MacBook Pro could get two upgrades this year, with Apple’s M6 chip arriving early

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Apple may fast-track two MacBook Pro generations in one year, as M6 looks set to launch sooner than anyone expected.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the M5 Pro and M5 Max models are set to launch in Spring, while the M6 MacBook Pro will come with a redesign and OLED displays in late 2026.

If I was you, I’d consider holding off on buying a MacBook Pro for a couple months (if you can).

The first iterative steps

The first question we had while reviewing the M5 MacBook Pro is a simple one: where’s M5 Pro and M5 Max? We’d gotten so used to them all launching at around the same time.

Well, according to Gurman, a “flurry of releases” will start with the Pro/Max MacBook Pros, the M5 MacBook Air and a Mac Studio with M5 Max/M5 Ultra in the “not-too-distant future.”

Reading between the lines and looking back at past rumors and leaks, this means Spring 2026.

I know there’s been event invites for something this week that have drummed up some hype as a potential spot to unveil the new MacBook Pros.

But it’s looking more likely than not that this will be focused on Apple’s Creator Studio suite of apps.

Feel so fly like an M6

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

This is where it gets interesting. Gurman thinks the M6 chip is “potentially coming sooner than people anticipate.”

He’s reporting that the revamped MacBook Pro with this new chip (alongside a gorgeous OLED display and total design overhaul) is set to launch toward the end of 2026.

That would be quite a short gap between two Pro generations, but remember that Apple did the same with only a five-month gap between the M3 and M4.

For those not in the know, it’s been this M6 MacBook Pro that people have been waiting for to get an actual next-generation device.

Not that the current laptops are bad — they are pretty consistently ranked high on our best laptops list after all. But we’ve had the same utilitarian design, display and I/O for five years now. It’s time for a change.

Where could M6 appear first?

Mac mini M4 — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

But let’s unpack this report a little more, as Gurman says that the “coming soon” is not necessarily related to the laptops, but rather “in some configurations.”

What does that mean exactly? In the past, the M4 chip first made its first debut back in May 2024 in the iPad Pro. But putting on my tin foil hat and interpreting the Apple rumor mill like jazz (all about the notes they don’t play), not much is being said about the Mac mini.

In fact, after all the Clawdbot hype turning these small powerhouses into agentic monsters, interest in the Mac mini has spiked again (yes, I’m currently testing one, and more on that soon).

So with this new momentum, I predict that the first Mac to get M6 is the Mac mini, and given Gurman’s tease here, I’ll be watching WWDC 2026 with great intrigue.

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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