Apple’s M-Series: New “MacBook Ultra M5” Yes, New Chip Not Until 2027 — But an M7?
Gurman Explains How Apple Is Breaking Its Usual M6 and M7 Pattern
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Apple's M-Series: New "MacBook Ultra M5" Yes, New Chip Not Until 2027 — But an M7? · Source: Apple
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman published two reports on the future of Apple’s M-series this week. Thursday’s report covered a fundamental strategy shift, M6 Pro and M6 Max are reportedly getting skipped entirely, with the next real performance jump arriving only with the AI-focused M7 chips. A day later came the clarification for the long-awaited touchscreen MacBook: despite a completely new design, it won’t get a new chip after all. On top of that, there’s the big price increase across Apple’s entire lineup. So what’s actually going to happen here?
Apple’s M-Series 2026/2027: Why M6 Pro and M6 Max Are Skipped Entirely
Gurman: Apple Drops M6 Pro and M6 Max From the M-Series Entirely
Up until now, Apple’s M-series followed a pretty reliable pattern: base chip first, then Pro and Max variants, and eventually an Ultra version down the line. According to Bloomberg, Apple is breaking exactly that pattern. There’s no Pro or Max version planned for M6 at all, the first time that’s happened in the M-series’ history. Instead, the next real performance leap is supposed to arrive with M7, and yes, it’s AI-focused. What else would it be?
The alleged roadmap looks like this: M5 Ultra still arriving in late 2026 for a refreshed Mac Studio, M6 as a pure entry-level chip also in late 2026, M7 as the base chip as early as the first half of 2027, M7 Pro and M7 Max not until late 2027, and finally M7 Ultra in 2028. That means M5 Ultra, M6, and M7 could all sit in the lineup at the same time for a while, a pretty unusual look for Apple.
On the technical side, Bloomberg says M6 brings 31 percent more memory bandwidth (roughly 200GB/s compared to 153GB/s on M5), a reworked memory architecture, an improved Neural Engine, and a redesigned GPU with up to 12 cores, possibly even as the first chip built on the new 2-nanometer process.
M7 is supposed to push memory bandwidth up another 20 percent to around 240GB/s. The cheaper M6 will likely land in the entry-level MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac, as well as upcoming iPad Pro and iPad Air models, while M7 Pro and M7 Max stay reserved for the higher-end MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Mac Studio gets M7 Max and M7 Ultra. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio, expected as soon as this year, reportedly packs around 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, with up to 768GB of unified memory possible. Admittedly, this whole thing looks pretty confusing for users at first glance.
Touchscreen MacBook: No New Chip Despite the New Design
A day later, Gurman clarified what all this means for the long-rumored touchscreen MacBook, unofficially already nicknamed the “MacBook Ultra.” The device is expected to launch sometime between late this year and early next year, but with the already-known M5 Pro and M5 Max chips instead of anything new.
The design itself, on the other hand, is getting a serious overhaul. It would be the first Mac with an OLED main display and, at the same time, the first mass-produced Mac with touch input. Instead of the notch, a Dynamic Island in the style of newer iPhones is expected to show up, while the sizes stay at 14 and 16 inches (codenamed K114 and K116). Pricing should land above the current M5 Pro MacBook Pro, which now starts at $1,999 after the recent price increase. A true successor with M7 Pro and M7 Max chips apparently isn’t planned until late 2027.
Bottom Line on Apple’s M-Series
It’s a genuinely unusual break for Apple to suddenly skip an entire Pro/Max generation in a chip family it’s otherwise communicated so cleanly. For anyone waiting on the new touchscreen MacBook, this mainly means: the big design update arrives first, and the next real speed bump doesn’t show up until M7 Pro and M7 Max land at the end of 2027.
If you’re already thinking about picking up a new Mac for your studio, we covered the recent price increases just a few days ago, and this roadmap gives you one more data point: if you wait for the touchscreen model, you’re at least not giving up current performance right out of the gate, since the M5 Pro/Max has already been on the market for a while.
Still, this Apple roadmap makes things genuinely complicated for anyone of us looking to pick up a new studio Mac or MacBook. After all, we’d usually want to buy the most current machine possible, just to stay covered on performance for the next several years.
More Information About the Apple M-Series
- Bloomberg: Apple’s Touchscreen MacBook to Use M5 Pro Max Chips, M7 Pro Max Models in 2027 (Paywall)
- MacRumors: 2027 Macs to Get AI-Focused M7 Chips as Apple Skips High-End M6
- MacRumors: Apple’s OLED ‘MacBook Ultra’ Will Stick With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips
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