A MacBook with an OLED display in place of the LCD could be on the market in 2026, according to an industry analyst.
This should noticeably improve on the already excellent displays used in macOS notebooks.
OLED MacBook is likely in development
With OLED (short for organic light-emitting diode) displays, each pixel glows on its own. The result is a bright, even image with strong contrast. This type of screen looks so good, it’s already used for iPhone and Apple Watch. And the newly-launched M4 iPad Pro has one, too.
That leaves MacBook as Apple’s last major product category still using LCDs. But maybe not for much longer.
“Apple is highly likely to incorporate OLED into its MacBook Pro models as early as 2026,” Ricky Park, an analyst in Omdia’s Display research practice. “This move could spark a significant surge in OLED demand within the notebook market, potentially reaching over 60 million units by 2031.”
It’s assumed Apple has so far avoided building the advanced type of screen into its notebooks because of cost. Incorporating OLED into the latest iPad Pro added $200.
But Park isn’t the only analyst to predict that’ll change in a couple of years. Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, said in late 2023 that an OLED MacBook might be out in 2026, but it could take until 2027 instead.
In the mean time, Apple will surely continue to use mini-LED displays in its MacBooks. This type of screen puts use thousands of tiny LEDs behind the LCD to provide a backlight that can be illuminated in very specific areas.
OLED here there and everywhere
Cupertino seems to be in the process of transitioning all its computers away from LCD.
An OLED iPad mini is reportedly in active development. But an OLED iPad Air might not be out before 2028.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
