Transcription
It feels like just yesterday when I reported about some of the earlier rumors we were hearing about the new MacBook Neo. And when I did, I said just how much this laptop was going to change the Mac lineup. And I believe I was pretty right on that one.
And the Neo was just the start to what is going to be a very exciting Mac lineup going forward with some of the biggest changes we have seen since the Apple silicon transition that is going to change the Mac forever. And this year, that all starts with a complete redesign to the MacBook Pro.
Now, this redesign is so big that it may be a separate Mac laptop altogether called the MacBook Ultra. Either way, for the outer design, Apple is rumored to be making this MacBook Pro even thinner. And it's going to be pretty interesting considering the last time Apple made thinner MacBook Pros, Apple was using Intel chips. And if you know the history of MacBook Pros, um, those had a lot of thermal issues. Like, a lot of people looked, uh, pretty unfavorably on those MacBook Pros because of that. And it's strange because when Apple switched to Apple silicon, they also made the MacBook Pros thicker to accommodate for additional thermal capacity, even though they probably didn't need to.
Now, as I said, Apple silicon obviously is more efficient than what they were using with those older Intel chips, so it doesn't produce as much heat. It's a little easier to cool, but as Apple has made advancements to these M series chips, they have gotten more powerful. And the M5 Max chip in a constrained body like the 14-inch MacBook Pro, it can actually get pretty hot and it can run those fans pretty loudly if you stress the machine. So, it makes me wonder if these new MacBooks will run into any performance problems or if Apple will have to revamp the cooling system in the MacBook Ultra to make sure that even though yes, the body is thinner, it won't run into performance issues. And maybe that's why Apple is planning to use the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips for this first iteration instead of going to M6 Pro and the M6 Max, which apparently Apple isn't even going to do. They're jumping straight to the M7 Pro and M7 Max. So maybe that's why they want to test it on chips where they already know exactly how they perform in that body.
Now the thinner body of the MacBook Ultra is not the revolutionary part. It's the screen that is going into these new MacBooks. So first of all, according to the rumors, these will be the first OLED Macs. Just like the iPad Pro, they will use tandem OLED displays, but they will be bigger 14 and 16-inch screen sizes. In fact, this time the bezels around the MacBook Ultra are rumored to be shrunken down a little bit and we may see a slightly, and I do mean slightly bigger, 14.3-inch and 16.3-inch display. And listen, I already think the current MacBook Pro display is really good. But yes, the OLED panel, it's going to be a little bit better and it's going to fix some of the minor shortcomings of the mini-LED display.
But the display quality isn't even really the story here because it's what this display will be capable of. And apparently this MacBook Ultra will be the first Mac ever to get a touchscreen capable display. And I'm not sure how this feature is going to be received. But what I am sure about is you need a better way to manage your finances, which is why you should check out Monarch Money. Personally, I've been using Monarch for about half a year now. And it has made managing my personal finances so much easier because yeah, I don't have all my eggs in one basket. I have multiple different bank accounts, a PayPal account, multiple credit cards, and my investments on top of that. And what Monarch does is it takes all those different spread out accounts from all these different, you know, banking providers with their own different login and apps and combines them easily into a single app with a simple unified dashboard. So now instead of checking a bunch of different apps, I can just check Monarch and I can stay up to date on everything. I can check my bank account, my investment account, and I can keep track of every single charge that is made through all of my credit cards without bouncing back and forth between all those different apps. Monarch just lets me take control of my finances in a way I can't do when everything is separated, and it saves me so much time. So, if you want to try it out and take control of your own finances, you can click the link in the description below and get started with a free trial and 50% off your first year. And thank you to Monarch Money for sponsoring this video.
So yes, after years and years and years of Apple refusing to put a touchscreen on anything Mac-related, all the way back to the days of Steve Jobs, the MacBook Ultra will change that. Of course, this touchscreen will work like you would expect it to, right? You'll be able to swipe, scroll, and control the Mac user interface directly by just touching the screen. Not a very revolutionary concept here. Well, at least not in 2026.
I've been trying to think why Apple is implementing the touchscreen now. And there's a few reasons I have. One of them is because this MacBook is also rumored to be getting rid of the notch and replacing it with the dynamic island from the iPhone. So, quick controls will pop up in the dynamic island as well as things like live activities and of course the new Siri interface should pop down from the dynamic island, right? So, this could be an area where touch is useful for those quick interactions. Other than that, I kind of just think Apple already brought full mouse and keyboard controls to the iPad. So, at this point, why not bring touch control over to the Mac and even the playing field? Even if the experience isn't, you know, fully optimized for touch. Maybe some users will get joy putting their dirty, disgusting fingers all over the beautiful OLED display when they don't have to. And then I'm not going to fault you for that. But, uh, yeah, to me, I, I think the feature, at least a standard touchscreen on a laptop, I'm not going to be using it all that much.
Now, my own personal feelings aside, this is a huge change for the Mac. Now, I don't know how impactful this feature will be on a laptop, but it could pave the way to future products in the Mac lineup that just weren't possible before. For example, I always thought the desktop Microsoft Surface Studio was an interesting idea for a product. Like, here, you had this big screen in an all-in-one desktop with a flexible hinge, and you could pull that screen down to be used as a giant drawing tablet. And I always thought this looked like such a cool device, especially for artists and designers. So, Apple putting touch in a Mac, sure, it can possibly have its uses on a laptop. But I'm more curious to see how this feature might enable a new type of Mac device that Apple currently doesn't sell, and if Apple will come out with different form factors for the Mac that are better suited for a touchscreen. And I know it sounds silly because the iPad exists, but yeah, even making a Mac with a detachable screen and then you could take it and use an Apple Pencil with all these Pro Designer apps. I mean, like that could be a really big selling point to a certain customer base.
Now, going back to the MacBook Ultra in particular, Apple does have some changes in mind for this first touchscreen Mac, and that is engineering a new reinforced hinge that will be more stable. So when the user taps the screen, the whole upper display won't like wobble back and forth, which I think that's a pretty good idea.
Now, while the touchscreen is 100% going to be the main talking point when this Mac finally comes out, I actually think the next change is going to be even more impactful. And that is the rumors that the MacBook Ultra will be the first Mac to have a cellular modem. Current rumors suggest the Ultra could end up using Apple's new C2 cellular 5G modem. And just like you can already do with an iPad, since the dawn of the iPad, you will be able to buy an optional cellular modem and then have a wireless internet connection wherever you go.
Personally, I am really excited for this feature. And I say that as someone that has never bought a cellular-enabled iPad. One, because I'm cheap, but also because it just isn't my main device. So, I don't need to constantly be connected with my iPad. But my MacBook is where I do most of my work. So being able to have a solid 5G connection wherever I go, especially when there's so many times where I have to deal with like slow hotel Wi-Fi or spotty cafe Wi-Fi. If I could just have that backup of 5G cellular service, I would definitely pay extra for this feature. It is long overdue and after this, I just hope Apple brings it to the rest of the MacBook lineup and I think they will because these are huge changes coming to the MacBook and this is just the start and it is going to set a pretty big trend over what we can expect going forward for the Mac lineup.
Looking down the road at existing rumors, Apple already plans to bring features like the OLED display to the MacBook Air. So, I imagine touchscreens and cellular modems could potentially just be on all MacBooks going forward. And we are starting to hear how these changes might even affect other Mac computers. Like, Apple has plans to bring OLED displays to the iMac, which I think sounds great. Like, let's get this hardware for the entire Mac lineup to be cutting edge. And like I said before, I definitely think Apple should try out some more experimental Mac form factors in the future, especially now that the hardware guy, John Turnis, is set to take the stage as Apple's next CEO. Like, I think it's pretty clear the Mac has a lot of changes coming. And we're not going to have to wait too long to start seeing this vision play out because the MacBook Ultra, it could be released by the end of this year. So, it's going to be soon, right?
But let me know what do you think about the rumored MacBook Ultra and the future of the Mac lineup in general. And I hope you found this video informative and thank you for watching. I'll catch you all in the next one. It's okay if you touch the screen of your Mac. I'm not going to judge you. We do it on our iPads and our iPhones, you know, but the Mac, you don't have to dirty it, right? Like, that's the good thing about the Mac. You don't have to dirty. It's a losing battle. I know.