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The MacRumors Show: Apple's Plan to Launch Low-Cost MacBook With iPhone Chip

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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple's apparent plan to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip.


Earlier this week, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is set to launch an all-new "affordable" MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options that include silver, blue, pink, and yellow. MacRumors first spotted evidence of such a device in backend code related to Apple Intelligence last summer, and subsequently confirmed its use of the A18 Pro chip. The machine features the identifier "Mac17,1."

This would be the first Mac powered by an ‌iPhone‌ chip. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series chips, which offer higher core counts, support for larger amounts of memory, and better external display support. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year.

With the A18 Pro chip, the device is highly unlikely to feature Thunderbolt ports, more than 8GB of unified memory, and support for more than one external display. In line with how Apple tends to handle its other low-cost devices, the new MacBook could re-use the design and chassis of an older machine like the M1 MacBook Air to keep costs down and differentiate it from the MacBook Air. Apple could also revive the simple "MacBook" moniker, separating it from the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and mirroring the iPad lineup, which simply has the iPad as the entry-level model.

According to Kuo, the new MacBook is expected to enter mass production late in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026, which situates launch in the first half of next year.

We also discuss Apple's broader low-cost device strategy, how it seems to be positioning its device lineups going forward, and more. The MacRumors Show has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.



You can also listen to The MacRumors Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player.

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If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear is talk through through the changes introduced in the second developer beta of iOS 26.

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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Apple's Plan to Launch Low-Cost MacBook With iPhone Chip
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/04/the-macrumors-show-macbook-with-a18-pro-chip/
Any other Mac is completely overpowered for the casual emailer and "check social media" user.
That is not a criticism, but just an observation that a lot of users would not notice any difference if they have a slightly less powerful processor.
 
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I can see it. The M1 is just moving into legacy node status and at some point it'll just make sense to switch the $649 Walmart special MacBook Air to something newer, and the A18 gives up no multicore or GPU performance from the M1, while having 40% faster single core which will feel faster for casual web use etc. Hope they sell that standard themselves, not through Walmart.

The only thing I'm not sure of with these 2 P-core systems is other ones I've experienced did feel slower, because even though they have high single and multicore scores through like 8 E cores, some cases do ask for more than 2 P cores and you feel that, I'm not sure if you will with Apple or not. Apple's E-cores are also the most powerful in the biz so it'll probably feel at least as snappy as M1 I'd guess.
 
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tipoo said:
I can see it. The M1 is just moving into legacy node status and at some point it'll just make sense to switch the $649 Walmart special MacBook Air to something newer, and the A18 gives up no multicore or GPU performance from the M1, while having 40% faster single core which will feel faster for casual web use etc. Hope they sell that standard themselves, not through Walmart.
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Are these going to run Apple Intelligence* I wonder?



* being very liberal with the use of the word "intelligence"
 
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turbineseaplane said:
Are these going to run Apple Intelligence* I wonder?



* being very liberal with the use of the word "intelligence"
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I'd imagine. A18 supports it. Which would be excellent if even just because they would have to bump even the Walmart special to 16GB for it.

Can't believe my 2014 15" had 16GB 11 years ago and we're still waffling over this lol
 
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It would be a great laptop since it will be much cheaper than MacBook Air and since A series consume 2 times lower than M series, it could dramatically improve the battery life. Not only that, the chip size and motherboard is much smaller so they could add more batteries.
 
turbineseaplane said:
I just hope we don't look back on this as the beginning of the end of the Mac.

The "real" Mac & macOS I mean ...

i.e. a real, fully fledged, open, flexible and powerful desktop OS.
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Nah. That was when they switched from 68k to PPC.
Or possibly when they dropped classic MacOS in favour of NeXTStep.
Wait, no, it was definitely when they switched from PPC to Intel.
Or, hold on, switching from Intel to ARM would absolutely make the Mac into a giant iPhone.

If Apple want to lock down MacOS like iOS, they don't need to change the processor.
It's probably easier and more secure/effective on Apple Silicon (after all, the iPad Pro does it) or at least on Intel machines with the T2 chip, but it doesn't really need any hardware at all. As of Tahoe, all supported Macs will have either Apple Silicon or T2 (I think the 2019 iMac was the last non-T2 Intel machine) and as of the next MacOS, Intel will be gone.

If/when Apple decide it's time to lock down MacOS they can pretty much just do it with the next software update. That would cause a massive kerfuffle, of course...

We don't know if this new "MacBook" will ship with some sort of "MacOS Lite" - so far there is no suggestion of that. We're just looking at no Thunderbolt/USB4 and (I think) no hardware virtualisation - not a major handicap for an entry-level machine aimed at "personal productivity" and nothing that requires gutting MacOS. Those are similar restrictions to the A12Z Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit, which reportedly ran an otherwise full MacOS (although it only got support for a few months). Most of the restrictions in iOS - and certainly iPadOS - are imposed by software rather than hardware.

As the article and others have speculated - this is likely just the "Walmart Mac" to replace the M1 version & reflecting the fact that the M4 is now a massive overkill for "personal productivity" users.
 
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theluggage said:
Nah. That was when they switched from 68k to PPC.
Or possibly when they dropped classic MacOS in favour of NeXTStep.
Wait, no, it was definitely when they switched from PPC to Intel.
Or, hold on, switching from Intel to ARM would absolutely make the Mac into a giant iPhone.
Click to expand...

I'm getting the sarcasm, but actually amongst your tongue in cheek you've nicely pointed out that it does keep getting more and more and MORE iOS-ified.

Your point about software is exactly what I worry about long term.

If they ever restrict macOS to only running software acquired via the Mac App Store, that's the day it's "done" for me.

The "open" nature of macOS is absolutely key, for me anyhow.
 
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I’m not cool with an A18 Pro powered Mac, unless it is significantly smaller and lighter, like the 2015-2017 MacBook. And even then, I think chips like the M2 or M4 are efficient enough to be used on a small laptop. Maybe downclock it a bit, if it’s too hot? But I think macs should be designed with nothing less than an M series SoC in mind.

Also from the longevity point of view it would be paradoxical for Apple to stop supporting the M1 series of macs and keep updating the A18 Pro MacBooks…
 
I hope Apple isn't joining the "race to the bottom" pursued by the Windows market segment. Apple's mission has always been a premium product, both in design and implementation, and customers have been willing to pay a premium for that. Sure, Apple found the limit when they priced the visionpro at $3,500 (plus). That doesn't mean it's time to compete with Acer or Lenovo.
 
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tipoo said:
I'd imagine. A18 supports it. Which would be excellent if even just because they would have to bump even the Walmart special to 16GB for it.

Can't believe my 2014 15" had 16GB 11 years ago and we're still waffling over this lol
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Your 2014 MBP cost $3k+ in 2014 dollars. Now we are waffling over a stronger box priced at less than a third of the cost of your 2014 15". Sounds like huge value add over time regardless of whatever details we may be "still waffling over this lol."
 
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victorvictoria said:
Sure, Apple found the limit when they priced the visionpro at $3,500 (plus).
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Boy oh boy, did they ever!

It does make me wonder at what price AVP would actually move in serious volume.

VR as an implementation -- even the very best of it -- still has a ton of drawbacks that turn off a lot of people, irrespective of price.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Your 2014 MBP cost $3k+ in 2014 dollars. Now we are waffling over a stronger box priced at less than a third of the cost of your 2014 15". Sounds like huge value add over time regardless of whatever details we may be "still waffling over this lol."
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And how much has that extra 8GB of RAM cost over the last 11 years

It should have already been the standard, but I'm glad Apple Intelligence finally forced it

Spot the Tim Cook takeover

all-in-one-base-ram-chart.jpg


Never got you people who argue for us to get less. RAM has become incredibly cheap and Apple's Unified Memory isn't some magic memory printed in gold, it's standard LPDDR modules from Samsung and so on like everyone else gets. RAM is the reason many of the people sold the like of "it doesn't matter on Apple Silicon" had to upgrade again early, it's the reason many iPhones and iPads started feeling pokey early even though their chips were impressive, Apple under Cook has been uber frugal with this. Again, at least AI forced at least a baseline good capacity now.
 
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ricketysquire said:
It would be cool if they brought back the 12 inch MacBooks with this chip. Just with a better keyboard and more ports. The perfect budget MacBook for everyone, small, light, portable and affordable.
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My wife loved her 12" MacBook. She still has it, but the battery is toast and it seems only knock-off batteries are available for it, which we tried and it was worthless. And the keyboard is now unusable too.

As for a new low-cost Mac on an A-series chip, it makes perfect sense. The M chips are getting to be so powerful that even the lowly M4 variant in the iPad Pro is more powerful than many need to do their daily email, watch some videos and surf the web or social media. And when Apple announced their shift to Apple Silicon, but before Apple officially launched the M1, the developer test kit systems they shipped out were a Mac mini based on the A14, which at the time handled about 90% of the available APIs and such for MacOS.

If they can bring back something like the 12" MacBook but with a keyboard that doesn't self-destruct, this could be a winning product to compete against other ultra-portables or Chromebooks.
 
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