Apple Schedules October 28 Event for New MacBook Pro

Apple is holding a second event this October, and this time the spotlight is on Macs. The company has sent out invitations for a press event on October 28th at 1PM ET in Los Angeles, just two weeks after its smart home-focused “Welcome Home” launch. Based on reporting from Bloomberg, this Apple MacBook Pro event is expected to bring a redesigned pro laptop.

What’s on the invite

Apple hasn’t detailed what it plans to show off, sticking to a teaser rather than a full agenda. Marketing chief Greg Joswiak posted a cryptic line on X promising to “pro and tell next week,” a wordplay that lines up with reports pointing squarely at the MacBook Pro lineup. The timing is notable: Apple rarely holds two hardware events within the same month, which suggests the company has enough new products queued up that it didn’t want to cram them into October’s earlier smart home event.

A touchscreen MacBook Pro, finally

The headline product is expected to be a MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen, something Apple has resisted on its laptops for over a decade even as Windows rivals embraced touch years ago. According to earlier reporting, this redesigned model is also said to be significantly lighter than the current MacBook Pro and will reportedly borrow the Dynamic Island cutout from recent iPhones for its front camera and sensors, rather than the notch Apple has used on MacBooks since 2021.

Alongside the redesigned flagship, Apple is also expected to refresh the standard 14-inch MacBook Pro, likely with more conventional internal updates rather than the touchscreen treatment. Exact chip details haven’t been confirmed, but given the timing, it would make sense for Apple to align these laptops with its current Apple Silicon generation. We covered reports of a November 6 launch for the touchscreen MacBook Pro; October 28 would be the reveal, and Apple hasn’t said yet when the new models reach stores.

New iMac and iPad Mini are also expected

Bloomberg’s reporting points to more than just laptops at this event. Apple is also expected to unveil a new iMac built around the M6 chip, the same silicon that recently debuted in the Mac Mini. That would keep the iMac on pace with Apple’s broader chip rollout rather than leaving it a generation behind, as has sometimes happened with the all-in-one desktop in the past.

The iPad Mini is also due for a refresh, reportedly gaining an OLED display for the first time and relocating its selfie camera to the landscape edge, a change Apple already made on other iPads to improve video calls when the tablet is propped up horizontally. None of these device details have been confirmed by Apple directly, so treat specifics as reported rumors until the event itself.

Why two events in one month

This marks Apple’s second launch in October, following the October 13th “Welcome Home” event that introduced the HomeView smart home hub, an updated Apple TV 4K and Siri Remote, and a second-generation HomePod Mini. Splitting announcements this way lets Apple give each product category its own moment rather than burying new Macs under smart home news, and it signals that Apple sees the MacBook Pro redesign as significant enough to warrant a dedicated stage.

The bottom line

Nothing is official until Apple takes the stage on October 28th, but the pattern of reporting is consistent: a redesigned, lighter MacBook Pro with a touchscreen and Dynamic Island, a new 14-inch MacBook Pro, an M6 iMac, and an OLED iPad Mini. If you’ve been holding off on a new Mac or iPad, it’s worth waiting a week and a half to see exactly what ships and at what price before buying the current models.

Source: The Verge