Apple’s Budget MacBook Could Arrive by Year’s End
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Earlier this year, we began hearing reports that Apple was preparing to release a significantly more affordable MacBook that could blur the lines with the iPad family. Now, a new report suggests that Apple’s suppliers are ramping up for mass production of the new model in the next few weeks.
This latest report comes from Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who was also the first to report on the plan in early July. Alongside another report this week that next year’s flagship OLED MacBook Pro could gain a touchscreen, Kuo dropped the hint that the “more affordable MacBook model powered by an iPhone processor” is expected to go into mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025.
While it all depends on when mass production kicks off, if Kuo’s information is accurate, it’s entirely possible that Apple could release the new MacBook in time for the late holiday shopping season. That’s still a long shot, and we’d put our money on early 2026, but it’s not inconceivable that it could come sooner.
Sadly, fans of the venerable 12-inch MacBook may be disappointed to learn that this new model is primarily about providing a cheaper alternative to the MacBook Air, not recreating an ultraportable MacBook. Presumably, Apple is happy to leave that territory to be covered by the iPad and Magic Keyboard, which may not be a bad thing now that iPadOS 26 is upping the laptop replacement game.
Still, some folks want a Mac and not an iPad, and this is where the new “MacBook” will come in. There’s no reliable word on what Apple will call it, but “MacBook” seems as good a name as any, since the suffix-less version has lain dormant since the 12-inch model was quietly killed off six years ago. It would also align beautifully with the iPad family, which has had three tiers for just as long, starting with the resurrected iPad Air in early 2019. Apple may also be moving into a similar vein with the new iPhone Air, but it’s still too early to tell how that will play out.
Following Kuo’s July proclamation of the new budget MacBook, Digitimes corroborated the rumor and put a price tag on it, saying that it could start at $599 for a base model, with an upgraded version selling for $699 that would likely just offer a storage bump.
So far, all the reports agree that what we’ll see is a 13-inch MacBook, with the key differentiator being the chip inside. In what would be a significant first, the $599 MacBook would forego Apple’s more powerful M-series chips and use an A-series processor, similar to what’s found in the iPhone and entry-level iPad.
Such an idea would have been unthinkable just two years ago, but the advent of the A17 Pro changed the game for that family of chips. For the first time, Apple has a neural engine powerful enough to handle on-device AI models and AAA console games, and that’s only improved with subsequent A-series chips.
The consensus is that the new MacBook will be powered by an A18 Pro, which seems like a reasonable choice as it would allow Apple to continue using leftover or “binned” chips from its now-discounted iPhone 16 Pro models.
Despite being an iPhone chip, the A18 Pro is actually a few leaps and bounds ahead of the M1 used in the original Apple silicon Macs, which was a scaled-up A14. It had the same core architecture, but offered more cores, high clock speeds, and more thermal headroom for sustained performance. The A18 Pro is four generations beyond that, and outpaces the M1 by a comfortable margin on single-core benchmarks. Only when it comes to GPU performance do the A-series chips still trail behind the M-series, and that’s where the M1 and A18 Pro are more on par.
This would likely give the $599 MacBook M1-like CPU performance on average, with a GPU that would be suitable for gaming and a Neural Engine with video encode/decode engines that would leapfrog the earlier M1-class machines, especially when it comes to Apple Intelligence features.
Since Apple typically holds its Mac events in late October, we should know within the next few weeks if the budget MacBook will be in the lineup for 2025, as it would undoubtedly use that opportunity to unveil it and get it on sale in time for the holidays.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
