Apple reportedly releasing 'total redesign' for MacBook Pro in 2026 | Hacker News Reader

Apple reportedly releasing 'total redesign' for MacBook Pro in 2026

9to5mac.com

16 pointsgniting47 comments

Can't wait for what weird thing they'll do this time and reverse later. We had butterfly keyboards, touchbar, USB-only dongle-fest, the notch (hopefully going away this time), ...

And thinner? Why? There's no practical need to be much thinner, and if they are, you start to get into the realm of the iPads that were easy to bend because they were so thin.

I do not understand this quest for thinness.

MBPs are really thick and burdensome

Yes, that's why 15" Air is my next laptop.

Trouble is they reduced the screen size and resolution while going from 15 to 16 they did not improve resolution. So you are effectively buying 14" resolution.

Have you considered a Mac mini with a 4k OLED portable screen + a high quality keyboard and mouse? It's far more ergonomic. The only issue is it's a bit of hassle to pull out for a few minutes at a cafe. But for those times a tablet might be more than enough anyway. I know this setup wouldn't work for everyone but I've been waiting years for mini computers to get this powerful.

I'm intrigued by the idea of using this in a cafe.

Is there a way to run this setup from a battery or would it need a power socket? Could you recommend any portable 4k screens?

> Is there a way to run this setup from a battery or would it need a power socket?

Well, I'm sure there is some way. The power draw would be low enough to run off a battery. But realistically it would be much easier to just plug in every time.

> Could you recommend any portable 4k screens?

No, sorry. I have a 16" 2k portable UPerfect screen which, while not the best screen I've ever used, is very decent for the price, since it was only about $120. But if you're willing to spend considerably more I'm sure you can get much better.

Unless there is a cooling revolution there really is no other way. Even now the MBP throttles. Not something that should be acceptable in a pro device.

Call me when they remove the notch. Maybe one other actual tangible improvement would be a low-profile mechanical keyboard.

Outside of that the Macbooks are pretty much perfect already.

I wonder if an under-display camera[0] would be good enough for a laptop? If Apple truly is pivoting to OLED, this option becomes available, and it's been proven to be pretty OK by various phones.

Obviously this won't provide amazing footage, but if you're making high-quality footage for e.g. YouTube you probably want to buy a dedicated camera anyway.

[0]: For example, see https://www.tomsguide.com/news/the-battle-of-the-under-displ...

Ideal if you want a view of someone's nostrils. You can probably basically get away with it on a phone, but we've _seen_ what happens when you try it on a laptop: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/the-dell-xps-13-finally-...

Sounds like an excellent excuse for "digital makeup" in Zoom.

Another option is an angled camera from the main body. Apple can already track faces digitally.

Those cameras exist in a lot of Windows laptops and are generally ridiculed as "nose cameras". Probably not the best idea.

True. The counterargument is that if you care about quality, you're already better off with Continuity Camera, so maybe you already view the built-in as just a backup.

A MagSafe charging spot on the back of the monitor would be a nice touch. Charge your phone there and its camera is clipped in place by default.

I literally never notice the “notch”.

Good for you. I do though.

I've set my macbook pro 14 display resolution to 1920x1200, and the OS will paint a black where the notch is. the menu bar is just below.

1920x1200 is absolutely usable as a resolution on a 14" display and I don't miss the higher one.

So i don't get the notch, even though i'm on a m1 pro macbook pro. Bonus point: i don't get those dumb round corners.

Have you tried one of the free tools that color the menu bar black? Life changing.

If the camera stays in place, remove the notch == replace the top strip of pixels with dead space?

Yes, do that. People had zero problems with "dead space" for decades.

They already do that when you full screen anything with the notch.

You can get exactly that experience with the current hardware. Just set the screen resolution to a 16:10 one.

Bingo. It's a nice trick because you get the menu bar space back to.

Install nuke notch and live the rest of your life notch free

> perfect already

Come on, you need more imagination. NFC, folding screen, face id, eye tracking, touchscreen, co2 sensor, presence detection, titanium.

Would be nice if it also folds the laundry. :)

I think Macbook Pros should be quite advanced machines with slightly out-there features, so I would love to see the touchbar back as a power user option but above function keys. I absolutely loved it on my 2019 MBP and it represented a bunch of new ways of doing things, but it was gone too soon to really mature. Most Mac users clearly don't need it, but there's a certain group of obsessive users that will hack on stuff like this.

I'd much prefer a display underneath the trackpad. It would be so much more flexible in terms of which UI you can implement, and it would not necessitate any extra real estate.

If they could add the tactile feedback of the mousepad maybe. But the touchbar in its last incarnation as just a screen was absolutely awful for function buttons.

It was no substitute for function keys, but being able to get close to the screen while editing pictures and using the touch bar to adjust sliders with my finger without looking at the control on screen was A+, so much nicer than cursor keys.

Having a secondary display that was context-sensitive (thanks Better Touch Tool) was super cool.

My point was that power user hackers will find interesting ways to use interfaces and controls. I’m not really interested in the people who tell me it’s useless for them or don’t need it, that’s fine, but I do want to see stuff that isn’t immediately understood or with a predefined purpose, just because it’s cool.

So let's go with a touch screen replacing the whole keyboard/trackpad surface, but with vertically controlled extruding/pressable pixels and haptics, so we get a physical keyboard of whatever dimensions and arrangement we like, and any other types of controllers.

I wouldn't mind a "physical" touch scroll bar on the right side of my keyboard, controlling vertical scrolling on the screen with more accuracy, less swiping.

If the tops of the pixels can roll, it could actually have a physical "thumb" button that you slide up and down. I.e. pixels going up and down to "move" the thumb. The rolling making it feel smooth and frictionless when you "move" it.

Games and other tools could create some. awesome interfaces. Swipe down to get your keyboard sliding back.

That's kind of cool, maybe each key could be a mini apple watch screen. A digital crown mounted fairly flush into the side could handle small, precision movements with haptic feedback, and perhaps an iPod wheel.

Keen to see more of these PopTouch buttons on flat screens!

The touchbar was and will always be useless. Chromebooks have shown that touchscreens are good for productivity, for everybody but especially for mobile application developers, while simultaneously doing away with any need for a tablet.

Please don’t remove the hdmi port. A USB-A would be a great addition.

And bring back SCSI while they’re at it.

I see no real reason to redesign the MBP. Only place I think they could push further is the camera and maybe even the speakers. The keyboard, trackpad, display and ports are a okay.

Apple logic dictates that they found a way to shrink the notch years ago but have been waiting for a redesign to roll it out so they don't upset the current design language of the Mac.

Sure do love the form over function reality we live in, today. Yessiree.

That's function. It lets you reuse the manufacturing processes.

> the form over function reality we live in, today

1980—nearly half a century ago—is calling [1].

[1] https://www.techjunkie.com/apple-iii-drop/

At this rate, America in 2085 will consist of a demographic containing 285 million slightly different Mark Gurmans.

What I care more about is if we'll have sideloading in 2026: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28851533

If the answer is no, then thank goodness for Asahi Linux.

Sorry I must be out of the loop. Side loading on Mac seems like it's already possible? Just download with browser, Option-Click the app and open, right?

IIRC this doesn’t work for iOS apps

That's correct.

The parent comment mentioning Asahi Linux implies they're referring to Macs, and thus MacOS, not iOS. Further the article being commented on is about the Macbook.

No I mean installing iOS apps on macOS on Mx devices

Ah, okay. I guess that makes sense. Pretty low on my list of things to be outraged by personally but so it goes.

>Just download with browser, Option-Click the app and open, right?

Not for much longer: https://lunduke.locals.com/post/6304352/apple-removes-abilit...

I ran into the same error while trying to install QMK Toolbox the other day. Apple's control-freak policy over what you can and can't install is sickening.

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