The touchscreen MacBook rumored for the fall won’t launch with Apple’s high-end M6 processors, according to a reliable source. The notebook — possibly dubbed the MacBook Ultra — will reportedly use the same M5 chips in the current MacBook Pro variants.
This surprise move will apparently be part of the shakeup in Apple’s processor plans that made news earlier this week. The M6 chips that might have gone into the MacBook Ultra have supposedly been nixed.
Touchscreen MacBook Ultra won’t pack Apple M6 processors
Persistent rumors indicate that Apple is preparing its first touchscreen MacBook, marking a dramatic reversal after years of insisting that touch input does not belong on Macs. Reports indicate the macOS notebook could feature an OLED display and a thinner design. Adding a touchscreen supposedly won’t affect its traditional clamshell form factor.
Despite expectations of this being an ultrapremium product, it’ll reportedly not be the debut of Apple’s M6 Pro and M6 Max processors.
“Apple Inc.’s first-ever touch-screen laptop will rely on the company’s current high-end M5 chips, rather than next-generation silicon,” Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported on Friday.
M6 Pro and M6 Max chips won’t exist?!
The high-end MacBook Pro variants that launched earlier this year use either an M5 Pro or M5 Max processor. It has been assumed the touchscreen MacBook Ultra would make the jump to the M6 Pro or M6 Max. Apparently not.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Apple plans to skip the M6 Pro and M6 Max processors entirely, instead accelerating development of more AI-focused M7 Pro and M7 Max for release in 2027. That unusual strategy would leave the M5 Pro and M5 Max as the company’s flagship notebook processors for a longer period than previous generations.
So if the M6 Pro and M6 Max got the axe, obviously they can’t go into the MacBook Ultra.
Whether sticking with the M5 Pro and M5 Max for more than another year will depress sales of the first touchscreen-enabled MacBook remains to be seen. If the Bloomberg report is correct, it won’t face competition from faster MacBook Pro models, as Apple’s other high-end notebooks will also run the M5 family.
And Apple is allegedly working on a follow-up model with those aforementioned M7 Pro and M7 Max processors.
More about the touchscreen MacBook Ultra
Apple is allarently making significant changes to macOS to enable touchscreen support for the MacBook Ultra and its eventual follow-ups.
And touch apparently won’t be its only new feature. The rumored addition of OLED technology should bring deeper blacks, improved contrast and better power efficiency compared with today’s mini-LED MacBook Pro displays.
This will become the new ultra-premium macOS notebook, so the touchscreen MacBook is expected to carry a price tag above today’s MacBook Pro lineup. Even after that took a jump up this week.
As for timing, at this point, all Gurman’s sources can tell him is that the touchscreen MacBook “will arrive between late this year and early next year.”
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
