Clue in macOS 27 points to an OLED MacBook Ultra being within touching distance

There are rumours that Apple could be planning to announce a MacBook Ultra, a premium tier device that sits above the MacBook Pro and offers something we've not seen in Apple's laptops before – a touchscreen OLED display.

With WWDC 2026 came the announcement of Apple's next macOS software, called Golden Gate. That new software has been released in beta and it contains an interesting new function – full touch support for a Mac via Sidecar.

Previously, with macOS 26, you could only control your Mac on iPad using a mouse or trackpad – ie., it behaved in the same way as it did on your actual Mac. That's now different in macOS 27, pointing to Apple implementing full touch support across macOS.

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This was discovered by @BLCNYY on X, who shared a video of the touch support in action after accessing the macOS 27 beta (via Notebookcheck).

As with rumours about Apple's iPhone Ultra, this isn't an absolute confirmation of Apple launching a touchscreen MacBook – it's more the case of showcasing software support for something we expect to happen. It might simply be that Apple decided to add touch controls via Sidecar.

But, that doesn't account for other pointers we have towards a new touchscreen MacBook. We've previously reported that Samsung Display is expected to ship OLED screens to Apple for the new MacBook in July, in 14.3- and 16.3-inch sizes.

That's on top of previous confirmation that Apple is creating an Ultra tier of devices, as well as other Apple plans from Mark Gurman, one of the most reliable leakers of Apple's future products.

The idea of a touchscreen MacBook was shot down in 2010, with Steve Jobs saying during the launch of Mac OS X Lion that it wasn't a good experience: "We've done tons of user testing on this and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical… it's ergonomically terrible".

But the assumption that Jobs had made was that you're using touch a lot of the time. I have a Windows laptop that supports touch and I don't use it often, but I can't imagine it not being there.

I use it for ad hoc interactions, for casual things. It's not a replacement for the keyboard or trackpad, but sometimes, I just want to tap – especially when I'm showing someone else something on the screen.

The introduction of touch to the Mac would open up a whole new world of opportunities for users and for some, that might be the incentive to move to the MacBook Ultra.

Just make sure that if it does happen, you have your Apple Polishing Cloth to hand.