Apple’s OLED touchscreen MacBook Pros set to launch this fall will get a Dynamic Island feature like what’s available on iPhones, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple first debuted the Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max as a pill-shaped cutout that can show information and alerts, though the MacBook Pro’s Dynamic Island will be “smaller” than what’s available on current iPhones.
The new MacBook Pros, which will come in 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes, otherwise look “similar” to the current models, Gurman says, but Apple will be updating the Mac’s user interface to make it “dynamic” and work better for either touch or point-and-click. “For instance, if users touch a button or control, the interface will bring up a new type of menu surrounding their finger that provides more relevant options for touch commands,” according to Gurman.
Apple has long resisted bringing touchscreens to the Mac, with Steve Jobs saying that “touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical” and that touchscreens on a Mac would be “ergonomically terrible” at an October 2010 event — a few months after Apple released the first iPad. But Apple now actively promotes the iPad as both a touchscreen tablet and a device you can use with a Mac-like keyboard.
Gurman reported in 2023 that Apple was considering making touchscreen Macs, and it seems like it won’t be too much longer until they could become a reality. Gurman says that the new touchscreen Macs won’t be announced as part of whatever the company plans to reveal around the time of its planned March 4th event — instead, they’re set for release “closer to the end of 2026.”
Apple also plans to introduce a smaller Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro Max, according to Gurman.