Low-Cost MacBook Expected on March 4 in These Colors

[sparkie7]

Um, where is neon Orange??

 

[Max_G]

Let's wait for the tens (hundreds?) of comparisons on YouTube, of for example an MBA M3 and the 'Low-Cost' MacBook. To be of any value, a 16/512 model is the minimum. If the difference between the two is $150 or less, it will only sell to children that want candy colors.

 

[rxp]

I was excited about this but then I picked up the base air m4 at Costco for £850. How much cheaper is it going to be than that

 

[topocalypse]

Am I confused, or wasn’t this same information posted in the last article?

I wouldn’t mind a mint green like we had before with the iPhone. Yellow is a second choice if there isn’t going to be purple. I would definitely buy an orange color like the back of the current iMac.

pastel is the safer choice. but i think in 2026 pastel (inc mint green) is getting out of style again. i can feel the bold colors coming. like a straight forward green, and yellows.

if i have to bet, probably the brighter bolder colors.

Wish it was closer to 12”.

me too. i will *not* trade my 12-inch form factor and gold color for anything in this universe.

This doesn't look like innovation like it used to be, with the smaller models.

So I'm not excited about these having an Air already.

come on man
- we only got faceID 10 years ago, it's "not" like they could put in on the mac.
- we can't have 2tb for 200USDs market value of course, it has to be more than 800USDs!
- we can't have a touch screen mac. iPad is already here.

Trying not to get my hopes up, I want a 12", thin, 16GB RAM (base) with 512GB, light, and good for travel.

But...I believe this is catered to the kiddies for school etc.

Not a problem, but I am not getting my hopes up. Better to be WOWed then let down...again.

me too. that would be a dream, but i doubt apple will impress us this time. i think they will disappoint us.

there's certainly a market for the ultra sleek, cafe-going, adult-luxury laptop i'm sure.

 

[Arctic Moose]

My favorite part of this particular product rumor is how everyone likes to map their hopes and dreams (and 11" MBA & 12" PB/MB nostalgia) on to it.

My money is on a pretty gimped device that will satisfy very few folks reading this.

Yeah, you're probably right.

However, the 11" MBA was truly horrendous from a performance perspective as well, but I still loved it for what it was, and gladly gave up my MacBook Pro performance for a thinner and lighter travel device.

As long as it actually is thin, light and runs macOS, I don't care if it doesn't have even half the grunt of my phone.

Of course, what I really want is a 10" MacBook Pro. (Actually, what I really, really want is to just be able to connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse to my phone and boot macOS, that would be awesome.)

 

[deevey]

Perhaps the sheets of transparent polycarbonate in the poster could be a clue as to what's coming.. hmmm 🤓

 

[geta]

Will consider it if there is a version with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage for less than €1000.

 

[snipr125]

haha! Why do people keep saying that? It's like the third time in this thread that someone has made this comment.

There has NEVER been any report of this being some restricted form of Mac OS, nor has Apple ever offered a version of Mac OS on any device that does what you are suggesting.

It seems like people are just making stuff up to see if they can get a rise out of others. There is literally zero chance that what you are saying will happen.

People are saying it because it’s Apples core business model. Iphone and ipads make Apple a lot of money with this model which also enhances security and forces devs to be more efficient with coding. It’s coming to all Macs one way or another imo, surprised they not done it already actually.

 

[Parowdy]

If it's going to be announced the same day, why is green or teal out of the question but Fisherprice pink is in? Looking at the invitation, and the one for the 17/Pro event, I think green is very much on the table.

 

[Parowdy]

This shade of green should use for the Macbook, not to showy not to darkView attachment 2606087

iPhone 11 Pro called, its asking why the f we want less fun colors, again?
Really, if you want this shade of green, just go buy a skin and let the rest of us have fun.

 

[loby]

me too. i will *not* trade my 12-inch form factor and gold color for anything in this universe.

I was using it again today as it is my general "putts-around" Mac.

I put OCLP on it...macOS Monterey, Fast. I have the first gold 2015 that is underpowered...I like that gold as it is a little different from the other versions.

Would not trade my 12-inch form factor and gold color for anything in this universe...

So..Correct. 👍

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Trying not to get my hopes up, I want a 12", thin, 16GB RAM (base) with 512GB, light, and good for travel.

Same here. I would probably settle for 256gb, but I will pass with 8gb of ram.

Thing is … 8gb of ram might suffice for Pages or Numbers work but if I’m taking this on travels it still needs to be powerful enough to do some debugging if a client calls.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

Trying not to get my hopes up, I want a 12", thin, 16GB RAM (base) with 512GB, light, and good for travel.

You will get exactly this, but with a 13” screen, in the form of the M6 MacBook Air redesign in March 2027. For $1199.

But...I believe this is catered to the kiddies for school etc.

And enterprise and normal humans who don’t post on Internet forums. You know, 100s of millions of people.

It will be less expensive, simple, fun and have great battery life. It will NOT be particularly thin or sleek. That’s the job of the new Air a year from now.

 

[seek3r]

Like what? You think 8GB RAM and A18 Pro isn't handicapped enough?

There’s a flood of the type of comments you’re replying to, it’s really odd. I’m starting to wonder if there’s some smear campaign outside MR that’s leaking in

 

[mk313]

People are saying it because it’s Apples core business model. Iphone and ipads make Apple a lot of money with this model which also enhances security and forces devs to be more efficient with coding. It’s coming to all Macs one way or another imo, surprised they not done it already actually.

It's their model in areas where they have created new types of devices, and they have a dominant market share. Neither is the case with the Mac. Nor have they ever moved towards that model after starting with a more open model.

In Apple's perfect world, would they prefer a locked down OS? possibly. But they aren't in a position to demand such a thing with the Mac, which is why, of all the rumors we hear from the usual sources with any sort of insider info, this idea has never come up. And why it's not going to be announced with one new model of Mac.

 

[TJFDenver]

let me guess ... 2gb of ram and 16gb of SSD storage

 

[seek3r]

In Apple's perfect world, would they prefer a locked down OS? possibly. But they aren't in a position to demand such a thing with the Mac, which is why, of all the rumors we hear from the usual sources with any sort of insider info, this idea has never come up. And why it's not going to be announced with one new model of Mac.

Honestly I dont even think that’d be their perfect world. Apple very much seems to divide their computing devices on a gradient between devices aimed at consumption and *content* creation (iOS devices) on one end and devices aimed at deeper creation and development (MacOS) on the other. There’s some line blurring in the middle with iPads (and the AVP I suppose).

The MacOS end of that spectrum can never be as locked down as iOS and serve its purpose.

I think Apple definitely is trying to shift more people to the iOS side of the spectrum, but there’s always going to be a need for the more open devices, even if for no other reason than to enable creation of the apps and other, deeper, work that enable the more restricted side. Hell, folks like me, that build the core infrastructure those apps and services all depend on need that open platform, or we’ll go elsewhere. Apple knows that

MacOS as an open platform isnt going away, and I dont think Apple wants it to. And this device is destined to be a Mac

 

[Rychiar]

Im sure another machine crippled with 256gb storage. can't even buy it for non tech people cus they get easily frustrated when their machine doesn't work cus it's full from just their photos. remember when 1TB was standard before SSDs....

 

[topocalypse]

I was using it again today as it is my general "putts-around" Mac.

I put OCLP on it...macOS Monterey, Fast. I have the first gold 2015 that is underpowered...I like that gold as it is a little different from the other versions.

Would not trade my 12-inch form factor and gold color for anything in this universe...

So..Correct. 👍

mine, on the other hand, has a fatal issue.
it's struggling to boot.
probably from thousands of heat-cold cycles near the power delivery circuitry.
there's likely a microcrack there.

whenever it's booting or turning on, it struggles to find boot drive.

but once it's turned on, it runs verey stably.

so mine has been on continuously 24/7 for the past 6 months LOL.
it's the only way to keep it alive.
one shut down and it probably gonna slumber forever.
good thing it consumes likely around 2w at idle.
less than an LED light bulb.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Offhand, I'd say that color may be the least of your worries. I'd be more worried as to the apps it will be able to run. If users are hamstrung into using whatever is left free of iWorks and also Safari, with possible crossover of iPhone apps, that may prove problematic for professionals.

What on earth are you even talking about?
This machine will be able to run anything that an M1 base or M2 base can, which is the vast majority of Mac applications.
Why are we acting as if the A18 is some tiny little 2012 Kindle tablet chip? It’s not.

 

[Sowelu]

I think my hopes for an impossibly small, thin and light MacBook, a higher spec'd/priced SKU (in Space Black with an OLED display, double the RAM, super thin bezels, edge to edge keyboard and built in 5G) will be shattered and only a low-end model will be offered.

I would love to see a super affordable 'MacBook mini' for the masses, as well as a higher spec'd 'MacBook mini Pro' for Mac enthusiasts on the go, not just a cheap MacBook to expand Apple's services user-base.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

1000% this thing will be locked down to the App Store. No way Timmy is going to miss out on his chance to make sure he gets his fair share.

I have been reading the “Apple is going to lock the Mac down to the AppStore” babble since Lion was introduced.
Lion was the eighth major release of Mac OS X, released slightly a decade after the first.
15 years and 14 versions of macOS later, it still hasn’t happened.
More time has passed between now and then than between then and the release of 10.0 Cheetah, and there have been almost double the amount of operating system versions in that time.
If Apple was *ever* going to restrict the Mac to the AppStore, they would have done it a long, long, long time ago.
They would have done it when they transitioned the Mac to Apple Silicon, or when they introduced catalyst, or when they redesigned the OS to be more similar to iOS with Yosemite, or when they introduced system integrity protection, or when they introduced gatekeeper.
And yet today, on apple silicon based Macs that can run iPhone and iPad apps, on the 22nd version of macOS… the vast majority of applications are still downloaded via DMG’s downloaded from a web browser.

 

[delsoul]

What on earth are you even talking about?
This machine will be able to run anything that an M1 base or M2 base can, which is the vast majority of Mac applications.
Why are we acting as if the A18 is some tiny little 2012 Kindle tablet chip? It’s not.

This is true. You have to forgive some people. There’s people out there that still think the MacBook Air is this laptop the can only open Microsoft word and do light internet browsing with 4 tabs opened max. Watch YouTube videos at 1080p? Don't even think about it, pal!

The MacBook Air is more than powerful enough for 99% of people out there whether they will admit it or not. They’re just stuck in the past with the thoughts of the old intel airs that choked if you did much anything with them. This new Mac laptop is no different. An A18 chip tested was just as good, and better in some aspects, when compared to an M1 Pro. This laptop will most certainly be capable of doing what it’s designed for.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

This is true. You have to forgive some people. There’s people out there that still think the MacBook Air is this laptop the can only open Microsoft word and do light internet browsing with 4 tabs opened max. Watch YouTube videos at 1080p? Don't even think about it, pal!

The MacBook Air is more than powerful enough for 99% of people out there whether they will admit it or not. They’re just stuck in the past with the thoughts of the old intel airs that choked if you did much anything with them. This new Mac laptop is no different. An A18 chip tested was just as good, and better in some aspects, when compared to an M1 Pro. This laptop will most certainly be capable of doing what it’s designed for.

Right, I think people are forgetting that when the M1 first came out, it was absolutely shocking that it was beating machines like the iMac Pro in tasks like 4K video editing.
And the A18 benchmarks higher than that initial M1 while using something like 1/3 the power of that M1.
This new machine is going to be a beast, just like most of Apple’s more “budget” (using that word very loosely) models.

 

[ksec]

$749 is not a typical price for a current model MacBook Air. 11 months out of the year it's closer to $900 and 12 months out of the year it's $999 at the Apple Store. The difference between $699 and $999 to people looking at buying the least expensive apple laptop is going to be considerable.

Amazon has been selling $799 MacBook Air M4 for more than three quarters of its time since launch.