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Here Are All the Rumors About Apple's New $599 MacBook

If they make one with at least 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD... and... here's the real catch... don't charge their usual 30000% markup on wholesale prices for RAM/SSD, then I'll happily buy one of these for my son.

All these modern Apple chips are overkill unless you're doing large video editing jobs or playing intense games (and let's face it, if you're fully into games, you've got a windows desktop machine for that role). The bottleneck to performance for 99.9% of people isn't the CPU/GPU, it's the ridiculously low quantity of vastly overpriced RAM/SSD.

Reality is though, I'll look at the prices with 16GB/1TB, and won't buy it. Same happened with the current MBA.

Base prices for MBA/MBP are reasonable for the quality. Add the upgrade ripoffs, and nope.
 
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Student of Life said:
The market for this item won’t be connecting it to a monitor if we are being honest.
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If it’s aimed at education, not being able to hook it to a projector at 1080p (which is quite likely to be all a classroom projector can handle, maybe QHD if it’s a well-funded school) would be a headache.
 
yticolev said:
I will. In fact, if it is $200 more, it will be still an immediate sale for me. I have zero need for better multicore performance (and noise and space taken up by cooling fan), much more interested in low weight and small form factor. My 12" is fine for now but I will replace it sooner than later if Apple comes through. I tried the M1 MBA, but 2.7 pounds turned out to hamper the usability for me by a huge margin and I returned it after just a day.
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Indeed, there’s a big difference between two pounds and 2.7 pounds. I miss the 12” retina Macbook and hope we get something two pounds or less. I would guess there’ll be two usb-c ports and a headphone jack, but no mag-safe.
 
2lb could be possible - if you look at how tiny the board is for the new iphones - and with their new adaptive battery stuff I could see a smaller battery than simply just pro-rata. Talking of which:

Just some quick maths (math) - if you simply base the weight and dimensions on the difference between the now 13.6 inch Air and the proposed 12.9 inch we get:

  • Weight: 1.17kg vs 1.24kg
  • Height: 10.7mm vs 11.3mm
  • Width: 288.4mm vs 304.1mm
  • Depth: 203.9mm vs 215mm

For reference the 12 inch MacBook was:

  • Height: 0.14–0.52 inch (0.35–1.31 cm)
  • Width: 11.04 inches (28.05 cm)
  • Depth: 7.74 inches (19.65 cm)
  • Weight: 2.03 pounds (0.92 kg)2
The 0.7 inch difference in screen size actually could make quite a big difference in the end. And it is looking a very very similar size at least to the 12 inch albeit the weight is a little higher. I would agree they would aim for 0.999kg - they could find 170g with speaker, battery and port removal.

It could still easily manage the 18 hours of usage with A chip. A base iPad with an A18 makes 10 hours of web surfing in a 7mm thick design - I don’t know how that helps now I type it.

Anyway food for thought. Looking like a lovely size of device.

Edit: I realise now my maths has the schoolboy error of adjusting the edges based on the hypotenuse. So need to get my SOH CAH TOA out but hey it’ll be 90% right ish.
 
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I think people tend to mix rumors with their wishes. I am the first to wish a MacBook under 1kg. And with enough RAM and ports and great battery life. But Apple is not going to make this more attractive than the base air. On the contrary, they want people to start considering a Mac at this price and then realize that the air is better.
So expect things like a smaller battery for less battery life, slightly larger bezels, lighter yes, but more like 1.1 to 1.2 kg, not under 1kg, 1 UBC port + magsafe, not 2. And 12GB starting RAM at best. Want more? Get ready for overpriced upgrades.
The Retina Macbook was a premium, not a budget device. Apple knew that they could charge a premium for an ultralight. The same happens with premium compact Windows laptops (like the X1 Carbon gen 13, under 1kg, 14in, lunar lake, 5G, over $2000)
 
Digitalguy said:
I think people tend to mix rumors with their wishes. I am the first to wish a MacBook under 1kg. And with enough RAM and ports and great battery life. But Apple is not going to make this more attractive than the base air. On the contrary, they want people to start considering a Mac at this price and then realize that the air is better.
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I think Apple needs to position this new laptop so that there is little or no overlap with the Air. Not being able to drive an external screen would be a good separator. Want that? Then the Air is your thing.

A19 Pro, 12gb ram max, a single usb-c port. Make it as thin as possible and stuff all the battery you can in there. Save whatever work you’re doing to iCloud drive and continue work on a more powerful machine.
 
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If this is targeted at K-12, I think 12.9” display might be a tad small. Yeah, I know, cost…and cannibalization.

But consider the competition are Chromebooks which are mostly 14” but as large as 15.6”
 
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No Thunderbolt is a deal-breaker for me. Hell, even the 11 inch MacBook Air had Thunderbolt. I know the 12 inch MacBook did not have it, but it’s 2025. Especially with the advent of USB4, every Mac should have a 40GBps port standard.
 
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