Which Macs have a Dynamic Island? The full line-up

Only one Mac has a Dynamic Island: the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, in 14 and 16-inch sizes, with an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip. Apple announced it on 28 October 2026, and it reaches buyers and Apple Stores on Friday, 6 November 2026. No other Mac Apple sells has one, and Apple hasn't said that any older Mac will get one.

If you are checking before you buy, the part that trips people up is the chip. The M5 Pro and M5 Max also come in a mini-LED MacBook Pro with a notch, and the new M6 MacBook Pro has a notch too. The island follows the screen, not the chip. The table below sorts every Mac into three groups: island, notch, or neither.

The whole line-up

Read down the right-hand column and the pattern is plain. One row has an island. A group of rows has a notch. The rest have a camera in a border, or no built-in screen at all.

Why a newer chip does not mean an island

Apple announced the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 on 27 October 2026, a day before the PROLED model. It sticks with a mini-LED screen and a notch, and it has no touch. The PROLED models arrived a day later with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, the chips Apple first put in the mini-LED MacBook Pro in March 2026. So the newest chip is on a notched Mac, and chips from earlier in the year are on the Mac with the island.

The practical rule: ignore the chip and read the name. If the product page says "with PROLED XDR Display", it has the island and a touchscreen. If it says only MacBook Pro, it is the mini-LED design with a notch. The PROLED models also cost more than the comparable mini-LED ones, which is a second hint. Which MacBook Pro has the Dynamic Island decodes the M5, M5 Pro, M5 Max and M6 names one at a time.

Macs that have a notch

The notch came to the Mac with the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2021 (M1 Pro and M1 Max), and the MacBook Air followed with the M2 in 2022. That covers:

• Every 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2021 on, apart from the PROLED model. That includes the mini-LED M5 Pro and M5 Max models and the M6.
• Every MacBook Air with M2 or later, in 13 and 15-inch sizes.

These keep the notch for as long as Apple sells them, and nothing in this week's announcements changes how they look or work. If you own one, is the MacBook notch gone explains why nothing changes for you, and how to live well with the notch you have.

Macs with neither

Some Macs have no notch and no island, for different reasons.

• Camera in a border. The 13-inch MacBook Pro (Intel, M1 and M2), the M1 MacBook Air and the Intel MacBook Airs have a thicker border with the camera above the screen.
• MacBook Neo. It has an A18 Pro chip, a 13-inch screen and even, iPad-style bezels, with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera in the top bezel. It has been on sale since March 2026.
• Desktops and displays. The Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro plug into a display, and the iMac keeps its camera in its border. No external display has a notch.

A notched MacBook with its lid closed, working on an external display, shows no notch either. The menu bar is on the other screen.

How to check which one you have

You don't need the table to check your own Mac. Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. It shows the model name with the screen size and year, such as "14-inch, 2021". Then:

1. A 13-inch MacBook Pro has no notch, whatever the year.
2. A 14 or 16-inch MacBook Pro has a notch, unless it says "with PROLED XDR Display".
3. A MacBook Air has a notch if its chip is M2 or later. About This Mac shows the chip on the same screen.
4. An iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Pro has neither.

If you are shopping, the store page names the display. The PROLED name is the one to look for if you want the island, and the one to avoid if you don't want a touchscreen.

Where Notchpals sits in the table

Notchpals is an app, so it doesn't move a Mac from one row to another, but it does follow the table. On the notched rows, from the M2 MacBook Air to the M6 MacBook Pro, its characters slide out of the notch itself. On the no-notch rows, and on a notched MacBook working with its lid shut, it draws a black island of its own at the center of the top edge of the main display, and the characters come out of that. It needs macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

Otto, the octopus in the Tech care area, looks after the Mac rather than you: a low battery, a full disk, or a week without a restart.

OttoOver a week without a restart! Too many things open. I know the feeling.

The short version

One Mac has the Dynamic Island, and you can spot it by name: MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. Every other MacBook Pro from 2021 on and every MacBook Air from the M2 on has a notch. The rest have neither. For what the island actually does, see Dynamic Island on Mac.