Will the Rumored Lower-Cost MacBook Use an A18 Pro or A19 Pro Chip?

[Velli]

Seems weird to launch a Mac with a chip slower than current iPhone. And 12GB seems like the right amount, regardless. I’d guess the volume of iPhone would bring the price down to a level where it doesn’t make sense to do a custom A18 Pro with 12GB.

I don’t see them launching it with 8GB. And to keep price down, I could see them launch only one version - probably different SSD sizes, but that’s it. With Air starting at 16GB ram, it doesn’t make much sense to do a cheap model and then upcharge on ram - if you want more than 12GB, get the Air.

A thought that just sprung to mind: They introduced ProMotion to the base iPhone. Could the argument for this lower cost Mac be to make space for bringing ProMotion to the Air, and use that as an excuse to raise the price on it?

 

[Velli]

Will the rumored lower-cost MacBook be an actual product ?

Well, that’s what the rumour says…

 

[awshucks]

Hope it comes with USB 3.2 capable USB-C ports and not USB 2.0 only

I never thought of that but I would not be surprised at all if Apple did this

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

How would an A18 or A19 pro sit in the laptop performance landscape? An iPhone 16/17 with laptop thermals sounds like a more than capable machine, but I'm not up on the current PC laptop market.

 

[acorntoy]

Why not both?

A18Pro for base and A19Pro as an +50/100$ upgrade/ included for free with higher storage.

The Ram is a moot point as both are capable of up to 16GB/ it doesn't matter what they shipped with in the phone.

This seems the most logical as Apple does similar with the other laptops and theres been evidence of both being used in the laptop.

 

[Corefile]

Will it run macOS or iPadOS?

 

[acorntoy]

How would an A18 or A19 pro sit in the laptop performance landscape? An iPhone 16/17 with laptop thermals sounds like a more than capable machine, but I'm not up on the current PC laptop market.

For the rumored price range either would be fantastic and better than the competition.

 

[MacBH928]

So the macbook will be less capable than iPad Pro?

that has to be sub-$300 model

 

[WarmWinterHat]

So the macbook will be less capable than iPad Pro?

that has to be sub-$300 model

If it's running macOS, it's already more capable than any iPad in the lineup.

 

[AppleTO]

I never thought of that but I would not be surprised at all if Apple did this

I don’t think they will, but Thunderbolt will almost certainly be omitted, which will affect practically no one using a device at that price point.

 

[pp_amorim]

Apple should release a plastic device for the emerging market, this is the best way to hold the trust of future clients. If they can outperform the competition on the expensive side, now they should to outperform on the cheap side with the best cost to quality available.

 

[yuda398]

The A18 Pro uses LPDDR5X memory and has 4 controllers so theoretically it can utilise up to 16GB of ram

 

[Padaung]

I wonder if by popular demand they are bringing back a kind of update to he Macbook 12. I guess they didn't sell that well, But I never understood why. Beats me.

I was tempted by one back when they were new, but having tried one out I was underwhelmed by the performance vs battery life trade-off. For me, to accept the slower cpu, I wanted greater battery life. The single USB-C port for data and charging was a significant limitation too, I didn't like the idea of finding myself low on battery whilst transferring data to an external drive and then being stuck with the choice of either stopping the transfer and charge or take the risk and hope the battery held out long enough!

The size and weight of the Macbook was amazing, and this is why I'm so interested in this rumour.

One feels that the A18/19Pro should be able to offer the battery life and performance that the Intel M processor never could. I hope they include more than one usb-c port and that the speed of them isn't crippled to make them effectively useless for modern uses (ie they absolutely have to be at least usb 3.0 in terms of speed).

Edit: The relatively high price of the Intel M Macbook was also a limiting factor for myself, especially in conjunction with the performance vs battery life of it as noted above.

 

[Elwe]

I never thought of that but I would not be surprised at all if Apple did this

The 2015-2017 MacBook (12”) had USB 3.0 (Gen1, I believe). It could drive a hub that drove a 1440p monitor and a handful of ports. Just like the iPhone Pro models do now. USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gb/s) should be fine.

A 13” lcd Retina screen, A19 Pro chip, 12 GB ram, 256GB storage (with upgrades possible), two USB
ports, for $599 would destroy any upper end Chromebook market that exists.

 

[Siliconguy]

The same for me (as a second Mac) but this product seems like it could cannibalize MacBook Air sales. Maybe the next MacBook Air is the only model that gets the M5 with the Pros limited to the M5 Pro and M5 Max. The MacBook Air then becomes the prosumer option with a higher starting price, not the budget option.

MacBook Air base model gets 120 Hz retina display, Thunderbolt, and 16/512.

A19 Mac gets 60 Hz 1280 X 800 display, USB C only, 12 GB/256. The competition at $500 is offering 16/512 now so Apple would still be behind especially with Augmented Idiocy sucking up so much storage.

On the display front I have to note I can't comfortably read the standard resolution on this 13" M1 MacBook Air and have it set to 1280 X 800 which I can read. So there is somewhere Tightwad Tim could save a dollar.

On a related front, are more of the standard apps deletable under Tahoe? Things I never use like Stickies, Photo Booth, Reminders, Home, Voice Memos, et al.

 

[BeerboyUK]

It might be nice if it had the same portability factor as the 12” Retina MacBook.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Will the rumored lower-cost MacBook be an actual product ?

I can’t tell if this is /s or not, but I do believe Apple is actually going to release this product. What it ultimately ends up looking like dollar-wise and spec-wise is still way too up in the air though. It could be a massive hit or an utter POS. It all depends on whether or not Apple is serious about growing the lower end of the market and feels they can do it profitably. I’m excited to see this released.

 

[flowderf]

Smaller and lighter than the MBA, long the promise of the ARM era, and decent speed: Apple will gain more of my earnings.

Of course the rumors are for CHEAP, so maybe/maybe not? The 12" Macbook was costly.

 

[Spindrift_21]

Wish they would just have it use MacOS when a phone or iPad is plugged into a docking station and iOS when unplugged. Why do I need so many devices when the hardware is capable enough?

 

[jimimac71]

I don't own a laptop, just a 2014 PC, stuck on Windows 10.
Also an iPad 7 stuck on OS 18.7.
So I'm in replacement mode.
What becomes a pain is Safari is Apple only.
At present I use Chrome across all devices.
What I want is just one device.
Because of Safari!
At $599, I'm interested. $699, hmmm.
Don't need a rocketship.
I have a low end Android tablet.
Haven't used Mac OS in years.
My elderly iMac from 2007 is gathering dust.
Regardless of cost, a Chromebook is just a Chromebook.
Yes, a Windows 11 laptop would work but I loathe Microsoft.
Being low vision, Apple is a good investment.
So what the hey, looking for advice.

 

[azhava]

I don't own a laptop, just a 2014 PC, stuck on Windows 10.
Also an iPad 7 stuck on OS 18.7.
So I'm in replacement mode.
What becomes a pain is Safari is Apple only.
At present I use Chrome across all devices.
What I want is just one device.
Because of Safari!
At $599, I'm interested. $699, hmmm.
Don't need a rocketship.
I have a low end Android tablet.
Haven't used Mac OS in years.
My elderly iMac from 2007 is gathering dust.
Regardless of cost, a Chromebook is just a Chromebook.
Yes, a Windows 11 laptop would work but I loathe Microsoft.
Being low vision, Apple is a good investment.
So what the hey, looking for advice.

You can install the Chrome browser on a MacBook. Lots of people do.

 

[Aries79]

If it sports the A19 Pro it will be a day 1 purchase for me. The main reason, the better cooling of the A19 which would allow for better sustained performance, which is a must in a laptop.

 

[Dhonk]

Maybe same size as the 12" retina but with 13"?

I remember that the 12" had big bezels. So maybe they can fit a 13" display in the same size with the same keyboard.

It was a beautiful mini laptop. Love it but yeah, the performance was not good

I've often thought this. Battery tech has gotten better, processor tech has gotten better, screen tech has gotten better, keyboard tech has gotten better. Obviously for many of us, we learned to deal with 1 USB-c port.

I'd do a 12" rMB case, enlarge screen to about 12.9" or so, upgrade keyboard, add MagSafe either to the side or even to the top (behind screen). If it had MagSafe, I think it could function fine with only one USB-C for 98% of users. By not having a crappy overworked, underpowered Intel processor, this could actually help reinvigorate the netbook category. Also improve file sharing so that this actually works great alone or as a complementary device. This would be a great go-to corporate device.

 

[frou]

Either way, these will not be weak machines in the overall scheme of things, given that it wasn't that long ago that MBAs had crappy dual-core Intel CPUs and Intel HD Graphics.

 

[nickf]

Wishlist:

Expandable to 16 GB/1 TB
13" screen
MagSafe + single USB-C
Headphone socket
Polycarbonate body
5G connectivity