After fleshing out its MacBook lineup, attention turns to desktop Macs, with the Mac Studio update now expected in the middle of 2026.

Following its initial update of the 14-inch MacBook Pro to the M5 generation of chips, Apple took this week to bring the rest of its MacBook range in line. In doing the same for its desktop Macs, the first in the queue is the Mac Studio.

In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman says that the first desktop Mac models won't be the usual consumer-oriented Mac models. Instead, it will be the higher-tier and pricier Mac Studio.

Gurman doesn't offer much detail about the Mac Studio in the newsletter, but that he expects a release in the "middle of the year." If true, the opportune and thematic time for Apple to bring out the M5 Mac Studio would be around WWDC in June.

As for what to expect, Gurman simply states that the new model will look identical to the current M4 Max and M3 Ultra version.

This does line up with details from a macOS Tahoe code leak received by AppleInsider in October, which put a Studio update in the summer of 2026.

This would be a little later than his previous pre-event reporting, though. In early February, Gurman wrote that the Mac Studio and the new Studio Display would launch "not long after" the initial Mac updates, implying a spring launch schedule.

Chip questions

If it is a typical spec-bump update, then the vast majority of specifications should be the same as the current generation. It's the chip that runs the show that will be the main alteration.

A new M5 Max version is almost certain to happen, as a Max variant has been available in the M1, M2, and M4 incarnations. However, on the Ultra side, we have seen the M1 Ultra, M2 Ultra, and the M3 Ultra.

There have been murmurs of an M4 Ultra chip being worked on within Apple, albeit back in August 2025. However, apparent claims of internal testing does not mean a product will face a launch in the future, as it can always be scrapped.

Apple has also indicated that not every chip generation will get an Ultra tier. It's plausible for the M4 Ultra to be skipped entirely, in favor of an M5 Ultra.

At the very least, it seems improbable that it will be configured with massive amounts of memory, thanks to the current demand by AI infrastructure buildouts. Apple has already dropped the 512GB RAM option for the current-generation Mac Studio, a policy it may continue for any upcoming launch until the market corrects itself.

Mark Gurman has a pretty good reputation when it comes to accuracy, which makes the launch timing claim more likely to happen than not.