Apple is planning a major redesign of its highest-end laptops that could arrive in early 2027 under a new name, MacBook Ultra.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the most reliable source on Apple’s product plans, has reported on the upcoming device and the features it is expected to bring.
MacRumors compiled the full picture on April 24 and it amounts to the most significant MacBook upgrade in at least five years.
The launch was originally expected for late 2026 but a global memory chip shortage has pushed it to early 2027, most likely late January, as Apple’s supply of RAM and SSD components has been constrained by the same AI hardware demand that is driving component prices across the industry.
The Mac Studio refresh, which had been expected around WWDC 2026 in June, has similarly slipped to approximately October 2026.
What Is The Macbook Ultra?
The MacBook Ultra would be a new tier at the top of Apple’s laptop lineup, sitting above the existing MacBook Pro entirely rather than replacing it.
Think of it the way the Mac Pro sits above the Mac Studio, or the iPhone Ultra is expected to sit above the iPhone Pro.
Apple is expanding its Ultra branding across multiple product lines, with MacBook Ultra, iPhone Ultra and potentially iPad Ultra all in development simultaneously.
The MacBook Ultra would be the most expensive, most capable, most feature-laden laptop Apple has ever built.
The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip, which is also expected in 2027, will not receive most of these features. This is the machine for the user who needs everything.
Apple last redesigned the MacBook Pro in 2021, when the M1 Pro and M1 Max models introduced the current design language with the notch, MagSafe, the return of HDMI and the SD card slot.
The MacBook Ultra would be the first significant departure from that design in at least five years, and based on what Gurman has reported, the departure is substantial.
OLED Comes To Macbook
The current MacBook Pro models use an LCD display with mini-LED backlighting, a technology Apple called Liquid Retina XDR that produces impressive results but has physical limitations that OLED can overcome.
With mini-LED, the backlight is divided into zones that can dim independently, but it cannot achieve true black because some light always bleeds through from adjacent zones.
With OLED, each pixel generates its own light and can turn off completely, meaning true black, infinite contrast ratio, and richer, more accurate colors.
Every other significant Apple display product already has OLED. The iPhone has had it for years. Apple Watch uses it.
The iPad Pro moved to OLED in 2024. The MacBook is the last major Apple product category still using LCD. The MacBook Ultra ends that distinction.
The move to OLED also has a structural benefit that feeds directly into the next rumored change, OLED displays are thinner than LCD panels with their backlighting systems, which contributes to the thinner overall chassis expected on the MacBook Ultra.
The Touchscreen Is Finally Here
This is the feature that has generated the most discussion and the most skepticism.
Apple is reportedly bringing touchscreen capability to the MacBook Ultra, allowing users to interact with the display using their fingers in addition to the keyboard and trackpad.
Steve Jobs famously argued against touchscreen Macs in a 2010 interview, saying that reaching up to touch a vertical screen causes arm fatigue.
That argument was made 16 years ago, and Apple has demonstrated willingness to reverse course on Jobs-era positions when the product rationale becomes compelling enough.
The iPhone was supposed to never have a stylus. Then Apple Pencil arrived. The Mac was supposed to never run iOS apps. Then it did.
The case for a touchscreen Mac is stronger now than it has ever been. macOS 27, expected to debut at WWDC 2026 this June, is being built with touch-friendly interface elements including new context-sensitive menus and dynamically enlarged buttons in the system menu bar.
Apple is not building touch support into the operating system without planning to ship hardware that uses it. The MacBook Ultra is that hardware.
The implementation is expected to complement rather than replace the keyboard and trackpad, you use your fingers when it makes sense and the traditional input methods when they are more appropriate. It is not trying to turn the MacBook into an iPad.
The Dynamic Island
The current MacBook Pro has a notch at the top of the display housing the camera. It is functional and has been present since 2021.
The MacBook Ultra will reportedly replace the notch with a hole-punch camera, which paves the way for a Dynamic Island, the same interactive pill-shaped feature Apple introduced on the iPhone 14 Pro.
On the iPhone, the Dynamic Island shows live notifications, AirPods connection status, timer progress, battery warnings and other at-a-glance information in the space surrounding the camera cutout.
The same functionality is expected to come to the MacBook Ultra, giving the machine a more capable and interactive status area at the top of the screen while moving toward a more edge-to-edge display with thinner bezels.
The Dynamic Island coming to the Mac is also symbolically significant. It is Apple’s clearest signal that it wants the experience across its devices to feel cohesive, the same interface element appearing on iPhone, and eventually on MacBook, with the same behavior.
M6 Pro And M6 Max Chips Built On 2nm
The MacBook Ultra will be powered by Apple’s next-generation M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, built on TSMC’s advanced 2nm manufacturing process.
The current M5 Pro and M5 Max chips in the most recent MacBook Pro models use a 3nm process.
The jump from 3nm to 2nm represents a larger performance and efficiency leap than recent chip generations have delivered.
Apple’s chip improvements have been consistently impressive year-over-year, but the shift to a fundamentally more advanced manufacturing node tends to produce outsized gains in performance per watt, which translates to faster processing, more capable machine learning, and longer battery life in a thinner package.
The M6 Pro and M6 Max chips will also directly address the memory bandwidth and capacity needs that power demanding professional workflows: high-resolution video editing, 3D rendering, AI model training and inference, scientific computing.
For the users the MacBook Ultra is designed for, this chip generation is a meaningful step forward.
It is also the chip generation where the global memory shortage is biting hardest.
The shortage is being driven by demand for high-bandwidth memory components from AI data center hardware and consumer electronics simultaneously.
Even Apple, with its long-term supply agreements with major chip manufacturers, cannot fully insulate itself from an industry-wide constraint at this scale.
A Thinner Design
The MacBook Ultra is expected to be thinner than the current MacBook Pro, a consequence of the OLED display transition as much as any deliberate design decision.
Eliminating the LCD backlight system removes a meaningful amount of physical depth from the display assembly.
The key question that remains open is whether Apple will remove ports to achieve the thinner design.
The last time Apple pursued thinness at the expense of connectivity, the butterfly keyboard era MacBook Pro that stripped HDMI, MagSafe and the SD card slot, the decision was deeply unpopular and Apple eventually reversed it.
Current reporting suggests no indication that ports will be removed. The MacBook Ultra is expected to keep HDMI, MagSafe and the SD card slot.
Whether that holds through final design decisions is an open question, but the early signal is reassuring.
Built-In Cellular Connectivity
The sixth and most speculative feature is built-in cellular. Apple has reportedly at least considered equipping the MacBook Ultra with its own C1X or future C2 modem, giving the laptop native 5G and LTE connectivity without requiring a nearby iPhone for a Personal Hotspot.
Apple’s C1 modem debuted in the iPhone 16e in 2025 and has since been incorporated into other Apple devices.
A Mac modem would be a more advanced version, potentially the C1X or C2, optimized for the different power and thermal requirements of a laptop compared to a phone.
If Apple moves forward with cellular, the MacBook Ultra would be the first Mac with the feature, removing one of the last meaningful connectivity advantages that Windows laptops have held over Apple’s premium machines.
The cellular feature is still categorized as under consideration rather than confirmed, which means it is more likely to be present if the engineering challenges are resolved in time and less likely to be cut if they are not.
When Can We Expect The Release?
The MacBook Ultra is now expected in early 2027, most likely late January, which would align with Apple’s pattern of announcing products at the start of the year.
The Mac Studio refresh is expected around October 2026 as a separate, earlier product update.
The MacBook Pro models updated in March 2026 with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips represent Apple’s current best offering in the MacBook lineup. If you need a Mac laptop now, those machines are excellent.
If you can wait, early 2027 brings a redesign that has been five years in the making, OLED, touchscreen, Dynamic Island, M6 Pro and M6 Max, a thinner design, and potentially built-in cellular, in a machine Apple is apparently considering calling the Ultra.
That is a significant amount of change for one product. The only thing standing between it and your desk is a global memory chip shortage and approximately eight months of calendar.
