Apple's second hardware event of October is taking place this week and I'm expecting it to be even bigger than the 'Welcome home' showcase a couple of weeks ago that unveiled the Apple HomeView.
This time around, Apple is widely expected to unveil OLED MacBooks in both 14-inch and 16-inch variants. And, at long, long last, Apple will make the jump to a full touchscreen for the first time ever. Slight sidebar here; my colleague Jason got tired of waiting and has already strapped a touchscreen to his MacBook Pro.
Mark Gurman, the Apple Whisperer himself, confirmed in a report over the weekend these machines are coming but added there'll be a twist to the tail. Although the MacBook Pro OLEDs will come with touch enabled, they'll be saddled with an M5 Pro and M5 Max chipset, while an also-announced non-touch MacBook Pro 14-inch will debut with the brand new M6 chip. Strange stuff indeed.
But there's going to be more on offer this week than just the MacBook OLED. Apple has today announced a refreshed iPad mini 8 — so let's dig into exactly what you can expect to see at Apple's "Pro and tell" event this week.
Apple 'Pro and tell': When is it?
Apple's "Pro and tell" event is taking place on Wednesday, October 28 and, just like the "Welcome home" showcase a couple of weeks ago, it was teased by Apple's senior vice president of marketing, Greg Joswiak.
Can’t wait to pro and tell next week. https://t.co/3wUkxwq35iOctober 19, 2026
There has been very little information beyond the name of the event, but some journalists (Tom's Guide included) have been invited to Los Angeles for an in-person presentation at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT on Wednesday, October 28.
We haven't seen any details on a livestream and following today's surprise iPad mini 8 announcement, it seems like Apple's plan is to drip-feed the announcements between now and Wednesday. We may see a few announcement videos and corresponding press releases posted to Apple's newsroom over the next few days.
Finally, once the products are out in the open, Apple will host its showcase on Wednesday giving media the chance to go hands-on with them. Of course, we'll be giving you up-to-the-minute reports as it happens, so stay tuned to Tom's Guide.
Apple 'Pro and tell': Confirmed and rumored products
If the rumors are to be believed, we could see up to four different devices unveiled by Wednesday.
Let's take a look at each one of them in turn.
Confirmed: iPad mini 8
The new iPad mini 8 is official and swaps the 8.3-inch LCD on the iPad mini 7 for a larger 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel. As a result, the tablet is thinner and lighter.
Another design upgrade is IP67 water and dust resistance. The iPad mini 8 is also powered by the A20 Pro chip, which should make it the fastest iPad mini yet.
You can read everything about the iPad mini 8 right here.
Rumored: MacBook Pro OLED
The most exciting new product likely to launch is the touchscreen-enabled MacBook Pro I mentioned up top. This could be the biggest upgrade to the MacBook product line in years but will require some heavy tweaks to macOS 27 to make it more touch-friendly. Considering Apple has been refining iPadOS for years, this isn't a chasm that'll be difficult to cross.
Elsewhere, the benefits of and OLED display will be hard to beat. You can expect a much better contrast with deeper blacks that the already-impressive Liquid Retina XDR display on the existing MacBook Pro.
As mentioned above, Mark Gurman seems to believe the MacBook Pro OLED (MacBook PrOLED?) will arrive with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips instead of an M6 chip. It will reportedly come in 14- and 16-inch variants and will be slimmer and lighter than the current MacBook Pro. Expect a sky-high price tag, though. Possibly as high as $2,399 for the 14-inch model and $3,599 for the 16-inch variant.
Rumored: M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch)
Alongside the MacBook Pro OLED, it's likely we'll also see an upgrade to the base level MacBook Pro, bumping it from the M5 chip to the M6 that was first unveiled inside the Mac Mini earlier this year.
Some rumors suggest we'll get a hole-punch front-facing camera in place of the current notch. Otherwise, it's likely to be the exact same outer shell as the current 14-inch MacBook Pros.
Rumored: M6 iMac
Following in the footsteps of the upgraded M6 MacBook Pro it's been heavily rumored we'll also see a new version of the iMac with the M6 chip on board. As with the M6 MacBook Pro, the M6 iMac will be an iterative upgrade that likely consists of a chip upgrade and little change to the design or the screen.
The current iMac features a 24-inch 4.5k Retina display with a 4,480 x 2,520 resolution and a max brightness of 500 nits and I'd expect to see the 2026 model remain unchanged.
There may be a lot of potential iMac customers out there hoping Apple will give its all-in-one the touchscreen treatment. Sadly, that doesn't look like it's on the cards for this week either.
Apple 'Pro and tell': Prices and should I buy?
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but judging by the way prices have skyrocketed this year, it's unlikely these new Apple products are going to be easy on the wallet.
For example, the new iPad mini starts at $699, or $58.25 per month for 12 months, for the Wi-Fi model, and $849, or $70.75 per month for 12 months, for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. That's a big jump from the $499 starting price of the iPad mini 7 a couple of years ago and I expect the other devices announced this week to follow suit.
However, in some cases if you've been holding out on an upgrade for awhile, this could be the time to make your move. Pre-orders will almost certainly be available from Wednesday, October 28 (that's the case for the iPad mini 8) with shipping likely to occur in November.
Of course, we’ll keep an eye on the prices of outgoing models the day they’re discounted, so you’ll know exactly when the discount is real. And let's not forget that with Black Friday on the horizon we could see some stellar discounts on slightly older models that might make more sense for some people. Either way, the next few weeks are going to be prime time for buying a new Mac.
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