WarmWinterHat
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I haven't used Windows 11 LTSC, but I have Win 10 LTSC on my old Dell desktop and It's clean.
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Upcoming Budget MacBook Seen Within Apple as 'Incredible Value'
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I haven't used Windows 11 LTSC, but I have Win 10 LTSC on my old Dell desktop and It's clean.
“At $599, the device would compete directly with many popular Chromebooks commonly purchased for education,”….yea except Chromebooks are about half that price.
Internally at Apple, the rumored low-end MacBook is being described as "incredible value," so much so that the company believes its imminent launch is going to drive a serious number of switchers from Windows machines and Chromebooks, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Writing in his Power On newsletter over the weekend, Gurman says that Apple believes the device "could even compel iPhone users without computers to buy their first Mac."
We don't yet have an official price for the machine, but the MacBook Air starts at $999, so the upcoming low-cost MacBook is expected to be significantly cheaper. Apple is unlikely to price it so low that it overlaps too closely with the iPad lineup, though. The entry-level iPad with the A16 chip starts at $349, while the iPad Air with the M2 chip begins at $599.
A price in the $599 to $799 range would position the new MacBook above the iPad Air, but below the MacBook Air and iPad Pro, maintaining clear separation across product lines. At $599, the device would compete directly with many popular Chromebooks commonly purchased for education, while pricing at $699 or $799 would place it in a similar segment, but with a more premium positioning.
Apple is expected to make several hardware compromises to reach the lower price point. According to one leaker, the new MacBook's display may be dimmer than the MacBook Air's 500 nits and lack True Tone support. Storage options are also likely be limited to 256GB and 512GB, with a possible 128GB configuration for education customers, and there will be no 1TB or 2TB tiers. The base model may also use a slower SSD, potentially due to a single NAND chip. Additional cuts could include no fast charging, no backlit keyboard, and no support for high-impedance headphones. Meanwhile on the connectivity side, it reportedly will not include Apple's custom N1 wireless chip, instead relying on a MediaTek solution.
We shouldn't have to wait too long to learn how accurate those leaks are. Rumors suggest that the low-cost MacBook will be introduced at or just before Apple's March 4 Special Experience that's taking place in New York, London, and Shanghai. However, Apple could announce the MacBook in a press release ahead of the experience – and even as soon as today.
Apple is said to have tested a range of playful color options for the device, including light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver, and dark gray, although Gurman says it's unlikely all of them will ship.
Article Link: Upcoming Budget MacBook Seen Within Apple as 'Incredible Value'
WarmWinterHat
Suspended
Half the price, can be fixed on site with simple tools and easily available parts, and, at least at the local school here, are convertibles.. spin around the screen, fold over, and now it's a tablet.
Running 11 24h2 IOT LTSC and it’s so much better than bloated Pro!! Haven’t had any issues gaming!
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
That’s also where I’m at. I agree that for those already in the eco system this would be a nice extra. Light, portable but still on macOS.
iPadOS becomes unusable fast.
Rychiar
macrumors 601
there's plenty of people not using Macs cus of the price. there's tons of people who just want a cheap laptop for browsing the web and word processing and they choose windows or Chromebooks simply cus they're cheap...
AgeOfSpiracles
macrumors 6502a
I'm not going to talk you out of it or anything, but just saying that if you're happy with Windows 11 in 2026, then you're in an ever shrinking minority; Windows is in the process of collapsing in the PC enthusiast space. I switched about 5 years ago, but still have had to deal with it for work and family members all the while. I agree with you that MacOS isn't magically intuitive, especially when coming from 30 years of being a Windows power user. But after meeting it halfway, I can say without hesitation most of the time when the two diverge, MacOS offers the superior paradigm. Not always, but usually. And that's without getting into stability or random flaky stuff windows does, which is honestly what pushed me over the edge in the first place.
Now with the dumpster fire that is Windows 11, I even forced my kids to convert to Linux. With only a couple of minor annoyances (Roblox, Minecraft Bedrock, both of which have workarounds) everything they need or want just works. It was honestly shocking; I expected to need to do hours of tech support and fiddling to make them happy, but there was virtually nothing. And they told me unbiden that they actually like it better. I think it's going to work out better in the long run too, because these days being Linux literate is going to be far more valuable with every passing year.
All that to say that, unless I have some critical work application that I absolutely must run under windows, and it's not realistically feasible in a VM, I'm pretty sure I'll never daily drive a windows machine ever again. I keep a Surface Pro around to run ForSCAN, that's it. I spent 30 years being an Apple hater, and making fun of the annual "Year of the Linux Desktop", yet here I am. Sorry for the ramble.
I disagree that any of the modern iPads would run macOS just fine.
A system is significantly more than just its chip, and macOS is significantly more power hungry than iPadOS.
iPads have significantly smaller batteries, and significantly smaller thermal envelopes than even the smallest of MacBooks, anything that isn’t just the desktopwould likely cause any modern iPad to heat up and drain in minutes.
macOS is designed to gobble up as much ram and system resources as possible, iPadOS functions the exact opposite.
iPadOS keeps background tasks to a complete minimum, basically optimizing performance and efficiency at every turn. That’s how the iPad can get 10 hours of usage or several days with standby, despite having a battery that’s about 1/3 the WH of an MBP.
For reference, the latest iPad Pro has a 31.5 WH battery and gets an advertised 10 hours of Web browsing, while the latest MacBook Pro 14 inch has a 72.4 WH battery and gets an advertised 16 hours of Web browsing.
You would think with a battery over 2X the size you would get somewhere close to 2X the screen on time, but because of macOS that just is not the case. Do anything more power intensive, and the differences become even wider.
Spend just a couple hours running Discord, Mail, iMessage, Safari and Music on a Mac and you can easily drain the battery in 3 to 4 hours, do the same thing on an iPad and you’re still sticking somewhere around that 7 to 10 hour mark because of the power management of the two different operating systems.
Believe me, as someone who frequently has the conundrum of “do I really need an iPad?” Or “do I really need a Mac?” I have always wanted the best of both worlds combined into one device, but I think Apple has a point here that goes way beyond input methods and is down to a fundamental OS level.
macOS on the iPad would likely technically work, but it would be a significantly “worse” experience. Worst battery, worse performance, worse optimization.
For an example of what I am talking about in action, open a whole bunch of apps in window mode on the iPad. Once you reach eight or so apps open at once, the iPad will just, start force quitting apps to allow for new ones to be opened. macOS would not do that, it will slow down and start beachballing before it forces an app closed.
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lazyrighteye
Contributor
If you're reading this, you're not the target for this rumored entry-level MacBook.
And if any aspect about this rumored entry-level MacBook agitates, you're also not the target this MacBook. ❤️
And if any aspect about this rumored entry-level MacBook agitates, you're also not the target this MacBook. ❤️
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
That way Apple would be offering a way to have both operating systems on a single device. Plenty of people who own a MacBook of some sorts and an iPad. That would cost them in sales.
I’m sure someone in that multi-trillion company has done the math and realised that’s not a good idea. 🙂
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
code-m
macrumors 601
This just proves the point that iPadOS is limited and designed for the budget friendly entry model. The hardware with M series chips is capable to run macOS, the cooling issue can be mitigated by a vapour chamber (see recent rumours), the thickness or thinness serves very little benefit on an iPadPro which is oddly thinner than the iPad Air. We see macOS on a fabless MBA quite fine granted with some themal throttling under intense workload which can be mitigated with a vapour chamber. iPadOS was never designed for real or professional work hence when iPadOS is stressed the device gets hot.
When macOS gains limited touch capabilities the use case for an iPad becomes even more pointless.
code-m
macrumors 601
The industry has already incorporated touchscreens in Chromebooks and Windows laptops in the medium price point, in comparison purchasing even a MacBook Air without a touchscreen in a similar price point is a nonstarter. Consumers look at value for money regardless if their intend on using the touch capabilities or not while Apple computers look like poor value feature wise. Granted Apple uses metal and premium materials but to most customers a computer is a tool not a work of art and at what cost.
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
From Apple’s profit numbers I’d say they’re doing a pretty good job, strategy wise.
Better than “the industry”, although I don’t know if we can call Chromebooks an industry, considering they are low-profit garbage from a company that lives off your data.
This fact remains: if Apple offered an iPad which could run macOS and iPadOS then Apple would lose income from people who now buy a MacBook or some sorts and an iPad.
Vincent Hanna
Suspended
The buried lede from today's announcements is the iPad Air maintained storage capacities AND increased RAM allotments 50% at the same price points, and the 17e DOUBLED storage capacities at the same price points. (Sorry, Apple pricing whiners!)
This is consistent with my theory that Tim is going to use the RAMpocalypse to Apple's advantage by uncharacteristically eating some margin to put the hurt on competing manufactures who can't do the same. Will be very interesting to see if this strategy is borne out in tomorrow's laptop updates, especially with the entry-level MacBook.
This is consistent with my theory that Tim is going to use the RAMpocalypse to Apple's advantage by uncharacteristically eating some margin to put the hurt on competing manufactures who can't do the same. Will be very interesting to see if this strategy is borne out in tomorrow's laptop updates, especially with the entry-level MacBook.
Sirmausalot
macrumors 65816
Nothing wrong with what you bought. But given that people keep Macs a year or two longer than PCs on average because of build quality and software, it's not a premium. It's value.
I completely disagree with all of these points.
Which means absolutely nothing because again, the chip is just one element of the product. You completely ignored the fact that the iPad Pro has a battery almost 1/3 the size of the MBP, yet is advertised with 60% of the runtime of that same MBP. When it comes to the budget iPad and iPad Air, those batteries are even smaller.
No, it absolutely cannot. A vapor chamber can *improve* cooling, but they’re is still going to be a significantly different thermal envelope between the 5 MM thin iPad Pro that literally has a screen laying right on top of the logic board, and a over twice as thick and 3X as heavy MacBook Air, with no screen sitting on top of the logic board.
This can literally only be said by someone who has never used an iPad Pro.
iPad Pro: 444 G
MacBook Air: 1224 G
You really think the iPad can go from less than a pound to almost 3 pounds and still be the same product? No! It cannot.
Even the original iPad from 2010 is still 1.2 Lb lighter than the MacBook Air.
Literally the whole point of the iPad is that it’s basically a sheet of glass you can hold in your hands, a MacBook will never be that. Even Apple’s most portable laptop of all time, the 12 inch MacBook, is still over twice as heavy and 3X as thick as the iPad Pro.
Nonsense. Even with a touchscreen, iPadOS still has apps and functions and use cases macOS just *doesn’t* meet, rather it be artists, graphic designers, people in aviation, many other occupations, or customers just wanting an extremely simple mobile computing and media consumption device. A Mac cannot replace this for millions and millions of people.
routine_analyst
macrumors 65816
I feel like it might be able to make some big waves at $499 or below, but not anything above that. I mean I'm happy to be wrong. But I feel it just gets too close to the sale price on a very superior Macbook Air if you go much above that.
Regardless I'm sure it'll be a hit in education.
Regardless I'm sure it'll be a hit in education.
You cannot compare a sales price to MSRP.
Inevitably, this budget MacBook will go on sale. There will eventually be refurbished options. There will eventually be open box and renewed options. It will have the same black Friday discounts and Amazon prime day specials as all of the other MacBooks.
Assuming it retails at $699, you will eventually be able to find it for 599 or $549, and likely sooner than later.
Even the Walmart MacBook Air started at $699, and got as low as $499 during the holiday season of 2025. This new MacBook will face those similar discounts.
The good ones are not. You can sometimes get nice Chromebooks on sale for great prices, but this will compete with premium Chromebooks. Those are at the low end at least $400 and about $1000 for the higher end ones. Anything lower than those prices comes with significant limitations in quality. Maybe that’s okay for a lot of people, but if this really is $600, that’s a highly competitive price for similar products.
