not aware of any laptop with 14+ inch screens with OLED brightness of 1000+ nits. Anyone know of any? If I had to guess, I'd guess this is the primary issue.
* Risk of burn-in is another factor. That's greatly reduced now with newer OLED technology, but it's a consideration for devices like laptops/desktops rather than phones or watches.
* OLED also don't last as long as mini-LED. I'm not sure if the lifespan is shorter enough to really be an issue, but it's another possible consideration.
* Production costs are a factor, considering Apple's quality requirements.
* It's probable Apple wanted to switch to micro-LED instead of OLED, but clearly that hasn't panned out yet with any sort of mass-production yields.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rosuna Avatar
19 months ago
The question is why they are so late in the use of OLED technology.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mazz0 Avatar
19 months ago
2026 is not "soon".
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DEMinSoCAL Avatar
19 months ago
OLED panels are finding their way into competitors LOW END laptops (not just high end). It's not rocket science and it's bewildering why it takes Apple years to incorporate this technology in their products. If you want to claim that Apple uses "better OLED" (tandem), Dell just introduced their XPS 13 with Snapdragon with a tandem OLED. It takes Dell one cycle to do it, but it takes Apple years?
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmChimera Avatar
19 months ago

OLED panels are finding their way into competitors LOW END laptops (not just high end). It's not rocket science and it's bewildering why it takes Apple years to incorporate this technology in their products. If you want to claim that Apple uses "better OLED" (tandem), Dell just introduced their XPS 13 with Snapdragon with a tandem OLED. It takes Dell one cycle to do it, but it takes Apple years?
That Dell has a max brightness of 400 nits. It’s not in the same league.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MayaUser Avatar
19 months ago
Apple , stop messing around with old tech and try to do anything to go into the future...microLed for 2026 is douable on these kind of devices
Or at least into your Pro Xdr display
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)