Apple is preparing to launch its first major MacBook redesign in five years, and if the rumors are accurate, it could be the most significant leap the laptop line has ever taken. The device, widely expected to carry the name MacBook Ultra, would establish an entirely new tier above the MacBook Pro and could arrive between late 2026 and early 2027. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the later window is looking more likely due to the global memory chip shortage, while analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes mass production will begin by late 2026. Whenever it lands, the machine promises to shatter long-standing boundaries that Apple has stubbornly maintained for its Mac lineup.
The standout change is undoubtedly the touchscreen. After years of insisting that fingers belong on iPads rather than Macs, Apple appears ready to let users tap directly on the laptop’s display. Gurman describes the approach as touch-friendly rather than touch-first, meaning the keyboard and trackpad will remain central to the experience and the laptop will stay a conventional clamshell without any convertible or detachable design. To make this work, Apple is reportedly reworking macOS so that controls adapt depending on whether you are using touch or traditional inputs, with larger tap targets appearing when you interact with the screen directly. The company has also supposedly designed a reinforced hinge so the display does not wobble when tapped, addressing one of the obvious practical concerns of putting touch on a laptop screen.
Visually, the MacBook Ultra should look strikingly different from today’s models. It is expected to be the first Mac to use an OLED display, replacing the mini-LED technology in current MacBook Pros and delivering richer colors, true blacks, and better power efficiency. The familiar notch at the top of the screen would vanish, replaced by a much smaller hole-punch camera cutout that digitally expands into an iPhone-style Dynamic Island for alerts and interactive notifications. The overall footprint should shrink too, with thinner bezels surrounding marginally larger 14.3-inch and 16.3-inch panels supplied by Samsung Display, all housed in a chassis noticeably thinner than what exists today. Importantly for professionals who rely on them, there is currently no indication that Apple plans to sacrifice ports like HDMI, MagSafe, or the SD card slot to achieve that slimmer profile.
Under the hood, the initial models are expected to run on existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips rather than next-generation silicon, since Apple has reportedly scrapped plans for M6 Pro and M6 Max variants entirely and is instead accelerating toward M7 versions optimized for heavy AI workloads slated for late 2027. Perhaps the most intriguing but least certain feature is built-in cellular connectivity, which would be a first for any Mac. If Apple moves forward with that plan, the laptop would likely use either the company’s C1X modem or its forthcoming C2 modem for 5G and LTE service. Software clues are already surfacing as well, with macOS 27 Golden Gate adding direct touch input through Sidecar on iPad, pull-to-refresh gestures across native apps like Safari and Mail, and a dark pill-shaped Siri interface in Spotlight that looks tailor-made for a Dynamic Island sitting at the top of your screen.