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Apple MacBook Pro OLED (2026) Review: The Best Comes at a Cost
Apple doesn’t change its mind very often. Its history is one of sticking to its guns, even when pressed on certain design or technology decisions. And yet, I’ve been working on a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen for the past few days—a device I never thought would come into being.
Ignoring the (very reasonable) arguments about the poor ergonomics of touchscreen laptops made in the past, Apple has brought such a display to the MacBook Pro in the most un-Apple way I could have imagined. I’m not sure why it’s here, but it is.
I do know, though, that I love the new “PROLED XDR” screen. Combine that with a hole-punch cutout for the webcam and the return of the light-up Apple logo on the lid—and it's enough improvements to call this a big upgrade over the rest of the MacBook lineup. But compared to a similarly specced MacBook Pro from a year ago, the OLED model costs almost $1,000 more by comparison.
With the arrival of the OLED MacBook Pro, Apple now offers two flavors of its flagship premium laptop. The standard Mini-LED option now comes with the M6 processor with improved graphics and battery life, but otherwise looks largely the same as before.
The OLED MacBook Pro, however, is the biggest change since 2021. You won’t notice it immediately on the outside. Color options are still just Silver and Space Black. You still have a choice between 14- and 16-inch. Ports are the same. Open it up, and you’ll see the familiar keyboard and trackpad. It’s all there as you’d expect.
The only visual indication that you’re using something different is the glowing Apple logo on the lid. As a feature only available in the very expensive OLED MacBook Pro, it’s a pure, unabashed status symbol. And I love it. It even matches the display’s brightness, so it doesn’t distract in a dark room.
Another discernible difference in the OLED MacBook Pro is something you’ll notice with your hands rather than your eyes. The 16-inch model I tested now weighs just 4 pounds, well over half a pound lighter than the non-OLED equivalent. Most of the weight savings come from OLED, which uses much thinner, lighter layers (more on OLED later). This is a very large laptop, but the weight reduction makes it much easier to carry around in a bag.
And the notch is gone! No Apple design feature has bothered me more than this large cutout at the top of the screen, which houses the webcam and sensors (it remains in the non-OLED model). The punch-hole camera is a huge improvement. As someone who found the notch a complete eyesore since it was introduced, this might be the change I’ve been most excited about. Like on newer iPhones, the MacBook Pro is also getting Dynamic Island, which makes the punch-hole camera more useful. It can show interactive Live Activities, such as timers or currently-playing music. I imagine it won’t be used too often, though it does its job by hiding the punch-hole and showing off those narrow bezels.
There are some subtler tweaks. The rubber feet on the bottom have softer, rounded edges. The bezels around the screen are slightly smaller.
It’s been over two years since Apple first brought its tandem OLED displays to the iPad Pro. In that time, MacBook Pro users have been patiently using the same Mini-LED display. Nevertheless, the OLED MacBook Pro has finally arrived, and Apple has pushed the tandem OLED panel further than ever before. This is the brightest laptop display I’ve ever tested, capable of reaching up to 1,000 nits in SDR. That’s on everyday content throughout the operating system and across all apps. The screen can, however, crank out 2,000 nits of brightness—but only in specific circumstances.