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Apple Could Launch Three New 'Ultra' Devices This Year

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Apple is planning to launch at least three new "Ultra"-class devices this year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Apple-Logo-Black.jpeg

Writing in this weekend's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that while the low-end of Apple's product lineups are now well-served by the Apple Watch SE, iPad 11, and MacBook Neo, there is "a more significant shift underway" toward higher-end, "Ultra" devices. Apple is planning to launch at least three such devices this year:

  • iPhone Ultra: With a ~$2,000 price tag, large inner display, and under-display sensors, the first foldable iPhone will "cast a shadow over the rest of the lineup."
  • AirPods Ultra: Priced above the current AirPods Pro at the top of the lineup, the new AirPods will feature computer-vision cameras to feed Visual Intelligence data to Siri.
  • MacBook Ultra: With a touch-enabled OLED display that will raise the overall price by up to 20%, the new machine will likely sit above the current M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros, rather than replace them.

Gurman said that Apple "may not use the Ultra branding for all of them," despite the name's increasing prevalence across Apple's product lines. Gurman noted that Apple did not adopt the Ultra name for the new Studio Display XDR. Apple already offers M-series Ultra chips, the Apple Watch Ultra, and CarPlay Ultra.

Further in the future, Gurman expects other product lines to expand into this "superpremium tier," including the iPad and Mac. Such devices could include a high-end iPad with a foldable OLED display and a more powerful iMac with a larger display.

​


Article Link: Apple Could Launch Three New 'Ultra' Devices This Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/08/apple-to-launch-three-new-ultras-this-year/
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Reactions: Z-4195 and SFjohn
iPhone Ultra - knock yourself out if you want a foldable, but not something I want.

AirPods Ultra - not really interested in the product but I am curious to see how they manage battery life with added hardware and processing this rumor indicates.

MacBook Ultra - I still don’t see the appeal of a touchscreen on a laptop. Maybe they have a handle on the BOM to the point that charging 20% more means a greater profit on the books.

Still waiting for the Apple Polishing Cloth Ultra.
 
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Reactions: dinobear, SqlInjection, marte91 and 5 others
EugW said:
What’s happening with the M5 Ultra? The Mac Studio… and Mac Pro?… are waiting.
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Apples Silicon lineup is such a mess right now, when it comes to generation roll out, the Studio being one of the worst, the whole upper professional lineup, sure the Studio still shreds but it looks embarrassing to the unknown, oh this system has M5, this one only has M3. And the fact the Studio also is sitting here with an M4 Max when the M5 Max just came out in a laptop.

I feel it needs to be rolled out in more of a synchronized fashion.
 
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Reactions: Non-Euclidean, amartinez1660, SFjohn and 1 other person
So it won’t be the new MacBook Pro M6 it’s gonna be a separate category with the redesign. I don’t understand.
 
EugW said:
What’s happening with the M5 Ultra?

The Mac Studio… and Mac Pro?… are waiting.
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There was no M4 Ultra. It would draw more power than the Studio's PSU can handle, and it would overheat. So there won't be an M5 Ultra either.

I think the real question is: what would you do with an Ultra? There don't seem to be any MacOS applications that would really benefit from it. The only real application might be running entire LLMs locally, which about 5 or 6 apple customers might actually do. The M5 Max is overkill for pretty much everything from 3D animation to 8K video editing with effects layers.

The power draw and overheating in the Studio would mean that it could only exist in the Mac Pro tower, which clearly isn't selling well enough for Apple to justify any upgrades.
 
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Don't see ANY of that naming coming. "Ultra" is used for the watch only as a product afaik, even if its top of the line, its a product product made+advertised for rough environments (yeah I know most people wear it for "bling-bling" only). Don't see that for a iPhone fold neither for a more premium MacBook.
 
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Kylo83 said:
So it won’t be the new MacBook Pro M6 it’s gonna be a separate category with the redesign. I don’t understand.
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They either don’t want the headline to be a $200 price increase over the existing M5 MacBook Pros or they’ve decided on the Ultra being the flagship MacBook and having chips and features trickle down to the Pros, Airs and Neos like they do with the iPhone.

Another issue with that naming strategy is how ridiculous it would be to have a MacBook Ultra and potentially not be able to put an Ultra chip into it.
 
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Reactions: amartinez1660, entropys and 01cowherd
20% uplift in price for a OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro, wow that will be expensive, I'm thinking near a 4 and a half grand starting price with a Max chip!

Hmm wonder if it means they will make a Ultra 32" XDR Display at some point?
 
Apple really need a better naming system for their M-series chips. "Pro" was already used in product names that don't have "pro" chips, now they're doing the same thing with "ultra"... and there's no neat way to distinguish the "just M5" chip from a reference to the whole M5 generation - but don't tell Apple marketing or they'll call it the "M5 Air"
🙂
 
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wikiverse said:
There was no M4 Ultra. It would draw more power than the Studio's PSU can handle, and it would overheat. So there won't be an M5 Ultra either.

I think the real question is: what would you do with an Ultra? There don't seem to be any MacOS applications that would really benefit from it. The only real application might be running entire LLMs locally, which about 5 or 6 apple customers might actually do. The M5 Max is overkill for pretty much everything from 3D animation to 8K video editing with effects layers.

The power draw and overheating in the Studio would mean that it could only exist in the Mac Pro tower, which clearly isn't selling well enough for Apple to justify any upgrades.
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What? This is incorrect. M3 Ultra maxes out at 330w, and the PSU supports 370w.

The M3 Ultra Studio uses less power than the M2 Ultra Studio. There is absolutely going to be a new generation in a few months on M5.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102027

This sounds like it's not the computer for you which is fine, but anyone doing serious work with MLX or research on the ANE / Neural Accelerators will want this machine, and it is more than 5 or 6 customers. Inference speed and time to first token is significantly faster on M5, up to 4x-5x, which was a huge bottleneck before for this type of work.

It's within the realm of possibility they revise the PSU design a bit, particularly if they are discontinuing the Mac Pro which is likely.
 
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