While this does look interesting I am guessing it will come with a pretty small display, maybe 12" or so. In that case if I were buying a new Mac soon I would opt for a Mac Mini probably. I realize one is a laptop the other a desktop, but just saying.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Could Apple's Rumored Budget MacBook Still Debut Before Year's End?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The rumours suggest bigger than 12". I suspect that is true, since it seems the general public usually prefers 13" or larger, and I say that as someone who owns the 11" M4 iPad Pro as his primary "laptop", and a 2017 12" m3 MacBook as my backup portable.
I hope the budget laptop comes before Christmas, I can see it warming many young adults' hearts on Christmas Day under the tree.
Perfect for getting into local schools to get the next generation hooked on Macs.
I loved mine also but Apple stopped allowing battery replacement ages ago. I got mine replaced just under the line then my mother needed something for teaching during Covid and she isn’t giving it back. If they use this form factor or the m1 mba it will likely have better audio than current mba.
Completely agree on Chromebooks vs Apple etc. I see it first hand and kids prefer iPads with a decent keyboard case (like Logitech rugged combo touch) to the cheap Chromebooks. Low powered Chromebooks are slow with multiple tabs - kids think nothing of having 20 tabs open, especially to hide games 😂On the edu side, Chromebooks in schools also have the advantage of much easier and cheaper central management. This plays a big part in deployment in elementary schools, in addition to the cheaper unit pricing.
That being said, on average the kids hate them.Well, hate is a strong word, but they definitely don't prefer them overall. At least around here at least, every single one of the kids would not choose a Chromebook for their own home machine. It's always a Windows machine or a Mac.
Some schools get iPads but Chromebooks still are the most popular with the elementary schools. In high schools though, I've seen Macs much more commonly than in the elementary schools though, especially when the schools have dedicated multimedia labs.
However, Chromebooks have single central management and, with a rubber ducky, can be setup in about 3 minutes start to finish. Repairs are easier in terms of screen repairs too.
I see this low cost portable Mac as being a more polished version of an iPad with keyboard combo. And with the right screen size (around 12” widescreen rather than 4:3) Retina display could be really tempting. Running MacOS that can run proper apps like Office, Adobe suite, etc. it Fills a small, but perfectly formed hole.
Just need Apple to generally sort out the MDM management for Macs - man it’s terrible 🙈
I don't understand the animosity towards this model.
An A-series chip can handle 99.9% of everyday media consumption/productivity tasks (browsing, office, general multitasking, light photo/video work etc.) just as well as an Mx chip. The performance difference will only be felt with compute heavy tasks (pro video workflows, gaming, large builds/compiles etc.) that this machine isn't intended for. The experience will be excellent and considerably better than any Windows/Chrome OS machine in this price range.
It will run macOS exactly the same as an M-series Mac. There's no reason to believe virtualisation and Rosetta won't be enabled.
A18/A19 Pro (+ N1?), 12GB RAM, 13" display at £599 will be an insanely good entry level option and open up the Mac to more people.
On the "b-but it'll cannibalise Air sales!" comments, the Mx series chips (better for heavy work, gaming), larger memory options, a larger display size, Thunderbolt, >1 external displays support etc. provide plenty of differentiation.
This model isn't going to stop people splurging on a higher tier model "just because" in the same way iPhone 16e, base iPad, Watch SE etc. don't. All it will do is open up the ecosystem to a large contingent that previously was priced out.
An A-series chip can handle 99.9% of everyday media consumption/productivity tasks (browsing, office, general multitasking, light photo/video work etc.) just as well as an Mx chip. The performance difference will only be felt with compute heavy tasks (pro video workflows, gaming, large builds/compiles etc.) that this machine isn't intended for. The experience will be excellent and considerably better than any Windows/Chrome OS machine in this price range.
It will run macOS exactly the same as an M-series Mac. There's no reason to believe virtualisation and Rosetta won't be enabled.
A18/A19 Pro (+ N1?), 12GB RAM, 13" display at £599 will be an insanely good entry level option and open up the Mac to more people.
On the "b-but it'll cannibalise Air sales!" comments, the Mx series chips (better for heavy work, gaming), larger memory options, a larger display size, Thunderbolt, >1 external displays support etc. provide plenty of differentiation.
This model isn't going to stop people splurging on a higher tier model "just because" in the same way iPhone 16e, base iPad, Watch SE etc. don't. All it will do is open up the ecosystem to a large contingent that previously was priced out.
I doubt it will be $599, it’s too far from the Air for Apple’s price ladder imo, it would eat into it’s sales
I’m guessing $799 so $699 with education pricing, with a couple of $100 upgrades available that will make it overlap with the Air and get people thinking about that instead
Is that what your connections inside Apple and at various points in the supply chain are telling you? 😁
I doubt the A18 claim. During the presentation of the A19 Pro apple said that the chip was "laptop capable". Why say that and use last year chip? Pricewise, it'll probably be around the 799 dollars mark with a few options making the Air a better alternative. Education pricing could however be 699 dollars. This is the perfect Black Friday gift when everyone pays $699.
Still think they'll call it M5 Air or M5 Lite or something. Don't see them moving away from M-series branding as it's been such a huge hit since the M1.
Also if this does get released this year, feel like it's gotta be announced in the next 2 or so weeks if they to catch the holiday buying season.
Also if this does get released this year, feel like it's gotta be announced in the next 2 or so weeks if they to catch the holiday buying season.
(Monkey’s paw curls a finger and fits a 13” MacBook Air chassis with the 11.6” MacBook Air’s bezel width 😬)
Look, the A18 Pro SoC essentially has more or less the same performance as the M1 SoC but at likely quite a bit less power consumption. That may allow the new lower-cost MacBook to run the vast majority of the MacOS 26.x apps with no significance loss in performance, provided the new lower-cost MacBook has 16 GB of RAM standard.
Well, kids aren't the decision makers.
This is why they're popular with schools. Cheaper and easier to administrate. You don't need an entire IT Dept, just one bloke with time on his hands and some computer knowledge.
Ain't gonna happen. Schools don't want to pay $$$ for IT support. They barely want to pay teachers.😠
The key to making it cheap is to make it out of plastic, not aluminum. The motherboard will be tiny anyway. Surround it with a little aluminum frame. Plastic is also lightweight, so make it 800g total. A perfect travel laptop. A Thunderbolt 4 port and MagSafe. Sell a dock with HDMI, SD card slot and two USB-C ports. Then make a premium version with carbon-fiber replacing the plastic panels. Price is 4x. So you address both ends of the market at the same time. (I used to have a 12" Macbook.)
Last edited:
Actually, I hope you get your wish. I don't think you will, so next year, when it still hasn't been rolled out, remember, you heard it here first. Or ... feed me crow.
iPhone / iPhone Air / iPhone Pro
iPad / iPad Air / iPad Pro
Macbook / Macbook / Macbook Pro