Apple reportedly plans touchscreen MacBook and iPad Mini launch for this month

The wait to (literally) get your hands on the tech may almost be over.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

2026 is turning into a big year for Apple hardware news. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company's first touchscreen laptop is expected to debut "on or around" October 27. So, not a 100-percent solid date for a product announcement, but still a more concrete time frame than we've ever had about Apple's long-awaited touchscreen laptop debut.

Rumors about a touchscreen edition of Apple's high-end laptop date back to 2023. The more recent chatter about this device, largely driven by Gurman's reports, is that it will have a dynamic interface that adapts to the different modes of input. We're expecting the new touchscreen MacBook, potentially called MacBook Ultra, to run on the same M5 Pro and Max chips as the current high-end MacBook Pro models, as an earlier report suggested there won't be pro-level versions of the new M6 chip.

In addition to touchscreen laptops, the anonymous Bloomberg sources said to expect Apple's presentation to include a redesigned iPad Mini with an OLED display, and smaller updates to the entry level 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac to add the new M6 chip that debuted with the Mac mini refresh. The entry-level MacBook Pro currently runs an M5 chip, while the iMac is stuck on an M4 chip. And that won't be Apple's only set of reveals this month; it's also slated to introduce a new collection of smart home gadgets on October 13. This packed event schedule follows the summertime debut of Apple's first foldable in the iPhone Duo.