Could Apple's Rumored Budget MacBook Still Debut Before Year's End?

[Zdigital2015]

A $599 Mac cheapens the brand. Mac OS features should be heavily restricted to encourage consumers to step up to the Air.

How so? Wal-mart already sells the 13” MBA M1 for $599-$649, with all the Apple marketing collateral supporting it on the website and in-app, not on the QT on some back page. Best Buy sells the M2 Air for $699 and the M4 Air is routinely $100-$200 off for all configs and sizes.

This is Apple deciding to expand market share with economies of scale. Something users here have been asking from them for forever. I think it’s great for the average consumer who still hasn’t jumped ship to the Mac and does need one. For us Mac diehards, it’s simply another great value to get for ourselves or help us convert a recalcitrant relative who thinks we enjoy being PC tech support. It’s a win win all the way around and it should be as fully fledged as Mac as Apple sells in its stores. The restriction might be no thunderbolt and that’s fine with me.

 

[MysteriousStain]

I am very interested in a teeny weeny cheap machiney. An ultra portable writing machine would be great.

 

[bmolands]

Their budget MacBook is the $799 M4 MacBook Air on Amazon. It is an incredible deal & machine at that price.

 

[techfirth]

Please let the 12” form factor come back.

😑
🙏

 

[mtrm]

A $599 Mac cheapens the brand. Mac OS features should be heavily restricted to encourage consumers to step up to the Air.

You buy a Mac because of what the device is actually capable to do and the experience it provides or solely because of the status fator?
I usually buy them because of what they can do and the experience they provide. If thy can make them cheaper so more people can enjoy it, even better.

 

[bodonnell202]

I still think this sounds silly. How much difference in cost do you think an A18 and an M2 or M4 are? How would a slightly cheaper chip alone reduce the product price by $300? Perceived value?

That's assuming they are just putting an A18 Pro chip into the current MBA air enclosure. Knowing how Apple operates with their entry level products they'll probably use the M1 MBA design so the design and development cost is very low and with minimal retooling to an existing line they can get a "new" product to market. I'm guessing an A18 Pro chip wouldn't be that different that what they can produce the M1 for now so they can hit that $699 price point and offer it for $599 with the education discount.

 

[Techwatcher]

Out powered by a m5 iPad Pro ….. 🙄

Ok? Everyone understands that. That's literally the point. My M4 iPad Pro is also stronger than my M3 MacBook Air. This is the reality we live in now.

 

[ifxf]

I'm skeptical as it's well past the Back-to-School buying season that normally propels education-oriented products like this. I would love to be wrong.

Yes, but is prefect time for bulk school purchases since they will be planning for next year’s purchases.

 

[ikramerica]

Just like the iPhone Air, I predict this version of a MacBook will see lackluster sales and likely be short-lived. If people want a "budget" MacBook, the best option is a refurbished MacBook.

I see bulk ordering of this machine by companies and institutions.

That is far different than the overpriced iPhone Air that relies on buyers choosing it over a better equipped phone for hundreds less or a much better phone for $100 more.

 

[KPOM]

This product will never come, it always was vaporware... Sorry to say but it was never believable.

Except Apple sells the M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for $649. At minimum they will want to replace it for that market and move on from the aging M1 chip. Whether it becomes available anywhere other than Walmart remains to be seen. The M1 gets surprisingly good reviews on Walmart’s website.

 

[ikramerica]

Revival of the iBook? One of my favorite computers ever? Had many versions of it from the original, the SE, and all the way to the 14" G4.

And it would make sense, as it would get the "i" name to go along with the A18 chip.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Would love a small, lightweight macOS device, in a funky color for once. So, not white with a shade of something else.

Won’t buy with 8gb of ram though. 12 minimum.

 

[macbookj0e]

Lightweight design? Can’t wait to see what it looks like.

I’m still holding out hope it’s similar to the 12” MacBook…

 

[macbookj0e]

Would love a small, lightweight macOS device, in a funky color for once. So, not white with a shade of something else.

Won’t buy with 8gb of ram though. 12 minimum.

I’m sure apple will sell you an extra 4gb ram for a small token payment of $400 😆

 

[yesiamroy]

If they have a sub $500 one, it would be the ideal travel and on the go device work work

 

[ikramerica]

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 😂

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 🙈

It’s partly because google apps are so bad, and partly because every different chrome education app has a different interface that makes it horrible to work on. Every e text book navigates differently and poorly as well.

If Google is so intent on dominating edu with their cheap crap, they should give standard interface tools away to edu developers so that the GUI is consistent at least. Asking 3rd graders, especially ones that aren’t that bright, to master nonstop GUI messes is detrimental to learning.

Compared to physical books that all share the same “open and find the page” interface, chromebooks just make life harder at school.

 

[sublunar]

Except Apple sells the M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for $649. At minimum they will want to replace it for that market and move on from the aging M1 chip. Whether it becomes available anywhere other than Walmart remains to be seen. The M1 gets surprisingly good reviews on Walmart’s website.

Save on retooling by using the classic m1 MacBook Air case with 2 sub-c ports. Call it the 13” MacBook and job should be a good one.

Marketing wise, you’d maybe expect 256gb and 512gb storage options as the only BTO options.

Performance for the A19 pro should be competitive with the m1.

And Apple can finally retire the M1 chip so people don’t moan when the ‘new’ MacBook Air they got from Walmart stops getting updates in a couple of years.

The reason for holding off till Q2 2026 is so that the A19 pro demand (currently going into the iPhone 17 pro) becomes more manageable.

The SoC already supports 12gb ram so no problems there- should be just about capable of supporting Apple Intwlligence.

So why not just sling a neutered or binned M4 into the air case instead?

 

[ikramerica]

iPhone / iPhone Air / iPhone Pro
iPad / iPad Air / iPad Pro
Macbook / Macbook / Macbook Pro

iMac…
iBook…

 

[KPOM]

Save on retooling by using the classic m1 MacBook Air case with 2 sub-c ports. Call it the 13” MacBook and job should be a good one.

Marketing wise, you’d maybe expect 256gb and 512gb storage options as the only BTO options.

Performance for the A19 pro should be competitive with the m1.

And Apple can finally retire the M1 chip so people don’t moan when the ‘new’ MacBook Air they got from Walmart stops getting updates in a couple of years.

The reason for holding off till Q2 2026 is so that the A19 pro demand (currently going into the iPhone 17 pro) becomes more manageable.

The SoC already supports 12gb ram so no problems there- should be just about capable of supporting Apple Intwlligence.

So why not just sling a neutered or binned M4 into the air case instead?

I think the A19 (non-pro) is more realistic than the A18 that’s the subject of rumors. A binned M4 essentially is an A18 Pro. The A19 would give it a longer shelf life. If the M1 is any indication this is likely to be the “basic” Mac for a few years.

 

[entropys]

Problems with the old rMB were relatively short battery life, only one port and price. And only one port.. did I mention it only had one port? The old, lower resolution MBA outsold it the extent I only ever saw one rMB in the wild. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if the 11 inch MBA outsold it at the time.

But if this thing is like a 12 inch rMB but solves price, has more than one port, and has good battery life it would be awesome.

Anyway, regarding Chromebook vs Macs in schools. I don’t understand why schools still have a centralised set up where the school supplies the laptop these days. Just have BYOD and MS office. Then it is mainly only the wifi network that needs managing, with emergency laptops/ disadvantaged background laptops. But of course, it would be unfair to give those kids a Chromebook when everyone else has something better.

At schools that do BYOD, like ours the most popular laptop is easily the MBA. Then a crappy Dell or Lenovo and the like, and a very small but surprising number of gaming rigs where the owner has to carry a power brick and a rugged backpack. Our school is trying its best to stop kids doing that, but once they have one it is a bit hard to have them get something else. They work out very quickly why it’s a bad idea and will not get the same when they eventually upgrade.

 

[vielleicht]

It overheated just by being switched on and had a single port.

I have never experienced overheating and the single usb is adequate for this type of product. People who have not owned one will never understand how nice this machine is. Others may have had one where the machine was not the right choice.

 

[vielleicht]

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.

I gotta love your mum. She and I are the same 😉 I had the battery changed once. Still purrs like a kitten. But it is now a decade old laptop so I really hope this rumour is true.. 🤟

 

[captchasverybadman]

Apple this month updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but there's one rumored new Apple product in particular that many will still be hoping to see before the holidays.

Back in June, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is developing a "more affordable" 13-inch laptop to compete with Chromebooks and drive MacBook purchases. Kuo did not mention pricing, but he said that the new MacBook would use an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year.

Using an iPhone chip would be a major divergence from Apple's usual strategy of using M-series chips in its Macs, but it makes sense from both a cost and performance perspective. The A18 Pro chip is around 40% slower than Apple's M4 chip, but its multi-core CPU performance is virtually identical to the M1 chip in the 2020 MacBook Air, and it even outperforms the M1 chip for graphics.

In August, DigiTimes reported that the low-cost MacBook will start between $599 and $699. The current 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 in the U.S., but Apple still sells the M1-powered 2020 MacBook Air for $649 through Walmart, so Apple could be eyeing the new machine as a like-for-like, budget-range replacement.

One thing to bear in mind is that the A18 Pro chip lacks Thunderbolt support, so the new MacBook would likely be equipped with regular USB-C ports. But that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for customers seeking the most affordable Mac they can get their hands on. It's also unclear how much RAM would be included in the rumored MacBook, since the A18 Pro chip only has 8GB of RAM, whereas all current MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models have a minimum of 16GB of RAM.

Apart from the internal specs, Kuo said the device is expected to have an ultra-thin and lightweight design, and that it could come in silver, blue, pink, and yellow finishes.

The analyst said the new MacBook would enter mass production toward the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. DigiTimes reported that final assembly would take place in the fourth quarter, with the laptop becoming commercially available in late 2025 or early 2026, similar to Kuo's launch estimation.

The timelines suggest the device could still be announced before the year's end. That said, it's not clear whether Apple has any more announcements planned for 2025, though it isn't unusual for the company to announce new products in late October and even into November.

Article Link: Could Apple's Rumored Budget MacBook Still Debut Before Year's End?

My rule of thumb- Apple is very good at premium products, but anything "budget" you have better options elsewhere unless you are absolutely need Mac OS to surf the web.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I’m sure apple will sell you an extra 4gb ram for a small token payment of $400 😆

You know, I’m mostly ok with that. At least that gives me the choice of buying or not. Apple’s greed is what it is.

In the end, the work done on that device will generate invoices worth ten/twentyfold of what the device costs.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Problems with the old rMB were relatively short battery life, only one port and price. And only one port.. did I mention it only had one port? The old, lower resolution MBA outsold it the extent I only ever saw one rMB in the wild. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if the 11 inch MBA outsold it at the time.

But if this thing is like a 12 inch rMB but solves price, has more than one port, and has good battery life it would be awesome.

A single port and no Thunderbolt support would be a good thing for me. The lack of those would make it what I want it to be: light, portable, only suited for light work. Type mails, Numbers, Pages, Reminders, sync to iCloud, some light admin work, done.

This should not be a device that powers a monitor on your desk. I mean, that’s where Air comes in.

As for battery life … given that Apple can cram their SoC in the iPhone Air’s bump, that means a lot of space for battery. I’d settle for a real 6 hours worth of battery life. 8 would be bonus.

I use an iPad Mini with Moft folding cover and external Logitech keyboard to do all of the above. The only hassle with that is having to get the keyboard out when I want to type and the Moft cover makes the Mini a lot thicker and heavier than it really is.