What’s wrong with the M series of CPUs? Apple doesn’t want to let us run our own code anymore?
Apple will announce its rumored low-cost MacBook at its event on March 4, with the device coming in a selection of bold color options, according to a known leaker.
Earlier this week, Apple announced a "special Apple Experience" for the media in New York, London, and Shanghai, taking place on March 4, 2026 at 9:00am ET.
Posting on Weibo, the leaker known as "Instant Digital" said that the color scheme of the Apple logo graphic used for the upcoming "Apple Experience" should match the colors of the new entry-level Mac. The invite graphic shows a 3D Apple logo made up of transparent discs in yellow, green, and blue. The post effectively constitutes a claim that the device is set to arrive at the event.
In June 2025, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the more-affordable MacBook could come in silver, blue, pink, and yellow finishes, which would match the entry-level iPad. In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple has tested a range of playful color options for its upcoming low-cost MacBook, going well beyond the muted tones available on its current laptop lineup.
Gurman said the colors tested so far include light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver, and dark gray, although he added that it is unlikely all of them will ship. The color palette would make the budget MacBook the most colorful laptop Apple has offered since the iBook G3 era in the late 90s, which included Tangerine, Blueberry, Indigo, Graphite, and Key Lime.
The low-cost machine is expected to feature a 12.9-inch display, an aluminum chassis, and an iPhone chip, likely the A18 Pro, rather than an M-series processor. It will likely retail for well below $1,000.
Article Link: Low-Cost MacBook Expected on March 4 in These Colors
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Low-Cost MacBook Expected on March 4 in These Colors
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Bazza1
macrumors 65816
Well then, Apple needs to stop downplaying who this new Air will be 'for', and the tasks it can do.
I don't recall Apple ever telling new buyers of the M1 or M2 MacBook Airs its only really good for some light student work and internet surfing. Not meant for video, audio or photo editing. As they imply with this new one.
BTW - my secondary Mac is an Air from 2017. Running Monterey. Does most everything I ask of it (including editing), while running 95% of the apps on my daily driver, a M2 Mini.
I'd like to believe this will be more capable than they suggest, but...
Meanwhile, the device needs to come in at $500 - 599. If they are really hoping to compete with capable but basic Win laptops or just Chromebooks. Especially with the tasks they suggest its for. And when there's been recent reports of $599 M1 Airs on their own refurb site.
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I would probably be interested if it were an M series chip. But i'm not going backwards. I have two m macs and an m ipad for a reason.
Surely they could rustle up some m1 chips rather than compromise the experience. Most of my hardware and peripherals have only silicon drivers now.
Surely they could rustle up some m1 chips rather than compromise the experience. Most of my hardware and peripherals have only silicon drivers now.
I think my bigger question with the A18 is overall longevity. If they add more bells and whistles to MacOS, will the A18 be able to keep up? Non-Pro iPhones notably start to feel sluggish after a few years. Although I suppose if this MacBook is marketed towards children and students they may end up outgrowing it anyway.
I think most colors in the Tim era have been pretty disappointing. I get that manufacturing processes aren't the same, but take a look back at the iPod Nano from 2007-2009 and how vibrant they were. Would be cool if these new MacBooks really stood out.
And, hey, what's wrong with netbooks being back anyway? 🙂
I think most colors in the Tim era have been pretty disappointing. I get that manufacturing processes aren't the same, but take a look back at the iPod Nano from 2007-2009 and how vibrant they were. Would be cool if these new MacBooks really stood out.
And, hey, what's wrong with netbooks being back anyway? 🙂
Apple_Robert
Contributor
As to performance, the A18 is just as capable if not more, than the M1.
Apple_Robert
Contributor
The new MB is not going to be marketed to forum nerds who constantly want or need to treat the new MB as if it were a full-fledged pimped out MBP. It is gong to be for the average user (including students) who don't need all the power and whistles of the MBP and don't care about spending $2k plus on a Mac. The new MB will last several years.
Sounds like you aren't interested to begin with and just taking a cheap swing at an unreleased Mac.
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JPack
macrumors P6
Apple hasn't even launched this low-cost MacBook.
It's random posters painting themselves in a corner and declaring restrictions for this new MacBook.
In all likelihood, Apple will market this product to everyone from students to mainstream consumers to seniors. There's no reason to limit the market size. Apple has told suppliers this product will represent 20-30% of Mac unit sales, which is huge.
It's also why this MacBook won't be restricted to running apps from the App Store. That's just silly. The whole point of a Mac is the ability to run more apps and this is a huge strength compared to a Chromebook.
Wasn't intended as a cheap swing, just wondering about overall longevity. One of the great things about the M-series is they have held up, and I hope this new MacBook is designed in such a way where the A18 won't feel limiting in two or so years. I'm very excited to see what they can come up with.
I have 15 years of photos and video on icloud and it’s a grand total of 64gb. Yes there are people with a lot more but for most folks 256 isnt going to be destroyed by their pictures. Even my mother, who takes pictures of everything under the sun has around double what I have in pictures stored
And for the really prolific picture takers Apple, I’m sure, will offer higher tiers of storage. Anyone with that many pictures already is hitting the limitations on their phone and knows they need to bump the storage
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There’s these things called external drives. I totally understand your case, the cloud works amazing for you. For the folks moaning about 256gb somehow not being enough for them because they don’t use cloud, go buy a $30 512gb thumb drive and problem solved.
The A18 outperforms the M1 in both CPU and GPU.
Also, TSMC is no longer producing the first generation 5 nm chips that the M1 used, so no, they can’t just “rustle up some M1 chips” from nothing. Manufacturing does not work that way.
Also, “I’m not going backwards”… in what way is this going backwards? You do know what the “M” chips are yes? They are nothing more than A chips with more cores, higher clockspeeds and other improvements. Literally if marketing wasn’t in charge of these types of things and old tradition was still in practice, the M5 is just an A19X. It’s the same process, the same cores, the same everything. Just more of them. There’s nothing inherently special about the “M” chips that also isn’t true about the “A” chips, they come from the exact same family of processors. Apple just gave them a different letter, because that’s how marketing works.
As someone earlier in this thread said, if Apple‘s marketing department wanted, they could call the chip in this new MacBook the “M4E” chip and there would be absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Rychiar
macrumors 601
your average person needs a 256gb iPhone these days for their basic photo/video needs and fills that up. A computer is generally where people transfer their photos to to save them. Plus the operating system, games, all the other apps. I have a Mac mini m4 base at home and I store all my files on an external drive and that computer is somehow still full to the point of barely functioning just from system data and apps
I have games, apps, etc on my 256gb…and 28,000 photos…I’m close but not maxed out on that 256gb. When I offload my photos. I’ll have 130gb back. External thumb drives exist for a reason
This will ensure that never happens again 😆
And still wee-wee's all over most of slim laptops on the market in most real-world tasks normal people do as well as plenty of non-creative professionals.
And a whole lot of those M1 torture tests from YouTubers and music producers were with the 8GB machines!
Lucas Curious
macrumors 6502a
I recently bought one with 16gb ram as a travel banger laptop. I took it out in the dirt, throw it under car seat, scratched teh hell out of it, dropped it lol. I paid $250 for this slow crappy laptop but I wanted an additional Mac to take anywhere and not care. even if I do buy this new upcoming one, ill still keep the 12" to take anywhere since I like keyboard typing. I take it into crappy environments to open an email or excel file. or to simply play a stream on a second screen.
Yeah… people dont really do that these days… people usually just leave them on a cloud service… people arent dumping their photos out of icloud in huge numbers. Certainly true of millennials like myself and younger. When people do back them up they usually stick them on an external drive and then stick the drive in a drawer
This isnt exactly going to be a gaming powerhouse, and anyone putting big games on it is going to either bump their storage or get a higher end machine.
Where it is coming from? I have no sources, obviously. But considering all the shenanigans Apple is pulling every time it comes to protecting its AppStore and ecosystem “monopoly”, I would not be surprised if they made this rumored “M1 MBA” replacement the first Mac to lock inside their own store. Low cost, therefore attracting lots of non-pro buyers that just need a browser and the Creator Studio software, and whatever else is in the Mac AppStore.
At the same time, I am still not convinced that this experience event is to announce a new Mac. I do not remember an event format like the March 4 one. And limiting the colors to just the 3 tints in the logo? Select members of the media to experience the thinness of a new Apple laptop? An iPhone processor in a MacBook?
The A18 Pro + 8 GB of RAM would run circles around my 12" Intel MacBook, so…
JPack
macrumors P6
But your MacBook is nearly 10 years old, so it's expected.
Sort of like iPhone 17e would beat the pants off the iPhone 7.
It's the "App Store," not the "AppStore," btw.
Locking the Mac down to the App Store would be a bad move and a bad signal to businesses, who often rely on apps not from an app store. I'm not sure if they'll release new Macs, as you said, and it would seemingly make more sense to put an old M1 chip in this than an A18 Pro chip, but Apple is not going to start turning macOS into Windows 10X any time soon.
Yet my 10-year-old MacBook can browse the web, write documents, play a few games (passably), watch videos, edit pictures—all the things a computer needs to be able to do. It just does them slowly.
Honestly, even if the new MacBook had the M1 chip, it would still be an amazing product. Still not worth the price, of course, when you can just buy a used M1 MBA for under $400, but the point is that it doesn't need to be the top of the line to be a really fast computing device.
They’ve pulled no shenanigans on macs, and in fact the battles they’ve been having with the EU on iPhones makes me think it’d be even less likely they’d choose now to put macs under that scrutiny too…
Yeah, with you on that. My theory is they’re announcing this laptop but also other products, and the hands on workshop part isnt for this machine. I think they’re going to do that multi day online product drop thing, which will include this machine and a whole bunch more, and then the event will be for new homekit or wearable products.
An education focused on laptop is all that’s been speculated on, so yeah you’re getting your hopes up for nothing.
Part of my use is for backing up my iPhone and iPad, add to that MacOS, other apps and other things I need to store, so 256GB is too little for that purpose. And using a Cloud service is not an option, as well as carrying external drive is cumbersome on a daily basis.
This mindset is typical of people who primarily use laptops on a desk instead of on their laps.