Tag: OLED

MacBook Ultra: Everything We Know About Apple’s OLED Touchscreen Mac

Posted on by faz_business


Apple is working on a high-end MacBook Pro that could be called the “MacBook Ultra.” The device will have several firsts in a Mac, including an OLED display and a touchscreen.

The “Ultra” name isn’t a sure thing, and Apple could also continue to call the device the ‌MacBook Pro‌. It will be a “Pro” device in the ‌MacBook Pro‌ line.

Design

Apple hasn’t redesigned the ‌MacBook Pro‌ since it added Apple silicon chips in 2021, so the device is due for a new look. The MacBook Ultra could feature some design changes, including a thinner chassis.

Apple could get rid of the notch on the MacBook Ultra, replacing it with an iPhone-style Dynamic Island. A ‌Dynamic Island‌ would unify the way Siri AI behaves across the iPhone and the Mac with iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate.

Size Options

The MacBook Ultra will be available in both 14-inch and 16-inch size options.

Display

Apple’s upcoming MacBook will be the first with an OLED display. OLED display technology is already used for the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad Pro, but it has taken time for larger-sized OLED screens to come down in price.

OLED will be an upgrade over the current mini-LED display technology in most cases, bringing deeper colors and a higher contrast ratio with true blacks. In an OLED display, individual pixels turn off instead of dim when not activated, so there’s less light leakage. OLED displays tend to have better HDR than mini-LED, but sometimes don’t match the overall mini-LED brightness levels.

Along with OLED technology, the MacBook Ultra is expected to have the first touchscreen display on a Mac. Users will be able to use their fingers for tapping and interacting with items on the Mac’s display, similar to an iPad.

Touchscreen capabilities will be used alongside the trackpad and keyboard, and so Apple may be viewing them as more supplementary than a main control method. Apple is rumored to be adapting ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ for touch input.

Apple plans to add a reinforced hinge to the MacBook Ultra’s display so that it doesn’t wobble when it’s tapped.

M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips

The current ‌MacBook Pro‌ models are equipped with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and Apple plans to use the same chips for the rumored MacBook Ultra.

Apple is planning to introduce the M6 chip as soon as late 2026, but Bloomberg says Apple isn’t going to release any other chips in the M6 series. Apple’s chip plans have changed in recent months, and there won’t be an M6 Pro or an M6 Max. With no M6 Pro or M6 Max, Apple will need to use the M5 Pro and M5 Max so it doesn’t have to wait for the M7 series.

A second-generation MacBook Ultra will use the M7 Pro and M7 Max chips.

With the MacBook Ultra set to use the same chips that are in the existing ‌MacBook Pro‌, it’s unclear if it will replace the existing 14-inch and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models or be sold alongside them as a higher-end option.

MacBook Ultra Hints

There are features in ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ that hint at a future touchscreen Mac. Apple added direct touch input to Sidecar so users can tap and interact with macOS elements when using the ‌iPad‌ as a Mac display.

‌macOS Golden Gate‌ supports an iPhone-style pull-to-refresh option, and it can be used across apps like Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar. A pull-to-refresh option makes the most sense on a touch display.

Pricing

Apple’s OLED MacBook is expected to be a premium product, with a price tag higher than current ‌MacBook Pro‌ models. Apple raised the prices of all Macs in June, and so the MacBook Ultra will likely be even more expensive than expected.

The higher-end 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ with M5 Pro chip starts at $2,499, while the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ starts at $2,999. The OLED MacBook will be priced even higher.

Launch Date

Rumors suggest the MacBook Ultra will launch in late 2026 or early 2027, with mass production to start in late 2026. If the MacBook Ultra comes in 2026, it could be released sometime between October and December, but it won’t be unveiled at Apple’s September iPhone event.

If it launches in 2027, it could come early in the year at Apple’s first 2027 event.

Scientists are teaching OLED screens how to shine smarter

Posted on by faz_business


You know that annoying moment when you step outside on a sunny day, pull out your phone, and suddenly can’t see a single thing on the screen? You’re squinting, cranking the brightness slider all the way to the max, and watching your battery percentage nosedive in real-time. It’s a struggle we all deal with. Well, a team of researchers over in South Korea might have just fixed that for good, and they managed to do it without turning our sleek phones into bulky bricks.

A group from KAIST, led by Professor Seunghyup Yoo, just published some pretty massive findings in Nature Communications. Basically, they have figured out a way to make OLED screens—the kind found in most high-end phones and TVs these days—significantly brighter. And the best part? They didn’t have to sacrifice that ultra-thin, flat look that we all love.

Here is the thing about current OLEDs

They are actually kind of inefficient. We love them because the colors pop and the blacks are super deep, but there is a hidden flaw. Apparently, nearly 80% of the light these screens generate never actually makes it to your eyes. It gets trapped inside the display layers, bouncing around and eventually just turning into heat. That is why your phone gets hot when you are watching high-res videos, and it’s a huge waste of battery power.

Phone display
Phone display Unsplash

In the past, engineers tried to fix this by slapping tiny lenses on top of the pixels to help the light escape. Think of it like putting a magnifying glass over a lightbulb. It works, but it has issues. The lenses either made the screen too thick (nobody wants a bumpy TV) or they messed with the picture quality by blurring the pixels together.

The KAIST team took a completely different approach. Instead of treating the light source like some infinite, theoretical thing, they redesigned the screen structure based on the actual, finite size of real pixels. They created this new “near-planar” structure that acts like those old bulky lenses but stays incredibly thin. It effectively guides the light straight out toward you without letting it spread sideways and muddy up the picture.

For us regular users, this is huge

It means future phones could be twice as bright without using any extra battery power. Or, flip that around: you could keep the same brightness you have now but use way less energy, meaning your phone might actually last through a whole day of heavy use. Plus, since trapped light causes heat and heat kills electronics, these new screens should last longer before degrading or getting that dreaded “burn-in.”

Phone display
Phone display Unsplash

The researchers are also saying this tech isn’t just for today’s OLEDs. It could work with next-gen stuff like quantum dots too. It feels like we are finally moving past the era of choosing between a battery that lasts or a screen we can actually see.