216: Apple Announces Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro, iPad Mini 8, and More!

Welcome back to the MacRumors Show. It’s evening, apparently, and after a packed week I’m still fully in the iPhone Duo honeymoon phase. Call me an Apple shill if you want; I really like the thing. The failure reports are annoying, though, mostly because a replacement could be hard to get.

I’d call the Duo issue significant enough that Apple has to deal with it, but not something people should assume is happening to one in ten devices. It’s a first-generation mechanical product, so more failures than a device without moving parts are unsurprising, and online posts make the problem feel bigger. Warranty coverage is there; the real nuisance is the trip to an Apple Store.

The iPad mini arrived only three days ago, somehow feeling ancient already. At six hundred ninety-nine dollars, the bigger eight-point-five-inch OLED panel had better be good. I’m glad it exists, but leaving out one-hundred-twenty-hertz refresh rate still feels like Apple treating a normal expectation as a Pro-only privilege.

OLED is a huge win, especially for people reading on a mini, and the new Nano Texture option, lighter body, and IP67 protection make it much more practical around a pool or bath. The A20 Pro is powerful, there’s a new acoustic display, and even a smarter flash for shadow-free document scans. Still, ProMotion is getting harder to withhold when inexpensive devices offer it.

Water resistance is massive if this is a kid’s iPad or your poolside one. I once dropped an iPad with its keyboard into a bath: the iPad survived surprisingly well; the keyboard, not so much. And I’m genuinely baffled by the no-speaker-hole acoustic display, because mine sounds ridiculously loud, clear, and bassy.

It really does feel like a mini Pro, aside from the missing high refresh rate and Face ID. I’m also pleased Apple has ditched the long-running polyurethane folio for TechWoven. Those covers smear and age badly; my TechWoven iPhone case has held up nicely, so this is a much better home for the material.

The M6 iMac and entry MacBook Pro are fine—good machines, especially if you’re escaping an Intel-era computer—but I don’t think many Apple-silicon owners need to rush. I still see iMacs everywhere in stylish New York shops, though. Our M1 iMac remains the odd little family computer: my wife works on it, my kid writes stories, and it’s been plenty.

That is exactly who these updates are for: people replacing very old Macs, not someone jumping from M2 to M6. The basic MacBook Pro also sells on the word “Pro,” particularly to businesses buying fleets. Annual refreshes keep the current chip available all year, even if the headline improvements—AI work, memory bandwidth, and efficiency—aren’t thrilling for everyone.

The expensive new fourteen- and sixteen-inch MacBook Pro with its absurd Pro-Led XDR name is more interesting. I’m skeptical that touch is the reason to buy it. Pinch-to-zoom sounds handy, sure, but those demos of people poking at apps and playing piano on the display looked rough, and the screen still wobbles.

A Mac remains keyboard-and-pointer first, but touch is reasonable for creators who expect it, developers testing iPhone apps, or someone casually reaching for the screen. Apple should have shown it quietly and usefully rather than making it look like a trick. The OLED panel, brighter HDR, refined Dynamic Island, rounded display corners, thinner build, and the returning illuminated logo are more persuasive design changes.

I love that glowing logo; that’s what people were buzzing about. But if I had to choose, I’d take Face ID over a lit Apple. I’m also annoyed there’s still no cellular MacBook. These models cost four hundred dollars more, though you do get serious upgrades, including up to sixteen terabytes of storage. Preorders are open, releases land next Friday, and there is a lot more Apple stuff on the way.