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.
However, Apple could also cut some niceties from the entry-level MacBook: an extra USB-C port, Touch ID, a Center Stage webcam, and battery capacity could all be cut.
New MacBook: good value?
Out of all of those cuts, I think Touch ID might be one of the harder ones to stomach for most people. That said, there is precedent for it. Apple’s base model M4 iMac does not come with a Touch ID keyboard.
If the MacBook comes in at $699 with 8GB of RAM and all of these feature cuts, it likely wouldn’t be too bad of a bargain. $799 makes that a much tougher sell. Given all of the fluctuating tariffs, Apple might not want to price it too low from the start, so a $799 MacBook seems much more probable.
At $799, if it comes with 8GB of RAM and cuts a plethora of key Mac features, it might not be the best value. After all, MacBook Airs tend to go on sale for around that price level. M4 MacBook Air (which starts with 16GB of unified memory) is currently on sale for $849, and just a couple days ago we saw clearance M3 MacBook Airs (also with 16GB of unified memory) for just $699.
Another thing worth mentioning is that there’d definitely be a $50-$100 education discount on this MacBook, bringing that $699-799 starting price point down to $599, $649, $699, or $749 for students in the US.
Wrap up
Obviously, those deals aren’t 24/7 – but it provides a picture of what can already exist in the market. Ultimately, Apple’s biggest competitor to this cheaper MacBook will be online retailers providing discounts on older MacBook Air models.
If Apple were to release a cheaper MacBook without cutting too many key features, I’d be pleasantly surprised. Ultimately, this MacBook is still 3-9 months away from release, so a lot is still up in air. Kuo predicts that Apple will sell 5-7 million units of this MacBook model in 2026, suggesting that Apple is confident in what’ll put out.
What do you think of the cheaper MacBook rumor? Do you think Apple will strike a nice balance? Let us know in the comments.
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