Apple's MacBook Pro M6 OLED could be a touchscreen model - and not everyone's happy

Apple's MacBook Pro with the M6 chip could pack an OLED display that's a touchscreen.

This is the latest assertion on the MacBook Pro M6 from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, one of the more reliable sources for Apple leaks - and it originates from the usual people who didn't want to be named.

You may recall that Apple has famously declared itself as dead-against the idea of touchscreen laptops in the past, broadly arguing that a touch-enabled display simply isn't necessary (and represents bad ergonomics, for starters).

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However, that stance has changed as time rolled on, and Gurman actually floated rumors about a touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro as early as the start of 2023.

This new spin on the MacBook Pro will still have a traditional keyboard and trackpad, so the touchscreen will be an additional method of input. The laptop will also drop the notch, we're told, and use a hole-punch design for the camera instead.

Rumors have pinned the launch of this MacBook Pro down to 2026, although in Gurman's latest report, the leaker claims the laptop could arrive later in 2026 - or perhaps early in 2027.

The use of an OLED screen will help to make this MacBook Pro M6 thinner and lighter, which is partly the point of shifting over to this display tech (that and the obvious improvements in image quality in terms of vivid colors and inky blacks).

What's the point of shifting to make the display a touchscreen, you might wonder? Gurman doesn't give us any particularly compelling reason, other than Apple essentially feels it's now necessary to keep up with the rest of the market.

The leaker also points out that Apple has worried in the past about MacBooks cannibalizing iPad sales if they had touchscreens, but now, tablet growth has slowed - and so this is less of a concern. The time is apparently right for a very different MacBook, then.

The touchscreen is only being developed for the high-end MacBook Pro, though, and Apple will seemingly gauge the reaction based on this as to whether to incorporate touchscreens more broadly throughout its laptop range.

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Apple has just revealed its new M5-toting MacBook Pro, but just the base version (Image Credit: Apple)

Costly touch

The inclusion of not just OLED tech but turning the display into a touchscreen will obviously make for a more expensive MacBook Pro, and Gurman does mention pricing, and the idea that the MacBook Pro M6 models are likely to be a few hundred dollars more than existing versions of the laptop.

Gurman points out the MacBook Pro 14-inch with a higher-end chip - meaning the M4 Pro currently (as we only have the vanilla M5 to begin with) - starts at $1,999 in the US, so the expectation is that we'd be looking at a starting price of closing on $2,500, perhaps, for the M6 OLED touchscreen model at this size.

What some people are concerned about is whether this will be a default OLED touchscreen on the higher-end MacBook Pro M6 - which sounds like the case - or whether there'll be an option for a non-touch OLED variant.

Not everyone wants a touchscreen on their MacBook, and some feel Apple had the right idea all along by refusing to adopt one in the past. Not everyone will use a touchscreen, and so they hate the idea of the extra expense therein. And there's also the fact that greasy fingerprints on the screen don't go too well with, say, image editing, and will prove to be an irritating distraction on that shiny OLED display.