Apple could launch a touchscreen MacBook this year – and it might be called the MacBook Ultra

Apple might finally be preparing its long-rumoured touchscreen MacBook – a likely contender for our list of the best laptops – but it may not arrive in the MacBook Pro form you’d expect.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (via MacRumors), Apple is working on a new high-end MacBook with both an OLED display and touchscreen support, expected to arrive around the end of the year.

But here’s the twist. Rather than replacing the MacBook Pro line, Gurman suggests that the new model could sit above it, potentially under a new name – the MacBook Ultra.

It’s certainly not the craziest rumour we’ve ever heard – Apple has increasingly leaned into the “Ultra” label for its most premium products. We’ve already seen it on the Apple Watch Ultra and the company’s top-tier M-series chips, and Gurman believes Apple is now exploring the same strategy across more categories..

If the speculation proves to be true, it would mean that Apple will keep the current MacBook Pro range in place while pushing the new model further upmarket – both in features and price.

There’s precedent for that expected price jump, too. When Apple introduced OLED screens to the iPhone with the iPhone X in 2017, the starting price jumped noticeably. The same thing happened when OLED arrived on the iPad Pro in 2024.

If the same pattern repeats with MacBooks, the new OLED model could cost significantly more than today’s MacBook Pro.

The rumoured MacBook Ultra would arrive at the opposite end of Apple’s lineup from the recently announced MacBook Neo, the company’s new entry-level laptop.

That machine targets the lower end of the market – competing with cheaper Windows laptops and Chromebooks – while the OLED touchscreen MacBook would push in the opposite direction, offering a more premium option above today’s Pro models.

According to Gurman, this reflects a broader strategy inside Apple – stretching its core product lines across more price tiers, rather than launching entirely new categories.

The same thinking could extend elsewhere, too. Gurman says Apple is also exploring ultra-premium versions of other products, including a foldable iPhone that could land around the $2000 mark, and potentially even high-end AirPods above the current AirPods Pro.

Even if Apple does add touch support though, Gurman says the company still isn’t planning to turn the Mac into an iPad-style hybrid.

Instead, the touchscreen MacBook is expected to remain firmly a laptop running macOS, rather than adopting a detachable design or tablet-first interface.

Exactly what the final product will be called remains unclear. Apple could simply stick with the MacBook Pro name, but Gurman says the MacBook Ultra label would make its position at the very top of the lineup clearer.

Either way, if the report is accurate, Apple’s Mac range could soon stretch from a $599 MacBook Neo all the way up to its most expensive laptop yet. Watch this space.

• Read more: MacBook Neo is the budget Apple laptop we all wanted – with a major flaw we really didn’t