For years, "Ultra" was a word Apple kept for its most powerful chips and, more recently, its priciest Apple Watch. Now the badge looks set to climb onto a Mac laptop. Multiple reports point to Apple preparing a new top-tier portable, informally called the "MacBook Ultra", that would sit above the MacBook Pro rather than replace it. If the leaks hold up, it would be the biggest MacBook redesign in five years.
A new tier, not a replacement
The most interesting detail is not the spec sheet, it is the positioning. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the MacBook Ultra would not simply succeed the MacBook Pro. It would sit above it, as an all-new, higher-priced flagship laptop, while the current M5 MacBook Pros stay on sale.
There is a neat way to read this. Apple's laptop line has long forced a choice: the thin, light MacBook Air, or the heavier, more powerful MacBook Pro. A MacBook Ultra could split the difference, offering the sleekness of an Air with serious performance, aimed at buyers who want power without the bulk. The Pro would remain the no-compromise workhorse for people who simply want the most cores.
What's actually rumored inside
Roughly six headline features keep coming up:
- An OLED display, the first ever on a Mac, replacing today's mini-LED panels for deeper blacks and richer color.
- A touchscreen, also a first, and a genuine reversal of Apple's long-standing "Macs don't need touch" stance.
- A Dynamic Island, replacing the notch and expanding contextually, just like on iPhone.
- M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, built on TSMC's 2nm process, which should mean bigger-than-usual jumps in speed and efficiency.
- A thinner design, partly enabled by the switch from mini-LED to OLED.
- Built-in cellular connectivity, possibly via Apple's own C1X or C2 modem, a long-rumored feature that may finally arrive.
One important caveat: the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with the plain M6 chip is not expected to get most of this. The OLED panel, touch and the new design appear reserved for the priciest machines.
The price question
Nobody has leaked a number, but history is not encouraging. When Apple brought OLED to the iPhone X in 2017 and to the iPad Pro in 2024, each jump came with a price increase of around 20 percent. A brand-new "Ultra" tier sitting above an already expensive MacBook Pro points in one direction, and it is up.
Don't hold your breath just yet
Timing is the soft spot. Late 2026 was the original target, but Gurman now says early 2027 looks more likely, thanks to a global memory-chip shortage that is squeezing the whole industry.
That same shortage is shadowing the Mac Studio refresh, expected around October 2026 with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. The Ultra version is reportedly pushing 32 to 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, with up to 256GB of unified memory.
The bottom line
Nothing here is official. Apple has not confirmed a single pixel of it. But the consistency of the reporting, touchscreen, OLED, a new tier, suggests the Mac is heading somewhere genuinely new, and that the last big MacBook rethink back in 2021 is finally getting a sequel.
If you have been about to buy a MacBook Pro, this is the rumor cycle that makes "maybe wait" a reasonable thought. Just be ready for that wait to stretch into 2027, and for the price tag to sting.
