Return of the MacBook?
Benjamin Mayo
For a few years now, it has been strange that there's a 'MacBook Pro' and 'MacBook Air' but no actual 'MacBook'. I mean, sure, the 'Air' is effectively the MacBook these days, but ever since the last true MacBook was put out to pasture six years ago, it's been a weird branding quirk. And it may be about to change:
Apple’s current entry-level laptop is the $999 MacBook Air, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple is aiming to launch an even more affordable model soon.
He writes on X that Apple will go into production in late 2025 or early 2026 on a new MacBook model that will be powered by the A18 Pro chip, rather than an M-series processor. This is the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro line. The machine may feature colorful casing options, including silver, pink and yellow.
Kuo's track-record is mixed on many of his Apple predictions, but that's usually when he tries to pontificate outside of his tried-and-true supply chain sources (he's particularly bad at trying to guess the dates in which things will be released). But if you read his actual post, the above information is clearly tied to a check in with Everwin Precision, which is a Shenzen-based company "that mainly engages in the development, design, production and sales of electronic components," per Reuters. Per Kuo, they're apparently working on both these new would-be MacBooks and the "Smart Glasses" that Apple is rushing towards releasing. So that's promising.
It's less clear how reliable Kuo's information would be about what is powering such machines. But it seems reasonable enough to think that Apple could use the 'A' series chips found in iPhones, as Mayo points out, they're certainly powerful enough, with similar performance to their 'M' series cousins which have been used in MacBooks since they switched to Apple Silicon (the iPad switches between the two series, with the 'Pro' models now getting the 'M' chips).
One big benefit of using the 'A' series chips: Apple produces them at a much higher quantity thanks to the iPhone (and to a lesser extent, the lower-end iPads). So presumably they carry a lower cost and as such, could lead to price savings for an actual MacBook device. But would it be better than, say, using the last generation of the 'M' series chip? Hard to say...
Kuo believes the new product line would ship 5 to 7 million units in 2026, but he's often wrong on such projections as well. If it really is a significantly cheaper MacBook – say $799 – it could be a huge hit for students, one imagines. Especially if Apple is finally looking to bring some fun back into the line up again with colors, as Kuo suggests:
Expected to enter mass production in late 4Q25 or early 1Q26, with an approximately 13-inch display and powered by the A18 Pro processor. Potential casing colors include silver, blue, pink, and yellow
Silver and blue, of course, are already a part of the Air lineup. Pink and yellow would be sort of strange choices – are we sure he's not just thinking about (or hearing about) rose gold and gold? Again, these have already exists before in the MacBook Air lineup so it's hard to say... Presumably if Apple was going to do colors for the MacBook lineup, they would match what they do for the iMac?
I'm more intrigued by the "approximately 13-inch display" – could this mean a return to the 12-inch form factor of the last MacBook? Myself and others loved that footprint, despite the bad "butterfly" keyboard, and pretty terrible battery life. The keyboards have been fixed and Apple Silicon fixes any battery life concerns so... might it be time for another go with the MacBook?
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler