According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, he claimed in his weekly Power On newsletter that Apple is planning to launch its upcoming MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside the macOS 26.3 update.
“I’m told the new models – code-named J714 and J716 – are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from February through March.” -Mark Gurman.
Apple released macOS 15.3 in January 2025, and the company released macOS 14.3 in January 2024, so this year’s macOS 26.3 should see a public launch sooner, rather than later, as we’ve had several betas for this update, and we can expect the Release Candidate to come out within the next few weeks.
Originally, I expected Apple to update the higher-end MacBook Pro models last month to coincide with the launch of Apple Creator Studio, but now that we’re in February, it looks like Apple will have to update the MacBook Pro sooner rather than later. The MacBook Air, on the other hand, has yet to be updated with the M5 chip. To avoid product cannibalization, it would be best for Apple to update the MacBook Pro and then update the MacBook Air several weeks later.
Expect this upcoming MacBook Pro refresh to be just a spec bump, but the future MacBook Pro models M6 Pro and M6 Max are the ones you should look forward to, as they’re expected to feature a significant redesign with OLED touch screens.
