Insights At a Glance:
- Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper MacBook powered by the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro chip, aiming to start production in late 2025 or early 2026.
- The budget MacBook could finally bring Apple laptops below the $999 price point, targeting everyday users and the education market with simpler specs and fun color options.
For years, I’ve eyed the MacBook lineup like a kid staring into a candy store window—wanting in, but never quite able to afford the treat. The $999 MacBook Air has always felt just out of reach, and the Pro models? Let’s not even go there. But now, it seems like Apple might finally be cracking that window open for folks like me—and maybe you too.
Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been beating the “budget MacBook” drum for a while now. Back in late 2023, Kuo suggested that Apple was toying with the idea of launching a more affordable MacBook towards the end of 2024 to counter slowing sales and compete with Chromebooks, particularly in education. The idea? A machine that keeps the MacBook identity—metal body, clean design—but cuts costs with new materials and perhaps a separate product line entirely.
Fast forward to today, and Kuo is back with a major update: Apple is reportedly working on a MacBook powered not by one of its beefy M-series chips, but by the A18 Pro—the same chip inside the iPhone 16 Pro. That’s right, a MacBook running on an iPhone chip. Production could begin as soon as late 2025 or early 2026.
So, what does that mean in real-world use? Surprisingly, not a bad deal. The A18 Pro benchmarks close to the original M1 chip from 2020 in many ways, especially in multi-core performance. It also closely trails the Mac mini’s M4 chip with its 3500 single-core performance. And let’s be real—most of us aren’t editing 8K videos or running machine learning models on our laptops. For everyday use—web browsing, word processing, Netflix marathons—the A18 Pro might be more than enough.
Kuo hints at a 13-inch display and possibly fun new colors like pink and yellow. Apple reportedly aims to produce 5–7 million units in 2026, suggesting it’s serious about capturing a more budget-conscious market. While there’s no official price yet, the rumor mill says it’ll undercut the $999 Air—a move that would be unprecedented for Apple. Maybe $599 or even $699? We can only dream.
Sure, it’s still a rumor for now. But if true, this could be Apple’s most approachable laptop ever. And for many of us, that dream of owning a brand-new MacBook—without emptying our bank accounts—might soon become reality.
