Touchscreen, OLED, Thinner Body: Apple's Costliest MacBook Yet May Be On Way

Apple is reportedly working on a new laptop that could sit above its current MacBook Pro range altogether. According to rumours swirling in tech circles, the machine may be called the MacBook Ultra, and it could bring a fresh design along with features that have never appeared on a MacBook before.

Rather than replacing the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models, the Ultra is expected to be a separate, higher-tier option. Here is a look at changes Apple could be planning for it.

A Shift From Mini-LED To OLED Screens

The most talked-about upgrade is a possible switch from mini-LED to OLED. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have both pointed towards OLED MacBooks, and Samsung Display is said to be lined up to supply the panels.

OLED screens tend to produce deeper blacks and sharper contrast, since individual pixels can be switched off entirely rather than dimmed. If Apple goes ahead with this, the MacBook Ultra's display could look noticeably better than anything on the current MacBook Pro range.

Touch Display, No Notch

For years, Apple has kept touchscreens firmly in iPad territory. That could be about to change. The new laptop is expected to allow touch input while still supporting the trackpad and mouse as usual. 

The MacBook's familiar notch might disappear altogether. Gurman has suggested Apple is considering a cutout similar to the iPhone's Dynamic Island, one that could expand or shrink depending on what's happening on screen, while also making the cutout feel less intrusive than the current notch.

A Noticeably Slimmer Design

Apple has been trimming down its hardware across the board, from the iPad Pro to the iPad Air, and the MacBook Ultra could follow suit. The tricky part will be keeping the range of ports Apple brought back with the 2021 MacBook Pro redesign while still making the body thinner.

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Given the feature list, the MacBook Ultra is expected to become Apple's most expensive laptop by some distance. Apple already raised MacBook Pro prices in June 2026 by $300 in the US and by as much as Rs 1 lakh in India, which suggests the Ultra could carry an even steeper price when it arrives.

For context, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro currently starts at $2,499, while the 16-inch version begins at $2,999. In India, the same 14-inch M5 Pro model costs Rs 2,99,900, and the 16-inch version is priced at Rs 3,59,900.

Chip Inside Might Not Actually Be New

Despite the Ultra name, the first version of the laptop may not launch with a brand-new Ultra-tier chip. Reports suggest it could initially run on the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max processors. Apple is said to be planning M7 Pro and M7 Max chips next, skipping an M6 Pro and M6 Max generation entirely, with a second-generation MacBook Ultra possibly moving to the M7 architecture later on.

Apple Has Already Unveiled Its Most Powerful Chips Yet

While the MacBook Ultra remains a rumour, Apple has just confirmed two new chips for its desktop line-up. The M6 has debuted in the new Mac mini, and the M5 Ultra has arrived in the new Mac Studio, with Apple describing both as major jumps in performance and AI capabilities.

The M6 is Apple's first chip built on a 2-nanometre process, and it brings improvements across the board. It comes with a larger 12-core CPU, a 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, a Dual 16-core Neural Engine, and a unified memory bandwidth of up to 170GB/s.

The M5 Ultra, meanwhile, is described as the most powerful M-series chip Apple has built so far. It uses next-generation UltraFusion technology to join four dies into a single quad-die design, a first for any Apple silicon chip. It includes up to a 36-core CPU and an 80-core GPU, with unified memory bandwidth reaching 1.2TB per second, 50 per cent higher than the M3 Ultra.

Apple has positioned the M6 as a chip for everyday tasks, coding and creative work, aimed at students, developers, AI hobbyists and general users.

The M5 Ultra is built with professionals in mind, aimed at tasks such as 3D rendering, visual effects and scientific analysis, or running heavy AI models entirely on device.

Apple says its developer tools, including Core AI, Core ML, Metal and Xcode, are designed to make full use of both chips.