It’s a lower TDP SoC than the M2, and with less cores, half the performance cores of the M2 (and a more anemic GPU as well). I would expect this machine to match, maybe exceed, the performance of the M1 MBA, it wont pass the M2 except maybe for limited duration single core tasks
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Apple's 2026 Low-Cost A18 Pro MacBook: What We Know So Far
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Wombat-man
macrumors member
I'd really like to replace my 2017 12" Macbook, which is great for travel.
Right now I'm typing on it in India (I live in the US).
However, I'd like to have >= 16GB RAM, since that's what I have on my almost 9 y.o. machine.
It would be good to have at least two USB C ports. I use my current machine for presentations, so being able to both connect to a power supply and a projector at the same time would avoid some stress!
Right now I'm typing on it in India (I live in the US).
However, I'd like to have >= 16GB RAM, since that's what I have on my almost 9 y.o. machine.
It would be good to have at least two USB C ports. I use my current machine for presentations, so being able to both connect to a power supply and a projector at the same time would avoid some stress!
revfife
macrumors regular
I’m honestly not sure where this fits into the MacBook/iPad ecosystem.
What they are building is basically a more expensive Chromebook. Maybe an education market or something?
Pricing would have to be around $499-$599 to not rob your MacBook Air sales, but I’m not sure that would compete with the Google Chromebook education market which I think is sub $299?
What they are building is basically a more expensive Chromebook. Maybe an education market or something?
Pricing would have to be around $499-$599 to not rob your MacBook Air sales, but I’m not sure that would compete with the Google Chromebook education market which I think is sub $299?
throAU
macrumors G4
One USB-C USB3 10G port.
Enough to hook it up to a type C dock for everything else including charging. That’s what the iPhone the chip is from has.
thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
I hope it has magsafe, even if it doesn't come with the cable (and that's such an Apple thing to do!), I just hope it has the port.
throAU
macrumors G4
It might, but i don’t think it will have more than one port; if that’s the case i’d much rather it was type-C.
I’ve had magsafe on my last two 14” macbook pros and i barely use it. Why?
I use the same cables (and charger!) for the ipad, mac and iphone now and the other two devices don’t have magsafe
When on my desk, i’m plugged into a thunderbolt dock (no cable dangling somewhere to be tripped on).
When i’m not at a desk, the devices nowadays have enough battery life that i don’t need to live on the charger.
obviously other’s usage may differ, but if you are using multiple apple devices, magsafe is of questionable value these days (it can’t do data) and on a small device having a port of questionable value that needs magnets in it that take up even more space and expense… i don’t think its coming.
Rockanrolero
macrumors member
Why did you give it the Pro monicker on the subject of the article? Will it be considered a Pro laptop? 🤔
Basic75
macrumors 68030
The A18 Pro is fast enough in the CPU department, single-threaded performance is all that matters for this machine. For the GPU we'll have to see, for the RAM you are absolutely right.
eskr
macrumors newbie
Well, if this comes out lighter/thinner than Air, it should be renamed Air, and the Air - into just MacBook. As it should last time when they had that micro MacBook - which was actually cool device.
And now when thinking about it - oh, I miss butterfly keyboard (may be unpopular opinion but still!) - I had it on my MBP 2017 - god I loved it! Yes, there were problems with dust, but the feel was great. I still can't believe that whole technical genius of Apple and lots of cash couldn't solve this engineering problem.
And now when thinking about it - oh, I miss butterfly keyboard (may be unpopular opinion but still!) - I had it on my MBP 2017 - god I loved it! Yes, there were problems with dust, but the feel was great. I still can't believe that whole technical genius of Apple and lots of cash couldn't solve this engineering problem.
If it is $799, then it make zero sense because MacBookAir M4 is practically selling at $749 90% of the time on Amazon.
If it $599 I highly doubt it will come with 16GB of Ram and likely 8GB which is junk.
If it is $699 with 12GB then why would anyone buy this and not the MacBook Air M4 previously?
Basically I think the whole MacBook pricing strategy is a messed up.
If it $599 I highly doubt it will come with 16GB of Ram and likely 8GB which is junk.
If it is $699 with 12GB then why would anyone buy this and not the MacBook Air M4 previously?
Basically I think the whole MacBook pricing strategy is a messed up.
And what do you think this new MacBook will cost on Amazon in a year?
This machine’s primary task is to cut manufacturing cost of these Amazon discounts. Similar specs, similar price, but lower cost manufacturing.
I'm beginning to think they put "MacBook Pro" in the headline just to bait us! It's working. 🤣
Trust me, this machine with 8GB ram will be SIGNIFICANTLY faster than your 12” MacBook, ESPECIALLY for tasks requiring a lot of RAM, ironically… I base this on my 8GB M1 Air. This will be faster.
If/when this goes on sale at below 600.-, I’ll likely buy one for my daughter. Light school work, YouTube, Roblox. Perfect device for that, 8GB or not. She currently does this on an old 4GB Windows PC. The people whining about 8GB on an entry computer does not understand what “Entry” means.
Lenovo still sells 4GB PC’s.
Lenovo still sells 4GB PC’s.
Hmmm how you worded this article about being low cost computer and compared it to iPad.. it made me wonder if they doing it to take some heat off them for not making the iPad more useful
An interesting analysis with a lot of context to consider. Thanks.
I'm not immediately interested in this because I'm on a collision course with a 14" M5 Pro MacBook Pro purchase pretty much as soon as it gets released but I am wondering whether, as well as price, making this rumoured A-Series MacBook as thin and light as Apple can possibly make it while achieving whatever battery life goal Apple sets for it might be quite an important consideration.
Anyone buying this as their only MacBook would not, I would have thought, object to it being super thin and light (subject to that sufficient-battery-life caveat mentioned above) but if Apple can also create a sufficiently wide gap in portability between it and the 14" MacBook Pro (let alone 16") then just maybe that could allow it to address an addition market of MacBook Pro owners who might consider a second laptop whereas beforehand they wouldn't.
If someone has a MacBook Pro mostly used as their desktop PC and taken on overnight business trips when they might still need to do demanding work that might well be all they need and they might find it difficult to justify the price tag of an iPad Air as a second laptop just as a slightly lighter grab-and-go device when they need some fresh air and want to sit in the park or a coffee shop and catch up on emails and other light work. Sure, there are other options apart from MacBook to do that park or coffee-shop computing, iPad (or iPad + keyboard for people who really want the keyboard) but for people who do want to stay in the MacOS world for their working day then just maybe the lower price point of this rumoured A-Series MacBook vs a MacBook Air might open up the door for a new group of dual-MacBook owners who can't quite justify the price of a MacBook Air as a second laptop.
Like I said up top, I'm not immediately interested because of my planned M5 Pro MacBook Pro purchase but I wouldn't 100% rule out this rumoured A-Series MacBook ending up tempting me into dual-laptop ownership as contemplated above whereas I definitely would not consider being a MacBook Air + MacBook Pro owner.
TechRunner
macrumors 68030
iHorseHead
macrumors 68020
“The A18 Pro is built on Apple's second-generation 3-nanometer process, featuring 8GB RAM”
You’ll be most likely paying 799 for 8GB of RAM
…which is the entire point. If you’re not the target user, Apple would rather you bought a higher-end Mac.
Which has only ever been “kinda-sorta” true, and then largely because Mac was the main market for TB devices. Even though most devices “work” there are plenty of caveats regarding things like display support.
Also, a lot of modern TB 4/5 devices (and even TB3 devices with newer TB controllers) can now fall back to USB 3 or DisplayPort if they’re plugged into a non-TB USB-C port.
One of the snags with the old 12” was that it was about the first laptop to use USB-C, so there were very few compatible devices, and TB 1, TB 2 and first-gen TB 3 devices didn’t have USB 3 fallback (unless the manufacturer added a separate USB port).