MacBook Pro 2026 will get a touchscreen display, while Air will not

According to Chinese informant Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is preparing the first ever MacBook with a touchscreen. Apparently, the company has been observing how people use laptops for a long time and found that in some scenarios, the touchscreen is more convenient than the touchpad. This will further blur the line between iPad Pro and MacBook Pro.

Mass production of the MacBook Pro with OLED screen will begin in late 2026. It will have a touch panel with on-cell touch technology, meaning that the touch layer will be integrated directly into the OLED matrix.

A more affordable MacBook powered by an iPhone processor will go into mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025, but it will not have a touch bar. It will be the cheapest MacBook with a very limited configuration. Perhaps the touchscreen display will appear in its second generation, which may appear in 2027 - Apple has not yet decided.

Context.

Apple has never used touchscreens in laptops and desktops. The company explicitly stated that the computer is not an iPad when Microsoft was promoting touch control in Windows 8. At one point, there were even rumours that a touchscreen would become a requirement for Windows 8. But over time, Microsoft began to lose interest in touch screens. Instead, users began to prefer touch controls in some use cases, which could be of interest to Apple.