Apple’s new OLED touchscreen “MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display” (say that three times fast with a mouthful of peanut butter), which the Cupertino firm unveiled on Wednesday, could ship between 1.2 million and 1.5 million units next year, claims market intelligence firm TrendForce. The company expects those impressive shipment numbers, despite the high price of the new touchscreen MacBook Pro notebooks.
The new addition to the MacBook Pro lineup starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch version. A maxed out model goes for $14,549. (Also known as “more than I paid for my first new car.”) Pre-orders are open, and the new OLED laptop will hit doorsteps and store shelves on Friday, November 6.
The new MacBook Pro model uses the tandem OLED touchscreen technology that first debuted on the M4 iPad Pro a bit more than two years ago, and is the first MacBook to do so. The proven technology provides exceptional color reproduction, as well as improved brightness and contrast.
Apple says the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display offers a visual experience unlike any other, with up to 2000 nits peak HDR and SDR brightness, an industry-leading 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio for exceptional detail, a 120Hz variable refresh rate, and a wider color gamut covering both P3 and Adobe RGB for brilliant colors.
While TrendForce says the new laptops’ high price could put a damper on near-term replacement demand, it still expects to see between 1.2 million and 1.5 million units fly out of Apple’s warehouses during 2027.
TrendForce also expects Apple’s entry into the OLED notebook market to push Windows laptop makers that currently dominate the OLED notebook market – like ASUS, HP, and Lenovo – to increase their OLED laptop offerings.
The firm says the new MacBook Pro’s launch, together with the MacBook Neo, to further increase Apple’s ability to expand its product portfolio, by offering MacBooks at several price points.
Despite the overall laptop market’s shrinking shipments over the last two years, TrendForce expects Apple’s entrance into the OLED notebook market to help laptop shipments to increase by close to 40% year-over-year in 2026, with a more than 40% boost in shipments expected for 2027. Laptop makers are expected to increase their OLED offerings, due to consumer acceptance of the tech.
Samsung Display will be the main beneficiary of the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, as it is currently the exclusive provider of the OLED display panels used for the new premium notebook lineup. The MacBook Pro is the first product to enter mass production on Samsung Display’s G8.6 fine metal mask (FMM) OLED line, which is currently dedicate only to Apple’s needs.
The tandem OLED architecture and pixel density of 254 pixels per inch (PPI) of the panels used in Apple’s new laptop lineup does place extremely demanding requirements on panel producers, although Samsung competitors like BOE, LG Display, and TCL CSOT are expected to work to enter Apple’s supply chain, although they are expected to concentrate on providing OLED panels for the OLED MacBook Air models that are expected to debut sometime in 2028.
