This week, we heard some news from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo about Apple entering a new segment of the laptop market. The company is reportedly working on a new MacBook at a lower starting price point than the MacBook Air, and it’ll apparently pack the A18 Pro chip found in iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
While a cheaper MacBook is certainly a welcome add, the question truly stands: will Apple do it properly, or will it serve as another decoy model?
Rumor refresh
To quickly recap, the cheaper MacBook is rumored to use a 13-inch display, pack an A18 Pro chip, and come in the same four colors as Apple’s entry-level iPad: blue, yellow, pink, and silver. It’ll enter mass production in the fourth quarter of this year, or first quarter of 2026.
Ultimately, theres precedent for both sides. When Apple introduced the redesigned entry-level iPad in 2022, it started at $449, making it not incredibly affordable – at least compared to its predecessor at $329.
Sure, Apple made a cheaper iPad that looked incredibly visually similar to the higher end iPad Air, but it wasn’t a particularly fantastic deal either. Especially once you consider the fact that iPad Airs regularly went on sale for $499 at the time, leaving just $50 in price difference to gain an M1 chip, a laminated display, and more. Two years later, that iPad now starts at just $349, and often goes on sale for $299 – which is far more competitive.
What would Apple cut?
People are generally speculating that this new entry-level MacBook will start between $699 and $799, which seems fair – depending on how Apple positions it.
Last fall, Apple updated all of its MacBook Air models to start with 16GB of RAM, providing a potential hint at something it could cut from an A18 Pro powered MacBook: unified memory.
I could see this entry-level MacBook retaining 8GB of RAM, which wouldn’t necessarily be too big of a loss on its own.
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