a nicely spec'd macbook pro is pretty spendy the way it is.. and those "features" are fairly underwhelming -- no way i'm spending more than $6,000 for a machine with any of them.
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Apple to Launch 'MacBook Ultra' With These Six New Features
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i'm in agreement with you on nearly all of these points. I just don't see a need for a machine over $6000--that is a laptop.
rembert
macrumors regular
Don't you dare touch my Macbook screen. I don't really notice the notch. I'm fine with the XDR LCD/mini-led + nano on my M4 Max MBP. I don't need a thinner device, thicker is ok, especially if it would bring back the ethernet port and longer battery life. Cellular? No thank you, the hotspot on my iPhone is great.
I think I just like my M4 Max 16" the way it is now, in combination with my iPhone 13 mini. The only benefit I see the Ultra might drive down the price of the Pro a bit.
I think I just like my M4 Max 16" the way it is now, in combination with my iPhone 13 mini. The only benefit I see the Ultra might drive down the price of the Pro a bit.
I only want it IF there is an Ultra chip in it. And about 17-18" on the display. It will need to be thicker.
Now, I'm not saying it has to match exactly a normal Ultra chip. Just be "more" than the Max. Maybe less or no E cores. And maybe 50% more CPU/GPU cores. Not the full 2x for each. To keep it in the 99.6W battery range.
I very much like the idea of not having to plug it in. I think that's the best part about it in general.
Now, I'm not saying it has to match exactly a normal Ultra chip. Just be "more" than the Max. Maybe less or no E cores. And maybe 50% more CPU/GPU cores. Not the full 2x for each. To keep it in the 99.6W battery range.
I very much like the idea of not having to plug it in. I think that's the best part about it in general.
I am yet to see a iPad as powerful and capable as a MacBook. Browsing on a MacBook is a LOT better experience over an iPad for example. Why are you so defensive of the iPad?
The MacBook Pro may be more powerful but you have to use it at table you cannot hold MacBook Pro in your hand and spend hours on social media or on the internet. Way to heavy and big even MacBook Air.
real_alexei
macrumors newbie
My turn: I want MacBook 12 reincarnated. < 1kg, good keyboard + good display.
You can’t hold laptop in your hand for hours the MacBook Air is way too heavy.
Just try seating in chair or couch for hours with laptop just painful. You need table.
Cellular is pointless especially if it gives Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile an excuse to charge you yet another monthly fee for something. F*ck that noise. Now if it had Starlink, that would be a different story.
Goaliegeek
macrumors 6502a
As long as OLED is in the basic M6 MBP, I’m fine with that. Don’t care about the other features here. But if OLED is only for an ultra, then I might as well get a M5. Would like a Touch Bar option to come back. Yes, I said it. There are a dozen of us who like it.
Johnny London
macrumors regular
My track record for predicting things is very poor, that said this might never happen. But I disagree with you, in a time sensitive and battery conserving environment the tethering option is not optimal.
This is going to be an incredibly expensive machine. Truly a gilded laptop. Might as well put some gold from that old Apple Watch on it.
tow dow 3
macrumors newbie
You say that, but Procreate is coming to Mac in 2027. Personally thats the ONLY reason I'd want touchscreen Mac LOL
I purchased my first MacBook Pro in November 2013 because it did not have a touch display. I simply cannot understand why a touch display is necessary when there is this wonderful keyboard/trackpad. The keyboard/trackpad is so easy to use and my hands never have to be lifted from the keyboard to type or select what I want. Why would I want to remove my hands from the keyboard to touch the display to make a selection. Seems like wasted motion and effort.
It most be the Generation Z or younger that grow up with out computers with nothing more than smartphone or Chromebook in schools and use to touch than using the old fashion way.
ginkobiloba
macrumors 6502a
This makes no sense. Sure, I’d love to have only one portable device that can be a real Mac and an iPad at the same time, but it has to make sense ergonomically. Unless that MacBook Ultra can fold, and allows for the use of a Pencil, it’s going to go the way of the Touchbar ….
Precisely, another useless tier that serves no purpose other than to rip customers off. Everything mentioned should have already been on the Macbook Pro years ago and at the base Macbook Pro pricing.
I can't help but feel this is just a cash grabbing move from Apple unless, they drastically rethink the pricing structure, and even then it's just a way to drive up their prices.
If MacBook Ultra is a new line, will they charge less for the Pro and a little more for the Ultra, or will they keep the pricing unchanged and just release Ultra as a premium option?
Let's be real, they're due a redesign of the MacBook Pro and they absolutely should be adding that tandem OLED screen to it. Will the Ultra only come in super powerful versions or will it be feasible for someone like a music producer that needs an M Pro chip be able to get one and benefit from the redesign and improvements?
As a MBP user of over 15 years, I just hope this rebranding/redesign is a benefit to us the customer, and not just to the benefit of Apple.
If MacBook Ultra is a new line, will they charge less for the Pro and a little more for the Ultra, or will they keep the pricing unchanged and just release Ultra as a premium option?
Let's be real, they're due a redesign of the MacBook Pro and they absolutely should be adding that tandem OLED screen to it. Will the Ultra only come in super powerful versions or will it be feasible for someone like a music producer that needs an M Pro chip be able to get one and benefit from the redesign and improvements?
As a MBP user of over 15 years, I just hope this rebranding/redesign is a benefit to us the customer, and not just to the benefit of Apple.
EpicBro101
macrumors newbie
Good lord that lineup is going to be a little ridiculous. MacBook Neo, air, pro, pro with pro chip, pro with Max chip, aaand finally ultra……
dalestrauss
macrumors regular
Would you guys please get off this nonsense. Touchscreens are great for scrolling, pinch to zoom precision, quick selection of links and other targets. They are just another input option and NOT the coming of the devil. If you don't like it, don't use it. And enough with the "I don't want to pay for something I don't use!" nonsense as well. People don't use HDMI or SD cards - people don't complain about that - and Windows laptops have incorporated touch screens for ten years or more without pricing upgrades.
Even more importantly, with macOS capable of running iPadOS apps, a touchscreen MacBook Pro would be a two in one killer device.
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Yeah, I've thought that, if an additional tier ever got introduced to the MavBook product line, then then the naming scheme would either go 'Air'/no distinguishing sub-denominator/'Studio'/'Pro' or 'Air'/no distinguishing sub-denominator/'Pro'/'Ultra;' this rumor suggests the latter. (This was before the MacBook Neo became a thing, of course.
Some of this is/may be unlikely, but here's what I'd want from a MacBook Ultra:
- 16"and 18" display size options; micro-LED, not OLED
(…Do OLED screens still have screen burn-in issues, like when they were first introduced? I thought that was fundamental to OLED display technology. If the problem's been — mostly — solved, then OLED's fine.)- Anti-glare coating, at least as an option, like the nano-texture glass option.
- No notch or pinhole/hole-punch camera; all Mac laptops should have stayed with the previous bezel design or, since a redesign, should always have had and should now switch to a bezel style more like Apple's iPad line-up, albeit with allowances for dispaly corners still being square instead of rounded. (Though I suppose the side bezels don't need to be as thick, since one doesn't need to hold a laptop by its display's sides.) I don't mind a little extra strip of bezel above the siaplay to make room for the camera housing. (You can tell I don't mind display bezels and don't care if they're thin or not, as long as they're black/fade into the background. This industry obsession with thinning display bezels out until they're razor-thin over recent years is just ridiculous.)
- If the display is a touch screen, then I probably wouldn't use it that way too often, but I wouldn't care enough for it being there to be a deal-breaker, either.
- If the Touch Ba ever comes back, then it doesn't replace the function key row. Either have the function keys or the function keys and the Touch Bar, not just the Touch Bar and no (physical) function key row.
(…I don't suspect the Touch Bar will return, though, at least not soon.) - A good keyboard. Keep the keyboard quality up at the same level it's been recently.
- Bonus points if at least some models can fit a full-size keyboard with separate navigation and arrow key blocks and numeric keypad on there.
- Apple Pencil support on the trackpad. (If a nice user experience can be figured out for that.)
- Ports:
- 1 Ethernet port
- At least 3 USB Type-A ports
- At least 2 Thunderbolt/USB Type-C ports
- HDMI
- SD card slot (SDXC or better — say, UHS-I or -II, or even SD Express support?)
- 3.5-millimeter combo headset (headphone output/microphone output) jack
- MagSafe power adapter port
- Good airflow/ventilation.
- As little CPU/GPU throttling as possible when on battery power/not connected to wall power.
- a user-removable/-replaceable battery,
- user-replaceable/-upgradeable storage, and (/or?)
- user-replaceable/-upgradeable RAM
Bring on the full/true desktop-replacement MacBook! The last one was the late 2011 17" Intel MacBook Pro.
If, on the off chance, a lot of this happened, then I'd be sorely tempted to consider switching away from/upgrading from my current, aging hP ZBook 17 G6 and coming back to the Mac for laptop hardware.
I wouldn't get a built-in optical drive any more like I still have now, but that ship's long sailed, even on PC laptops, now. I actually use my ZBook's Blu-ray disc/DVD drive a lot less than I thought I would, so an external one's fine, I guess.
A MacBook line-up that I think would make sense in terms of display size ranges per sub-brand is:
- MacBook Air: 14" (and, optionally, bring back the 12" model)
- standard MacBook: 14"
- MacBook Pro: 14" and 16"
- Macbook Ultra: 16" and 18"
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skaertus
macrumors 601
These news do not make any sense.
- OLED display: The next MacBook Air and/or Pro are expected to get OLED displays. There are already several laptops under $1,000 with OLED displays, so this can hardly be a differentiating feature for a supposed MacBook Ultra. It is the opposite: Apple will have to update to OLED to keep up with competition.
- Touch Screen: mac OS is not design for touch. No Mac has this feature. A new highest-end MacBook will not get this feature because no developer will add touch support for apps to be used by the half a dozen users that would by this Ultra Mac. The only option would be for touch to be widely implemented through the Mac line, and this would not make it a differentiating factor for this Ultra.
- Dynamic Island: OK, but this would be a feature so desired that would justify a higher-end model?
- M6 Pro and M6 Max: The next MacBook Pro is supposed to have these chips. If the MacBook Ultra gets even the lower-end M6 Pro, then there will be a lot of overlap with the MacBook Pro. I do not see this happening. Apple discontinued the Mac Pro, which overlapped with the Studio and was more expensive; why would they make it all over again?
- Thinner design: How much thinner could Apple make it when powered by a M6 Ultra? And what about battery life? I doubt it.
- Cellular: It does not make sense when no other MacBook has it.
No, I don't think so.