A new report confirming Apple’s plans to upgrade its MacBook and iPad displays to OLED says that an OLED MacBook model is in the works and could drop sometime in 2025, the first concrete launch information we’ve heard about the upgraded laptop.
Apple has used OLED displays in its best iPhones for several years, and the screen tech that powers the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max is finally financially viable to distribute in larger mobile devices such as laptops and tablets as manufacturing gets more efficient and costs come down now the tech isn’t so new. To that end, we’ve been hearing plenty of rumors that Apple will debut a new OLED iPad Pro in 2024 with the upgraded display tech and Apple’s new M3 Apple silicon chip.
We’ve also heard more distant rumblings of an OLED MacBook, and now Nikkei Asia reports it could be closer than we’d first thought.
OLED MacBook Pro when?
Apple’s current best MacBook, the M3 Max MacBook Pro, and the wider family of 14- and 16-inch models use the mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR Display, which powers 120Hz refresh rates for buttery-smooth scrolling and excellent visual performance. Going forward, however, Nikkei Asia “Apple plans to deploy the tech in its high-end iPads next year, multiple tech” and that “An OLED MacBook model is also under development for production in the second half of 2025 at the earliest.”
Switching to OLED should give MacBook Pro models better color performance versus mini-LED, with more accurate colors and more responsive changes, as well as pixel-level dimming. Because OLED pixels are lit at the individual pixel level, rather than with a backlight, pixels also produce truer blacks because the pixels can be switched off. It’s an interesting change but one that is sure to benefit “Pro” MacBook users, including those who use them for visually-intensive work such as photo and video editing where every color counts.
Apple’s newest MacBook Pro was released very recently, starring the new M3 Apple silicon chip. It’s the first such chip built on the more powerful 3nm process, making it both faster and more efficient. If a 2025 OLED MacBook Pro is on the way, it’s possible that could be the next update to the line unless Apple releases an update sometime in 2024, which seems less likely given how recently the new model came out.
