Touchscreen MacBook Pro on 28 October? Why you should wait to buy
Key takeaways
- Apple has confirmed a Pro and Tell event for 28 October at 10am PT in Los Angeles.
- Rumours point to a touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
- Nothing is confirmed and no prices are out, so the safest move is to wait eight days.
Eight days. That is how long you have until Apple's Pro and Tell event on 28 October, and if you are about to buy a Mac, those eight days are the whole decision.
Apple has confirmed the event for 10am PT in Los Angeles. It will run as an Apple Experience rather than a classic keynote, and Greg Joswiak teased it with a logo-only video. Everything below beyond the date and time is rumour.
What is rumoured
The headline is a touchscreen MacBook Pro in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. The reports describe an OLED display, a Dynamic Island, a thinner body and M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Also tipped are a refreshed iMac, an entry 14-inch MacBook Pro on M6, and an OLED iPad mini with an A20 Pro chip.
None of this is confirmed, and no prices are out. Memory costs have been climbing for months, which is the part worth sitting with; our look at why hardware prices keep rising into 2027 explains why a new model may not be cheaper than the one it replaces.
Should I wait to buy a MacBook Pro?
In plain terms, it depends on how urgent the purchase is.
Wait if your current machine still works. If the touchscreen model is real and you want it, you will have seen the price before spending anything. If it is not what you want, current models are likely to be discounted once newer ones appear, though Apple has not said so.
Buy now if your laptop has died or you need one this week for work. The current MacBook Pro with M5 chips is a known quantity, and a working machine today beats a better one next month.
If you plan to run large models locally, memory matters more than the chip name. Our guide on how much RAM a local LLM needs is worth reading before you pick a configuration. Anyone eyeing a tablet should note the rumoured iPad mini refresh too.
Watch the pricing slide on the day. A touchscreen and an OLED panel are not free, and the starting price will tell you whether this is a premium tier or a straight replacement.
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