MacBook Ultra [Concept] - Some weird Shower Thoughts of mine

[Renovatius]

While running errands a weird concept of a MacBook „Ultra“ popped into my head… let me know what you think of such a device and feel free to add what you think would make this device „Ultra“. I tried to stay realistic in my expectations.

The main selling point of this device would be a detachable touch screen (+/- 15") with Apple Pencil support and a special wireless connection to the "base".

The screen has a complete standalone functionality like an iPad Pro. It has its own Pro or Max M-Series chip, own battery, storage etc. The screen will be something fancy. Maybe a miniLED with high refresh rate.

Once detached from the base it will keep running seamlessly. Meaning it would sport a (touch optimised) full scale MacOS. It might have an option to switch over to iPad OS but I guess Apple wouldn’t do that.

If you attach the tablet to the base you will get the full MacBook experience with keyboard, trackpad, more I/O, more battery and storage(?, it might be more approachable to have all the memory in the tablet section). But most importantly you'll get more power! The base features an M-Ultra Chip (if they can figure out thermals).

When connected both chips will work in tandem to provide even more computing power. But what makes this device interesting for professional use would be a special short distance wireless connection between the two halves. The base can "stream" high bandwidth low-latency data to the tablet to provide it with whatever the Ultra-Chip can offer while the user has maximum flexibility with just the tablet in hand.

The magnetic hinge would be state of the art of course. Being stable in any position and able to flip the screen 180° on the back.

Other tidbits that I could see in this device would be dual-stereo cameras on the back of the tablet for Vision Pro Video support. Third gen Apple Pencil support with real world color picking and Taptic Engine. Revised Touch Bar with even less ESC-Key than before.

Target audience would be anyone who is begging for an iPad with full MacOS support and power users who want maximum computing power while keeping maximum flexibility.

Let me know what you think of this.

 

[ondioline]

This "concept" has been repeated ad-nauseam for more than a decade

 

[JPack]

You're basically proposing joining two full featured computers together.

Take a MacBook, delete the display, and replace it with an iPad Pro. Think about how much such a combined device would weigh. And talk about waste. You have duplicated processing, storage, I/O in both parts of such a computer.

 

[bobcomer]

It'll be very heavy and it will cost more than most people will pay. An ultra and a Max, north of $10,000. I had a Surface Book a few years ago that's like your prototype, but only one CPU, and a low power one at that. And it was heavy and expensive for what it was.

 

[okkibs]

Have you seen what kind of monster chip the Ultra is? And you want to put that in a tablet? The iPad Pros already have worse battery life than MBPs despite using the cheaper chip.

 

[Boil]

While running errands...

So you were running errands in the shower...?

 

[Renovatius]

So you were running errands in the shower...?

The things you have to do while in the shower… 👀

 

[senttoschool]

I could see Apple making an 18" Macbook Pro and calling it Macbook Ultra. It would have an M3/M4 Ultra SoC. It would be a bit thicker than the normal 16" MBP so the heatsink fan can be larger. It will be marketed as a mobile workstation.

But I don't see Apple ever making what you described. That's a lot of technology investment into a niche product and quite frankly, I don't see the user benefit of having another computer as the screen that runs iPadOS.

 

[Pressure]

Have you seen what kind of monster chip the Ultra is? And you want to put that in a tablet? The iPad Pros already have worse battery life than MBPs despite using the cheaper chip.

You should probably read what OP wrote again 😅

 

[dmccloud]

I could see Apple making an 18" Macbook Pro and calling it Macbook Ultra. It would have an M3/M4 Ultra SoC. It would be a bit thicker than the normal 16" MBP so the heatsink fan can be larger. It will be marketed as a mobile workstation.

But I don't see Apple ever making what you described. That's a lot of technology investment into a niche product and quite frankly, I don't see the user benefit of having another computer as the screen that runs iPadOS.

Given the size of the heatsink used in the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra (which cools both sides of the PCB where the SoC is located), any laptop using the chip would either be far too thick in order to accomodate an Ultra SoC or compromise on performance in order to make things fit into a smaller form factor. The last thing Apple wants to do is repeat some of Intel's mistakes.