“MacBook Ultra”: Apple's First OLED Touchscreen Mac Slips Toward Early 2027
The laptop long described as the “OLED MacBook Pro” is now expected to arrive as a new top tier called MacBook Ultra — the first high-end MacBook redesign in five years. The window has moved: Bloomberg's Mark Gurman puts it between late 2026 and early 2027, with early 2027 now looking more likely because of the global memory chip shortage. Ming-Chi Kuo expects mass production to begin by late 2026.
- Display: First OLED Mac — hybrid tandem two-stack panels with an oxide TFT backplane, replacing mini-LED. Slightly larger at 14.3-inch and 16.3-inch (per Samsung Display) vs. today's 14.2 and 16.2.
- Touch: The first Mac with direct touch input, described as “touch-friendly, not touch-first” — a normal clamshell, not a convertible, with a reinforced hinge so the screen doesn't wobble when tapped.
- No more notch: A hole-punch camera and an iPhone-style Dynamic Island that expands for Siri alerts, AirPods status, and other live activity.
- Chips: Ships with the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max — the same silicon in today's MacBook Pro — because Apple scrapped the M6 Pro/Max generation.
- Design: Noticeably thinner and lighter, with HDMI, MagSafe, and the SD card slot retained.
- Price: Unannounced, but expected above every current MacBook Pro tier — the 14-inch starts at $1,999 ($2,499 with M5 Pro) and the 16-inch at $2,999, after Apple's June 2026 Mac price increases.
Our read: the hardware itself is well-sourced and corroborated across the display supply chain; the timing is the soft part of this rumor. Treat late 2026 as optimistic.