What to Expect From Apple's Rumored New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip

[Happy_John]

Generally not true about Apple. Apple [generally] does not raise prices despite providing more competence with each new generation. E.g. my loaded 2011 (4 GB RAM), 2016 (16 GB RAM) and 2023 (96 GB RAM) MBPs each cost me ~$4k, but the increase in competence of each box was orders of magnitude of improvement. Value-wise a huge price decrease over the years.

That said, logically Apple would move MBA up in price a bit to make pricing room for some even lower-end laptop. But any new MBAs with higher pricing will also have higher competence - - because every new device has higher competence.

I'm getting old, I passed 50 a few years ago, and I've been using Macs all my adult life ( along with PCs during the "dark days" of the 1990s). One thing that is always worth pointing out is that, while Apple do love to upsell and turn a sizeable profile, Macs are cheaper now than they ever have been since (and including when) the original Macintosh appeared. As is most technology. I'm not trying to be an apologist for Apple's pricing structure, but right now the base model MacBook Airs and Mac mini are pretty cheap for what they are. We are not getting screwed by Apple's pricing nearly as much as we were in the past. It's worth also keeping in mind the one of the drivers for reading a "cheap" Macbook, and so up the price of the MacBook Air, might be a strategy to mitigate against the extra costs that tariffs and international supply chain tensions might bring.

 

[KPOM]

Common sense would tell you that's impossible.

The M4 die size is 50% larger. It needs a pair of DRAM instead of a single package. Everything from voltage regulators to battery size can be smaller for A18 Pro.

Apple committed to buying a certain number of A18 chips from TSMC. They aren’t selling enough iPhone 16s to meet that commitment. They owe TSMC the money anyway so they are taking the chips and putting them in a low-end Mac.

 

[JPack]

Apple committed to buying a certain number of A18 chips from TSMC. They aren’t selling enough iPhone 16s to meet that commitment. They owe TSMC the money anyway so they are taking the chips and putting them in a low-end Mac.

1) TSMC is a fully booked for 3nm. They have been for a long time.
2) Apple can sell their 3nm slots at premium to countless other firms clamoring for it.
3) This rumor about low-cost MacBook has been communicated by DigiTimes, Kuo, Koreans, etc. since 2023. Apple recognized low demand for M2/M3 due to M1.

Nvidia would gladly take 3nm capacity to build more R100 AI GPUs. Google wants it for Tensor G5. Xiaomi wants it for more XRing O1. There is no shortage of 3nm customers.

These "excess chips" theories have always been bunk. It's like the iPad mini with A17 Pro. Those chips were confirmed to be freshly fabbed, not stale ones from 2023.

 

[RaoulDuke42]

if the Mac mini can be priced competitively without a display, a non M series MacBook 12" or 11" could possibly be priced at $649 and $599 EDU or maybe -$50 if they want to push it. this would definitely be a single port + MagSafe device intended for ultraportable notebook/travel, etc. it would have to be similar to the 11" iPad/iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard case.

I doubt there will be MagSafe on this entry level machine, but I hope there will be dual USB-C ports and a 16GB option because that old 2lb MacBook was rad even with the keyboard and CPU issues and I'd like to see a successor.

 

[KPOM]

1) TSMC is a fully booked for 3nm. They have been for a long time.
2) Apple can sell their 3nm slots at premium to countless other firms clamoring for it.
3) This rumor about low-cost MacBook has been communicated by DigiTimes, Kuo, Koreans, etc. since 2023. Apple recognized low demand for M2/M3 due to M1.

Nvidia would gladly take 3nm capacity to build more R100 AI GPUs. Google wants it for Tensor G5. Xiaomi wants it for more XRing O1. There is no shortage of 3nm customers.

These "excess chips" theories have always been bunk. It's like the iPad mini with A17 Pro. Those chips were confirmed to be freshly fabbed, not stale ones from 2023.

Apple would rather take the chips than let a competitor take the capacity.

 

[JPack]

Apple would rather take the chips than let a competitor take the capacity.

Nvidia is not a competitor. Apple buying from them.

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No matter how you slice it, the "excess chip" theory is bunk. A18 Pro is a smaller chip than M1 and significantly outperforms it. Using A-series chips always made sense and it was matter of when, not if.

 

[throAU]

Honestly, I suspect a large portion of MacBook Air customers could switch to this low-cost MacBook without even noticing any difference.

100%.

People don't realise how fast the A series chips are. A18 Pro in my iPhone 16 Pro Max is faster than probably 80% of the PC laptops in my company (13" Intels from a couple of years ago), especially in single thread. It would be cooled far better in a laptop chassis, too.

They'd also probably get better battery life to boot.

 

[Icelus]

100%.

People don't realise how fast the A series chips are. A18 Pro in my iPhone 16 Pro Max is faster than probably 80% of the PC laptops in my company (13" Intels from a couple of years ago), especially in single thread. It would be cooled far better in a laptop chassis, too.

Would be interesting to see the latest A chips included in charts like these.

 

[JPack]

Would be interesting to see the latest A chips included in charts like these.

Back in 2018, when Anandtech reported A12 outperformed 3.8GHz Skylake, the writing was on the wall. The only unknowns were software and whether the silicon could scale.

Funny how things have come a full circle. Back then, most people were expecting Apple to simply drop an A-series into a MacBook and call it a day. It was the lowest risk approach. This low-cost MacBook is what people were expecting on day one in 2020. It’s finally here five years later.

 

[Quackington]

I wonder what the point is on having yet another 13" MacBook? Go for 12", make it ultra thin and portable

I am ready for this but have two asks:

- make it 12”
- give me a nice, bright mustard yellow. None of these muted pastels, please.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

 

[JPack]

100%.

People don't realise how fast the A series chips are. A18 Pro in my iPhone 16 Pro Max is faster than probably 80% of the PC laptops in my company (13" Intels from a couple of years ago), especially in single thread. It would be cooled far better in a laptop chassis, too.

They'd also probably get better battery life to boot.

Each time I use my MBA, I realize how much of its performance is being wasted in my iPad Air. The Mac is driving multiple windows while iPad is doing one thing at a time. Both of them use the same chip. Same thing with iPhone. With such a small display and low thermal and power delivery envelope, the A-series is being wasted just powering iPhone.

 

[Quackington]

The more I read about it, the more I see a baseline iPad with built-in keyboard running iPadOS and not a Macbook subset - and for only distinguishing marker to have the name MacBook slapped on it for sales/positioning reasons.

This would be my worst nightmare. I hope iPad OS doesn’t go anywhere near this.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

The more I read about it, the more I see a baseline iPad with built-in keyboard running iPadOS and not a Macbook subset - and for only distinguishing marker to have the name MacBook slapped on it for sales/positioning reasons.

I was thinking the same thing. A laptop device with a keyboard, running iPadOS. A few advantages: discussions about gigs or ram become obsolete, macOS wouldn’t be underpowered because it’s not in the picture, iPadOS 26 with its new windowing system and menu would truly make it a computer for light-weight tasks. Long battery-life, etc.

 

[iHorseHead]

 

[iHorseHead]

I'm getting old, I passed 50 a few years ago, and I've been using Macs all my adult life ( along with PCs during the "dark days" of the 1990s). One thing that is always worth pointing out is that, while Apple do love to upsell and turn a sizeable profile, Macs are cheaper now than they ever have been since (and including when) the original Macintosh appeared. As is most technology. I'm not trying to be an apologist for Apple's pricing structure, but right now the base model MacBook Airs and Mac mini are pretty cheap for what they are. We are not getting screwed by Apple's pricing nearly as much as we were in the past. It's worth also keeping in mind the one of the drivers for reading a "cheap" Macbook, and so up the price of the MacBook Air, might be a strategy to mitigate against the extra costs that tariffs and international supply chain tensions might bring.

Every piece of tech is cheaper nowadays though.
I keep saying and I say it once again: You can get a PC with 32gb of RAM of the price of a MacBook Air and in some countries, like mine Apple products are crazy expensive.

 

[Happy_John]

Every piece of tech is cheaper nowadays though.
I keep saying and I say it once again: You can get a PC with 32gb of RAM of the price of a MacBook Air and in some countries, like mine Apple products are crazy expensive.

As thery are for me too - Apple do srcew Europe with their “Apple change rate”, even when you factor in VAT. And upgrading the spec from Apple is a massiv erip-off - but compairing like to like with the base machines, I do think , for what you get, especially in terms of build quality. Apple are now very competeive with base prodcuts. You can get a Pc laptop for a lover than the entry-level mcbok ir, but you own’t get a a laptop s good as a MacBook Air for less than the price of a MacBook Air. You’ll get a lot of plastic. The same thing will happen when you compare an entry-level pc and a base level Mac mini - when looking a perfomance and build quality to price, the Mac mini is betaling deasktop pcs into the ground. The price comparison of pc to Apple tends to be “apples and oranges”.
- anyone I know who is a gamer has spent more on a gaming pc then the majority of people I know who use Macs.

 

[progx]

Nvidia is not a competitor. Apple buying from them.

Exactly. In fact, Nvidia is the closest option to Apple most PC manufacturers will have (hopefully) available to them for Arm-based Windows machines.

 

[jouster]

Each time I use my MBA, I realize how much of its performance is being wasted in my iPad Air. The Mac is driving multiple windows while iPad is doing one thing at a time. Both of them use the same chip. Same thing with iPhone. With such a small display and low thermal and power delivery envelope, the A-series is being wasted just powering iPhone.

Well, the Apple Watch SiP 10 is getting pretty powerful. It already has 4 NPUs. Maybe, in a couple more generations, they’ll throw the AW SiP 12 or so in a low-end phone…

 

[turbineseaplane]

Maybe, in a couple more generations, they’ll throw the AW SiP 12 or so in a low-end phone…

Sounds great to me!
Hopefully low power enough where it won't be able to run Apple "Intelligence". 😊😀😉

 

[Parowdy]

The dev Mac mini used an iPhone processor when they first announced the transition.

Edit: iPad, A12Z, but not too far off so they have experience with this.

Makes one think how far smartphone chips have come since 2020 and how many leaps such a laptop could run around the Intel MacBooks.

 

[JSRinUK]

Well, the Apple Watch SiP 10 is getting pretty powerful. It already has 4 NPUs. Maybe, in a couple more generations, they’ll throw the AW SiP 12 or so in a low-end phone…

Forget the iPad, I’m waiting for them to put MacOS on the Apple Watch.

 

[MacMikePro]

The more I read about it, the more I see a baseline iPad with built-in keyboard running iPadOS and not a Macbook subset - and for only distinguishing marker to have the name MacBook slapped on it for sales/positioning reasons.

Not a chance in hell as that makes absolutely no sense. Guarantee that it'll be exactly as this rumor puts it, a cheaper MacBook with an A18 Pro running macOS, either in the chassis of the 12" MacBook or the M1 MacBook Air.

 

[crsh1976]

Not a chance in hell as that makes absolutely no sense. Guarantee that it'll be exactly as this rumor puts it, a cheaper MacBook with an A18 Pro running macOS, either in the chassis of the 12" MacBook or the M1 MacBook Air.

That makes no sense? It’d certainly far easier and cheaper for Apple to put out an iPad in a notebook form factor that runs iPadOS than to make a Mac that runs macOS on an Axx processor with limited resources like RAM and storage - unless it’s an expanded design that bridges the two types of devices, but it sounds like a big R&D bill for an entry-level product that is supposed to compete with cheap devices like Chromebooks.

 

[JPack]

That makes no sense? It’d certainly far easier and cheaper for Apple to put out an iPad in a notebook form factor that runs iPadOS than to make a Mac that runs macOS on an Axx processor with limited resources like RAM and storage - unless it’s an expanded design that bridges the two types of devices, but it sounds like a big R&D bill for an entry-level product that is supposed to compete with cheap devices like Chromebooks.

"iPad in a notebook form factor that runs iPadOS" already exists. It's an iPad with a Magic Keyboard.

How would Apple even market such a product? It runs iPadOS, but you can't detach the keyboard, and you can't use Pencil. Poor touch ergonomics. What the heck is the point of this device? People would just buy an iPad.

How is having 8/256GB limited resources? Is everyone with a base model M1 Mac crying about slow performance? A18 Pro significantly outperforms M1.

 

[MacMikePro]

That makes no sense? It’d certainly far easier and cheaper for Apple to put out an iPad in a notebook form factor that runs iPadOS than to make a Mac that runs macOS on an Axx processor with limited resources like RAM and storage - unless it’s an expanded design that bridges the two types of devices, but it sounds like a big R&D bill for an entry-level product that is supposed to compete with cheap devices like Chromebooks.

Yeah I don't mean to be insulting but you reeeaallly don't know what you're talking about, and I mean that genuinely, like you are just very unfamiliar with how things work.

"an Axx processor with limited resources"
Right now the current iPhone Pros use the A18 Pro chip, but in a few months the iPhone 17 will be introduced with a new chip meaning Apple won't need the A18 Pro chip for the iPhone 16 line anymore. The iPhone is, by a huge margin, Apple's most popular product. So it'll be much much cheaper for Apple to continue using the manufacturing lines of the A18 Pro for a new device such as this. Eventually it'll get more expensive for Apple to continue manufacturing old M1 and M2 chips etc because those are made on an older process, the A18 Pro is manufactured using the same current process as the M4, plus the A18 Pro is a smaller die compared to the M4, which will make it cheaper. From every angle Apple using the A18 Pro is the smartest choice, it's cheaper and easier to manufacture, and has the single core performance of their current lineup, which is the most important for a device like this, and be much easier to continue giving software support to. The M4 is already overkill for the vast majority of MacBook Air buyers, and a MacBook with an A18 Pro will also be overkill but much closer to majority of user's needs while saving them money.

"easier and cheaper for Apple to put out an iPad in a notebook form factor"
This again makes absolutely no sense. What exactly is an iPad in a notebook form factor? An iPad with a Magic Keyboard? (which already exists) Or literally a laptop, so a keyboard and trackpad permanently attached to a display, but you're saying that display has a touch screen and runs iPadOS? Again that just makes no sense and I have no idea where you're trying to go with that. Why on earth would anyone want a device like that? Apple is not that stupid and it goes against their entire philosophy of what makes an iPad and iPad and a Mac a Mac. Plus how do you figure that would be "much cheaper for Apple"? If anything that would be more expensive for Apple.

"sounds like a big R&D bill for an entry-level product"
This is exactly why I said this new MacBook will either use the 12" MacBook chassis or the M1 MacBook Air chassis, or something extremely similar to either. Because all the R&D is already done. Apple designed and released the 12" MacBook 10 years ago, and the previous MacBook Air design 8 years ago. These are old designs and Apple using an old design will save them a ton of money because they don't need to spend a lot in R&D, which will allow them to price this MacBook super cheap.

Everything about this rumored device makes perfect sense, in every single way it'll be super cheap and easy for Apple to produce and give them a way to get a MacBook to people for much cheaper than they could have before. It'll be just like how they're currently selling the M1 MBA through Walmart for $650 but they'll sell this one themselves directly and discontinue the M1 MBA entirely.