If the rumors are true, the latest MacBook Pro 14 and Pro 16 models may hide a secret upgrade. The new MacBooks have reportedly switched to quantum dot displays, a technology that virtually every monitor manufacturer prominently displays on the box of every monitor and TV that contains it. If that’s true, Apple hasn’t told anyone about the upgrade.

Noted display analyst Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, said late Thursday that he’s confident the MacBook Pro displays add extra power. He argued in a Twitter posts that the M4 MacBook Pros have a quantum dot film that should make it much better at displaying a wider range of colors than before.

If you’ve heard the term before, it’s most likely included QD mini LED TV (AKA QLEDs) monitors or even QD-OLED is displayed. Simply put, these dots are nanoparticles that improve the color gamut and brightness of a screen. Young wrote that Apple had previously chosen a red KSF phosphor film because it led to better efficiency. The film that Apple reportedly uses now is not made with toxic cadmium that traditional QD displays use, and they are more efficient than similar displays.

Big Apple display news, they have adopted quantum dots for the first time. The latest MacBook Pro (M4) uses a quantum dot (QD) film rather than a red KSF phosphor film.

Previously, Apple went with the KSF solution due to better efficiency and lack of cadmium (Cd), but… pic.twitter.com/5olq9lEHs9

— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) November 14, 2024

The latest MacBook Pro 14 and Pro 16 models with M4 chips are not major departures from the previous M3 and M2 models. However, there were some improvements. First, Gizmodo’s tests showed that the screens do indeed have better SDR brightness than before. So yes, you can take it to the park to get some work done without immediately diving for the shadiest spot. It is unclear if this improvement is due to the new movie or another display improvement.

Gizmodo reached out to Apple for comment, but we did not hear back right away. If this is true, I think Apple wouldn’t be shouting this fact from the rooftops in all its promotional materials. When the company released its first OLED device, the M4 iPad Proit spent ages talking about its tandem OLED design’s brightness and color clarity. Apple still refers to these displays as Liquid Retina XDR, the Cupertino company’s own flavor, or mini-LED.

Young’s graphs show that the new MacBook Pros have a much higher color gamut than before, and he claimed that they also have better motion performance. Gizmodo has not independently tested any of these specifications. Notebookcheck, in its review of the M4 MacBook Pro 14 noted response times of around 70ms while the MacBook Pro 16 sat at a little over 40ms at maximum brightness. Response times are essentially the screen’s ability to change from one color to another and can result in blurry images if the response time is slow. Apple has previously said that the Liquid Retina XDR supports a response time of 5ms.

Slow response times would be most noticeable in games, although we didn’t detect excessive blur in our own tests with either the 14 or 16 models. It’s certainly not the premier display for gaming anyway, although the M4 and M4 Pro chips already perform well even up to full native resolution. For its latest displays, the company has only said that it still uses the wide color gamut P3 with its usual ProMotion adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.

We’d like to think that Apple has improved its display more than it publicly stated. The MacBook Pro models are better than ever, but the annual release schedule hasn’t left enough time for the Mac maker to get rid of annoying blemishes, like that damn webcam cutout. What makes this all the more confusing is that the latest rumblings from primo Apple rumormonger Mark Gurman recently reported we may not get long awaited OLED MacBook until 2026 at the earliest. This could mean we’ll see another MacBook refresh with relatively few changes to the overall design.