“Pro and tell.” – Experience Thoughts and Predictions

Only two weeks after its “Welcome home.” experience, Apple has announced another one, this time with the tagline “Pro and tell.” The experience will take place on Wednesday in Los Angeles, and has been billed as an all-day affair for attendees, in what I imagine will be lots of demos from Apple’s Pro Workflow Team.

As with the previous experience, this one is not expected to be a full Keynote, with product videos and press releases from Apple on the day, alongside hands-on videos from those who attended.

MacBook Pro

The main unveiling of the experience is an update to the MacBook Pro, which will become the first touchscreen Mac.

Apple has been (publicly at least) dismissing the utility of touchscreens on a Mac for years, with even Steve Jobs dismissing their usefulness back in 2010. Unlike the iPad, which has been designed around touch as its primary input method, the Mac has always been designed around the keyboard and the precision of a pointer. This means that touchscreen support will be more of a supplementary input method, and I expect most of the demos to revolve around scrolling and pressing the large touch targets of apps in the dock.

The updated MacBook Pro will be marginally thinner, but noticeably lighter than the current iterations, with the notch being replaced by a Dynamic Island, another first for the Mac. Due to the fact the MacBook Pro will retain biometrics through Touch ID on its keyboard, the Dynamic Island will essentially just be a camera as it doesn’t need to include the sensors required for Face ID. The screen itself will be OLED, rather than the mini-LED found in the current MacBook Pro, enabling greater contrast, but it will be interesting to see how it handles burn-in, which has traditionally been a problem with OLED displays, especially with static elements on the screen such as the menu bar, dock, etc.

The last few months have seen a number of rumours that Apple is skipping the M6 Pro and M6 Max entirely, and with M7 variants not due until late next year, these models will keep the M5 Pro and M5 Max that are in the existing models.

The price is the big question. The current 14 inch and 16 inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro start at $2499 and $2999, so I would expect the newer models to start at a minimum of $2799 and $3299 respectively.

MacBook Pro with M6

Alongside the redesigned models, the base level 14 inch MacBook Pro (the one without a Pro or Max chip) is also set to get bumped from an M5 to an M6 SoC, while keeping the existing design and display, and the $1999 price tag.

iMac

The iMac is also set to have its SoC upgraded from the M4 to the M6, skipping the M5, having last been updated in October 2024. There is an outside chance that the colours of the iMac get refreshed to a more muted style to complement the HomePod mini that was announced earlier in the month, but I think this is far from certain.

iPad mini

The iPad mini is expected to gain an OLED display, a front-facing camera moved to the landscape edge, redesigned speakers and improved waterproofing. Leaks suggest it will use the A20 Pro, the same chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, which would be a welcome change for what has traditionally been the most neglected iPad, which will be 735 days old by Wednesday, having arrived 1125 days after the previous revision.

Like the MacBook Pro it is expected to be more expensive, and I expect it to increase by $200.