What would a cheap, Apple A18-powered MacBook actually be good at?
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If it is as fast as a phone, cheap and light I will not complain. I don't much like ipads, I find them clumsy when setting up the external keyboards and so forth. But of course it is apple so probably will not be cheap
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NetOperator Wibby
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
I wonder if this would also be the first MacBook with a cellular chip in it. Might as well!
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I picked up an M2 MacBook Air 16GB/256GB for $699 back in the spring right before the M4s were released, so I feel the budget niche is well served.
I’d rather be getting an M-series Air from a generation or two back instead of a model where they’ve cut corners on things like the screen, MagSafe or TouchID. For anything but the most demanding workflows you’d be hard pressed to tell a difference between mine and a brand new M4.
I’d rather be getting an M-series Air from a generation or two back instead of a model where they’ve cut corners on things like the screen, MagSafe or TouchID. For anything but the most demanding workflows you’d be hard pressed to tell a difference between mine and a brand new M4.
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Why would they come out with a brand new product to fit the niche instead of slowly retiring their older products from shelves, like they have the M1 and M2 Airs? Doesn't make sense to me. That's extra engineering spend for little/no gain.
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Seriously! I'd be ok with MacBook SE, but in my head canon I'd call it a Mac SE, in the old way.
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Two problems— First, Apple is happy to sell refurbished Macs that are fine for most users— why complicate the lineup? Second, the real problem is that most new Macs are overspecced for most users. I don’t see how an underspecced MacBook fixes that.
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euskalzabe
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
My M1 MBA still works like a charm, so I don’t see the point of replacing it with an A18 powered version. Why spend money for equivalent performance? I reckon I still have at least 2 more years of MacOS updates… until that time comes, the M1 keeps performing splendidly for all my office work. I’ll check back in 2027…
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Do we know if the A18 Pro supports the ARM v9.2a instruction set with SME ? That could help with some future proofing...
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iPhones already support a single external display, but only for mirroring. I think that's just an iOS limitation, but who knows?
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Okay, can someone explain the math to me? It honestly isn't making any sense at the moment, but there must be something I'm missing- so, the latest low end MacBook with the latest M chip is $1000; and the latest iphone with the latest A chip is $1000... So how does putting that A chip into a MacBook somehow make it cheaper..? MacBooks have far larger screens, unibody construction, and keyboards, yet it would be less than an iPhone..? What does the iphone have that the MacBook is missing?
Or, are they going to just release this mac at the $1000 price point and raise the price on everything else? (In which case, people are actually excited about that?)
It really feels like no matter what, in order for Apple to slide this into a cheaper MacBook slot of less than $1000, they have to not only take a cut in their notoriously high margins on this macbook, but also admit how obscene the margins on the iphone are. None of that makes any sense to me.
Or, are they going to just release this mac at the $1000 price point and raise the price on everything else? (In which case, people are actually excited about that?)
It really feels like no matter what, in order for Apple to slide this into a cheaper MacBook slot of less than $1000, they have to not only take a cut in their notoriously high margins on this macbook, but also admit how obscene the margins on the iphone are. None of that makes any sense to me.
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I just hope there are no arbitrarily removed features. I remember having to use Screen Spanning Doctor on my Ibook G4(Late 2004) just to watch Battlestar, while pretending to do useful things.
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Apple sells a MacBook Air for $649 at Walmart right now. Seriously. it's the old 2020 model with the M1, but it's still being produced specifically so Apple can sell it at Walmart. They just don't sell it through their own channels anymore.
It's entirely possible they just want to end production on the M1, and perhaps start selling a model at that price point in Apple Stores, so they're going to make a bit of a fuss about adding colors while swapping out the processor and everyone will go "wow so cheap!" It might even be worth redesigning the case to make it just a bit smaller to save on aluminum costs, since the M1's case is comically oversized for the motherboard. But I wouldn't expect any different components otherwise.
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120Hz HDR OLED screens, four cameras, a cellular modem + GPS + satellite + antennas, NFC, and extremely tight construction tolerances to fit all that in a small frame.
Chip aside, it is much cheaper to make a mid-range laptop than a top-end phone.
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To me, it seems that nowadays latptops are much less complicated than a phone. Especially considering the cheaper display tech, the drastic reduction in sensors, cheaper glass and larger build size that you are afforded on a laptop. A phone has to do all of that, plus cellular, crazy sensor etc.
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The pro iPhones compared to this theoretical MacBook have three extra cameras, Face ID, 5G and an OLED ProMotion screen. Not to mention the position at the pinnacle of iPhone pricing.
It’s not exactly breaking news that the ‘best’ of ‘good, better, best’ product ranges have a price premium attached to them.
Edit: pipped to the post.
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?
Storage is limited without additional subscriptions, but Apple does provide free email and cloud-capable office apps. For good reasons, they are not as widely used as Microsoft or Google offerings, but they do exist.
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So, essentially this would be the spiritual successor to the 12” Macbook from 2015, at a reasonable price (and hopefully a better keyboard)?
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Maybe they’re hitting a limit as to who’s buying new devices? I upgraded my 8GB M1 Air and Mini to the base) 16GB M4 versions and for my workload, I can’t see that I’ll need to upgrade these now until they go end of life.
So the way to go from there is to target people like my parents (who could afford brand new Apple devices, but won’t spend that much money, so they’re running on my second hand stuff).
When the M1 Air does stop being good enough, having a £500 option with an A-series chip would be fine for running a few Safari tabs and doing the occasional FaceTime call.
Plus with the way Windows 11 is at the moment, my parents won’t even touch it. So there’s another potential customer base there…
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As someone who loved the 12-inch MacBook I would love to see something return to that form factor.
I don't do anything personal on my work MacBook Pro, simply because there have been a few episodes here where individuals personal data has been swept up in eDiscovery. Since my 12-inch MacBook died I have usually been using a Surface laptop in this role but I would love to get back into the 12-inch MacBook form factor without the guaranteed to fail CPUs, SSDs and Wi-Fi cards.
I don't do anything personal on my work MacBook Pro, simply because there have been a few episodes here where individuals personal data has been swept up in eDiscovery. Since my 12-inch MacBook died I have usually been using a Surface laptop in this role but I would love to get back into the 12-inch MacBook form factor without the guaranteed to fail CPUs, SSDs and Wi-Fi cards.
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I would love that.
There were some MacBook Pro prototypes with 3G that escaped into the wild, I think the story was AT&T failed to return them to Apple and they wound up at a recycler instead and from there eBay and Craigslist.
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In this modern age it will be pretty good. Providing if they make it an App store only walled garden model. Kind of like Windows RT Surfaces. But Apple has way better means of pulling it off.
If they're looking to dive into non-US markets and need a really cheap device with a keyboard. This would be a route to take.
If they're looking to dive into non-US markets and need a really cheap device with a keyboard. This would be a route to take.
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The A18 uses TSMC N3 process, the M2 used N5P, it would probably be cheaper to do a stripped down M2 than it would to use limited N3 wafers.
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For normal use, what wouldn't it be good at? It's roughly equivalent to a 12th-gen Core i7, which is still a perfectly fine laptop chip. On Geekbench 6, an A18 is 50% faster than an Apple M1 on single core, and equal on multicore.
Given that a M1 Air is still a perfectly capable machine, providing a still-excellent user experience (even with only 8 GB RAM), why would you expect it to be any less so?
Given that a M1 Air is still a perfectly capable machine, providing a still-excellent user experience (even with only 8 GB RAM), why would you expect it to be any less so?
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I don't get the A18 Pro for this either, seems like an M2 would be about the same cost and far more capable for laptop use. But the potential huge gain is for an ultra portable similar to the 12" MacBook. In fact, I would pay a premium for such a laptop. I'm still running my 12" happily and would love a optional replacement. I briefly tried the MBA M1 and returned it. The extra 7/10 of a pound completely changed my use habits and I hated it. Besides the ease of use of my 12" at home, the small and light form factor also allowed me to carry it on a very lightly loaded bicycle for 6 months and 5,000 miles in New Zealand a year ago.
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I'm assuming this will be priced at $999 so that the rest of the line can increase in price. Thanks donald for making everything produced overseas more expensive.
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I could see this, with 8gb ram, and no Apple AI, being an EDU only SKU.
Apple used to have those a million years ago.
Apple used to have those a million years ago.
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The thing I'm not looking forward to with this possibility is that it eases pressure for Apple to keep the Air priced attractively where it is, especially considering its current placement as the go-to for students and general purpose daily drivers.
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Seems to me this chip could be used for Apple to start a new line, called the Apple CloudBook, that competes directly with ChromeBooks and integrates directly with iCloud services, providing a minimal locked down MDM environment that pushes people to mostly use their webapps. Could be used for fleet devices and the educational sector, with cheaper plastic housings and low-end LCDs. It would still be based on macOS, and would run some basic apps (and could have other task-based apps pushed via MDM), but would have minimal local storage, mostly earmarked for the OS and cache.
If they could get the price down low enough (not sure if they could), that could be a really good entry level Mac to not only get people into the ecosystem, but also in the habit of using Apple's hardware in a SaaS/cloud-first way (which I'll never do, having had Macs before SaaS and "The Cloud" had been invented as different than mainframe computing).
This would also play well with tariffs.
If they could get the price down low enough (not sure if they could), that could be a really good entry level Mac to not only get people into the ecosystem, but also in the habit of using Apple's hardware in a SaaS/cloud-first way (which I'll never do, having had Macs before SaaS and "The Cloud" had been invented as different than mainframe computing).
This would also play well with tariffs.
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internet2000
Ars Centurion
I'd love a new 12" MacBook for my walking around to meetings / airport machine. I have an 16" M2 Pro MacBook Pro that's has enough computing power to last me a decade, so this one would be purely a portability play.
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I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the article, and I could be biased based on my background, but the elephant in the room is Chromebooks in Education. Specifically K12, which use to be a crucial market for Apple, but is now absolutely dominated by ChromeOS. Due to cost per device as well as ease of management. Although I am aware macOS does support MDM fine, I use it every day.
The actual technology involved in building this hypothetical Mac Chromebook equivalent would be incredibly easy for Apple. The million dollar question is whether Apple wants to try and re-enter that space with the Mac, or keep things as they are; Push MacBook Airs to college students and K12 teachers, try to win as many 1:1 iPad schools as possible, but leave the remainder of K12 students to Google and ChromeOS.
With this strategy Apple is obviously hoping kids see Chromebooks as something little kids use, and you "graduate" to a "real computer" when you go to college, but there is a big risk that if kids get use to ChromeOS in K12, they will continue to be fine with it and the wider Google ecosystem in college/work/home.
On the other hand if Apple does release a low cost MacBook they risk cannibalizing iPad and/or MacBook Air sales, and dragging their overall margins down.
It's definitely a delicate tight-rope to walk.
Edit: Partially ninjaed by GaitherBill and adespoton.
The actual technology involved in building this hypothetical Mac Chromebook equivalent would be incredibly easy for Apple. The million dollar question is whether Apple wants to try and re-enter that space with the Mac, or keep things as they are; Push MacBook Airs to college students and K12 teachers, try to win as many 1:1 iPad schools as possible, but leave the remainder of K12 students to Google and ChromeOS.
With this strategy Apple is obviously hoping kids see Chromebooks as something little kids use, and you "graduate" to a "real computer" when you go to college, but there is a big risk that if kids get use to ChromeOS in K12, they will continue to be fine with it and the wider Google ecosystem in college/work/home.
On the other hand if Apple does release a low cost MacBook they risk cannibalizing iPad and/or MacBook Air sales, and dragging their overall margins down.
It's definitely a delicate tight-rope to walk.
Edit: Partially ninjaed by GaitherBill and adespoton.
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The A18 Pro has a lot going for it compared to the M1. Similar multithread and graphics.. but much better single thread, neural engine, video acceleration, ray tracing. Plus cheaper to produce and consumes less power.
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I bought an edu Macbook Air 13 when my Pro 17 died (gpu) on a trip. Used it for a long time as a browser device. 13" screen with 11" guts.
And only last fall switched from an i5 MBA 13 to the M3 MBA 15.
But it will need 16GB to have a long life. And since memory is so absitiveky cheap, ...
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