The M5 MacBook era is reportedly ready to begin very soon

Macworld

In the latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is “nearing mass production” of the next MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. The laptops are expected to be released at the end of this year or during the first quarter of 2026.

These new MacBooks are expected to be chip-and-ship upgrades featuring the new base M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max chips. In July, Gurman reported that the M5 MacBook Pro series will be the last of this current design as Apple will implement a new case and OLED displays in the 2026 release as a way to commemorate the MacBook Pro’s 20th anniversary. Earlier this month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the 2026 MacBook Pro could have a touchscreen interface.

Gurman also reported in July that Apple was targeting the MacBook Pro launch for early 2026, though he did not address this in his report yesterday. For the M3 and M4 MacBook Pros, Apple released new models in November so they could be available for the holiday shopping season. However, the M2 MacBook Pro was released in January 2023, so there is a precedent for an early 2026 release.

The new MacBook Air will have the base M5 chip and few other new features. Apple released the M4 MacBook Air in March of this year, and the M3 model was released in March 2023, so an M5 MacBook Air release in March 2026 seems likely.

Gurman also reported that Apple has two new Mac displays that are also entering mass production, which is likely to be a replacement for the Studio Display, which was released in 2022. The new Studio Display will be a similar size to the current one and promoted as a MacBook Pro companion. In March, Gurman reported that the second display that Apple is working on could be an upgrade to the Pro Display XDR, which was released in 2019.