Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

[Bernardl]

Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design in the fourth quarter of 2026 for some time, Gurman today turned that rumor on its head with the suggestion that this is an all-new kind of MacBook rather than a MacBook Pro.

Instead of succeeding the newly announced M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros, the "MacBook Ultra" will be a new, top-tier Apple laptop. Gurman added that the device is likely to sit above the current M5 MacBook Pros, rather than replace them, suggesting that they will remain on sale.

This would enable a markedly higher price point for the new machines. Gurman noted that when Apple brought OLED displays to the iPhone X in 2017 and the iPad Pro in 2024, it simultaneously raised price by around 20%. As a result, Gurman believes a similar price increase on account of the MacBook's first ever OLED display may be likely and help move the MacBook Pro further upmarket.

Gurman says that this fits into a broader trend at Apple, where the company is seeking to offer more models at more price points, such as the new MacBook Neo at an unprecedented $599 price point to rival low-cost Windows and Chromebook devices. The same is occurring at the high-end, with more premium options available than ever before.

That is set to continue this year with the first foldable iPhone, featuring a ~$2,000 price tag, large inner display, and under-display sensors, and new AirPods priced above the current AirPods Pro at the top of the lineup with computer-vision cameras to feed Visual Intelligence data to Siri. Gurman even suggested that these products may be called the "iPhone Ultra" and "AirPods Ultra."

While the name "MacBook Ultra" is uncertain, Gurman is clearly no longer referring to the device as a MacBook Pro, instead referring to it as "the touch-screen and OLED high-end MacBook." He cautioned that Apple "could keep the traditional MacBook Pro name," but a MacBook Ultra moniker would "more clearly signal their position at the top of the lineup." Gurman expects the device to launch around the end of the year.

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Article Link: Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Using the same name for a line up of computers and the CPU/GPUs they rely on would be a terrible idea.

We can be 100% sure it won’t be called Ultra.

 

[Kylo83]

I think it will still be the MacBook Pro but a higher tier so the normal m6 pro and max then for oled and touchscreen it’s ultra

 

[joeblow7777]

Since I began using iPad Pros with the Magic Keyboard I constantly find myself reaching to touch the screen of my MBP when using that machine. A touch OLED display makes a lot of sense to me. Not because I'll use it all the time, but because I'll have the option; and the experience across devices will be much more seamless.

But as I said, MacOS isn't a touch based OS like iOS/iPadOS is. The iPad and its OS was designed first and foremost as a touch based interface.

 

[jclardy]

More expensive than a MBP? Some MBP models are topping out over $4k. Who’s buying $5-6k laptop as a consumer? Absurd.

It doesn’t mean more than a maxed out MBP, just above the $2k base price, so my guess would be $2.6k starting.

I’m betting this will be a whole new form factor, it doesn’t make sense to charge more for the ability to tap on a button on the screen every now and then. IMO the Neo should have been the first touchscreen Mac, as the entry level users coming from iPhone would appreciate it the most. Plus - developers aren’t going to go all in on touchscreens if it is 1% of the already small Mac market.

 

[incoherent_1]

This makes more sense than the M5 MacBook Pro becoming obsolete 6 months after its release.

I remember back during the most "beleaguered" part of the PowerPC (and later Intel) days, when we wouldn't get any decent spec updates for well over a year (sometimes multiple years) for many models. People here were livid (rightfully so, in some cases).

Now people are complaining that there are too many updates?

So you'd rather Apple continue to sell lower spec-ed devices while we wait for larger design changes? Apple really can't win.

 

[coherence]

The question is: will the processor be M6 Max — or M5 Ultra?

 

[1d1otic]

Unless they gonna put Ultra chips, I don't see the point.

 

[abowlby]

Apple is building an entire hardware stack to avoid making the iPad Pro a legitimate productivity tool.

 

[transpo1]

But as I said, MacOS isn't a touch based OS like iOS/iPadOS is. The iPad and its OS was designed first and foremost as a touch based interface.

Correct, but don’t you think Apple has a plan for that? 😊

 

[transpo1]

Apple is building an entire hardware stack to avoid making the iPad Pro a legitimate productivity tool.

Again, the iPad Pro just doesn’t have the margins they need to make it worth cannibalizing two products— but a MacBook Ultra would.

 

[diblasio]

Dang! I was so sad I don’t need a MacBook Neo since I’m already overpowered with an M2 MacBook Air and and M4 MacBook Pro.

Now I NEED THIS!!!! 🤑🤑

 

[abowlby]

Again, the iPad Pro just doesn’t have the margins they need to make it worth cannibalizing two products— but a MacBook Ultra would.v

Drawing on a clamshell is doodoo. The portability will not be as good and at this point I would be surprised if they feature a cellular radio in the first gen Ultra. Also the types and ways you can accessorize a tablet make it much more versatile.

As a consumer why would I celebrate a company making decisions about the product line based primarily on THEIR margins. How did we get to a point where people are defending the company's interests over the customer's? Wild.

 

[everlast3434]

I'll but it, but only if it's called the Ultra Pro Max Plus Maximum MacBook Pro

 

[lazinsky]

A touch MacBook especially one that’s called Ultra will need Pen support. The usual MacBook Pro design doesn’t lend itself for pen input, just imagine doing it. So they’ll have to make it a fold over, which we know they’d never do as keyboard would be at the bottom and that’s not very applesque. In either case touchscreen = pen support = radical redesign of the chassis. A touch iMac 27” with all the bells and whistles + touch sounds more feasible Microsoft Surface style. And just call it a Pro.

 

[nickf]

I don't see a good use case for a touchscreen on your MacBook Pro when you already have a giant trackpad, but then again I'm not Tim Cook.

 

[TechnoMonk]

dont ruin the MacBook Pro, we saw what happened from 2015-2019 with Johnny’s obsession to make the MbP thinner. Keep ultra seperate.

 

[grammatica]

What's the strategy with these "ultra" tiers? Apple can't extract anymore value from middle consumers, so target the fanboys, who will buy anything?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Dislike. Just more fragmentation to increase prices.

Properly extending a line of products is not "fragmentation."

 

[Allen_Wentz]

The question is: will the processor be M6 Max — or M5 Ultra?

I strongly believe that Apple would not put an ultra chipset in a laptop. It does not make sense to make 2x heat when existing Max chips are so powerful already.

 

[transpo1]

Drawing on a clamshell is doodoo. The portability will not be as good and at this point I would be surprised if they feature a cellular radio in the first gen Ultra. Also the types and ways you can accessorize a tablet make it much more versatile.

As a consumer why would I celebrate a company making decisions about the product line based primarily on THEIR margins. How did we get to a point where people are defending the company's interests over the customer's? Wild.

I’m not defending, just explaining. Maybe Apple have a trick up their sleeve to make a touchscreen worth it on a MBP form factor.

 

[MacBookPro9_1]

Maybe MacBook Studio?
MacBook Pro Max or MacBook Ultra seem out of scope.

 

[bluraycinema]

iOS is based on Mac OSX is it not?
Could they have an option without Touch?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Drawing on a clamshell is doodoo. The portability will not be as good and at this point I would be surprised if they feature a cellular radio in the first gen Ultra. Also the types and ways you can accessorize a tablet make it much more versatile.

As a consumer why would I celebrate a company making decisions about the product line based primarily on THEIR margins. How did we get to a point where people are defending the company's interests over the customer's? Wild.

You ask "How did we get to a point where people are defending the company's interests over the customer's? Wild."

What you fail to grasp is that a successful company's interests are aligned with their customers' interests. If a firm's interests are not well aligned with customer interest then the firm does not grow to be a multi trillion dollar very successful company.

 

[subjonas]

Add convertible form factor with Pencil support and I'd buy day one. OLED and Touch optional. That's the Mac I've been waiting for my whole life. Maybe someday it'll happen.

 

[muzzy996]

But as I said, MacOS isn't a touch based OS like iOS/iPadOS is. The iPad and its OS was designed first and foremost as a touch based interface.

I personally am not advocating for a change in iPadOS or the iPad Pro, nor am I advocating for a fundamental change in MacOS to make it completely touch centric. I think having app stores in both spaces and a unified core hardware architecture gives Apple the unique opportunity to have a model of MacBook Pro that can offer full functionality from both app stores. Microsoft didn’t have those things. A product like this would give those of us who would happily pay more for access to both types of applications to do so with minimal impact to those who don’t want the product or functionality.