Waiting for an M5 MacBook? You might have to wait a little longer

Apple is expected to unleash a new MacBook soon, although it may not be as soon as hoped. Until now rumours had pointed towards a 2025 unveil but that appears to be a little premature.

The new expectation for the MacBook Pro with M5 chip unveil is 2026.

This new model will be one of the best MacBooks meaning it will come toting the latest M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. However, according to Apple leakster Ming-Chi Kuo, the manufacturing process for the new chips mean Apple won't be able to release them until 2026.

What does the information tell us about the new MacBook?

The research note from Kuo was referring to how manufacturing works when it comes to the new M5 chips. The focus was on there being separate underfill and moulding processes during production. But the year 2026 was casually dropped in there too.

This corroborates a previous report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who reported that Apple is considering pushing back the new M5 MacBook Pro release until 2026.

Apple is also rumoured to be adding a new budget range to its MacBook line-up, with chips from the iPhone 16 Pro.

While this perhaps could be produced sooner, it seems likely Apple will launch all the MacBooks at once, as it has done historically.

Apple is also expected to add an OLED display to the new MacBook Pro in a first for its laptops. This is rumoured to involve a new casing. All that sounds like a big shift for the company which could also be adding to the longer wait for these new models.

That said, rumours suggest the OLED may not arrive until the M6 chip launches, so that wait could be even longer. So it sounds like we may have the choice of a new M5 in 2026 or the M6 with OLED in 2027.