New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

[MacRumors]

Apple's rumored new more affordable MacBook could have a starting price as low as $599 and launch as soon as this year, according to a new report out of Asia.

We first learned of Apple's low-cost MacBook plans in late June, when analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company was developing a "more affordable" 13-inch laptop that would compete with Chromebooks and drive MacBook purchases, though he did not mention pricing.

Kuo said the new MacBook is set to use an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. That would make it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. So far, all Apple silicon Macs have used M-series chips, which feature more cores, greater memory capacity, and improved external display support.

The analyst said he expected the model to enter mass production late in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. Today, DigiTimes has independently corroborated Kuo's prediction and suggested that the MacBook will start between $599 and $699. The current 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 in the U.S. (or $899 under Apple's student discount).

Today's report adds that the laptop will have a 12.9-inch display, making it slightly smaller than the MacBook Air's 13.6-inch screen. DigiTimes reports that some components are expected to enter mass production by the end of the third quarter of 2025 – a schedule that could see full system assembly begin before the end of the year.

Final assembly is expected to take place at Quanta's facilities in the fourth quarter, with the laptop becoming commercially available in late 2025 or early 2026, similar to Kuo's launch estimation.

According to market projections, annual shipments of the low-cost MacBook could reach between 5 million and 7 million units, potentially boosting Apple's total MacBook volume from the current 17 million to 18 million units by 30% to 40%.

Kuo believes the more-affordable MacBook will feature an ultra-thin, lightweight design and could come in Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow finishes.

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. Would you be interested in such a laptop? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

 

[cjsuk]

I will probably buy one of these for my youngest daughter who needs a first "proper" laptop. It'll be good enough to last 3-5 years for her and will most likely run all the Google classroom crap she has to use better than the current ipad, as well as integrating with the family's icloud stuff.

 

[BatmanAtkinson]

Could be an iPad with a built-in keyboard

 

[MayaUser]

yes for 599 makes sense otherwise ..probably with 256ssd and 8gb ram but for $400 more you get double the ram and storage and far better performance M4...it will be hard to chose for people...for students probably easy choice if this will get $499 with back to school

 

[MayaUser]

Could be an iPad with a built-in keyboard

ipads run ipadOS..this has to run Macos and probably with built in 5G

 

[Franjelisco]

Too good to be true

 

[MayaUser]

Too good to be true

why? if this starts 599 with 256 and 8 gb ram....its basically an cheaper slower macbook air

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

M2 would been more reasonable.

 

[Total Respray]

So we will have iPads with Mac chips and Macs with iPad and iPhone chips.

 

[BatmanAtkinson]

ipads run ipadOS..this has to run Macos and probably with built in 5G

I know, but since Apple made iPadOS 26 so Mac-like… who knows?

 

[BelgianChoklit]

Large enough for 3 lines of e-mail text, 3 widgets on the desktop

 

[Lwii2boo]

I would love to be wrong but I do not believe one second that the company that charges desktop wheels and monitor stands for close to $1k and still continue to charge atrociously expansive upgrade on RAM / Storage on macbooks will canibalize its MBAs which sell pretty well with someing lower end at 599. 599 is just too competitive, Timmy wants a juicy margin. 799 maybe but 599 is copium
Once again I would love to be wrong but you don't become a trillion dollar company by canibalizing your product line.

 

[Geekett]

I would be interested if Apple doesn’t cut on the display quality, so at least same quality as the MacBook Air (500 nits, retina, colors accuracy, antireflective etc.) and if the weight is less than 1 kg

 

[GianL]

Too good to be true

Same price as the MBA M1 currently sold in a famous US grocery store and this is lacking Thunderbolt ports and who knows what else (slower SSD and crappier display?).

 

[SeaFox]

Of course it would make too much sense to simply use the 13" Air chassis for this. Gotta start producing another part SKU specially for this for maximum inefficiency in the new lower-cost laptop model.

 

[Madonepro]

I would love to be wrong but I do not believe one second that the company that charges desktop wheels and monitor stands for close to $1k and still continue to charge atrociously expansive upgrade on RAM / Storage on macbooks will canibalize its MBAs which sell pretty well with someing lower end at 599. 599 is just too competitive, Timmy wants a juicy margin. 799 maybe but 599 is copium
Once again I would love to be wrong but you don't become a trillion dollar company by canibalizing your product line.

But it becomes an entry point for some to get on the Apple 'product' tree.

 

[Achillias]

No notch, hopefully.

 

[Mity]

What exactly would it be used for? To serve as a modern netbook? Isn't that what people use non-pro iPads with a keyboard case for?

Edit: Before you reply, see this clarification: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...is-year-starting-at-599.2463158/post-34054669

 

[Icelus]

Sounds interesting, also while knowing the A18 Pro is faster than an M2 in single core benchmarks.

 

[ItsASpider]

I would love to be wrong but I do not believe one second that the company that charges desktop wheels and monitor stands for close to $1k and still continue to charge atrociously expansive upgrade on RAM / Storage on macbooks will canibalize its MBAs which sell pretty well with someing lower end at 599. 599 is just too competitive, Timmy wants a juicy margin. 799 maybe but 599 is copium
Once again I would love to be wrong but you don't become a trillion dollar company by canibalizing your product line.

Watch this thing have 64 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM or some other ludicrous spec that even the lowest-end of phones will beat it on.

 

[Moreplease]

Any kind of MacBook for $600 would destroy sales of M4 MacBook Airs (and actually a lot of MacBook Pro sales too, not to mention Mac mini sales).

But such a product coming down the pipe would explain the unusually good sale prices on those legacy lines recently.

Here’s a prediction. If it really is priced like that, then it’s a new Mac strategy whose point is to significantly increase the installed user base in order to sell more services, which are already an important part of Apple’s overall sales (more than Mac sales, if I recall correctly).

In that case, this will have Chromebook like features, notably, not much storage space. So the above hopes of 256 GB will not materialise. Rather, it’ll be 128 GB and rely on iCloud subscriptions for (a) file storage, and (b) much of Apple’s usual profit margin.

 

[wanha]

1. Sounds like a perfect first laptop for my kids.
2. At this price, there will be significant compromises that Apple will make to protect MBA sales (and profits).
3. Such a low price likely means that this will be the "iPhone SE of MacBooks", meaning it will only be updated every 2-3 years rather than Apple investing resources to update it every year.

 

[iZac]

Yeah, at this price point it really does seem 'too good to be true'

I could really see it running iPadOS to give it the compromise needed to upsell users to a MacBook Air.

I still truly believe iPadOS will eventually be able to run macOS apps (only purchasable via the Mac App Store - not downloaded off the internet) and this might be the surprise hardware to debut it.

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

why does everything built on iOS technology still feel laggy and weird on macOS even though it all runs on the same hardware at this point.

 

[gpat]

Expect 128GB storage