Report: Apple is Working on Cheaper MacBook with A18 Pro Chip

Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper MacBook model that would be powered by an A18 Pro chip, the same silicon that powers the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. The news comes from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who expects this new MacBook model to enter mass production in late 2025 or early 2026.

Kuo said that this cheaper MacBook model will come with an approximately 13-inch display, so it would be slightly smaller than the 13.6” MacBook Air. The analyst also expected this new MacBook to be available in multiple colors including silver, blue, pink, and yellow.

This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about Apple possibly bringing back a smaller laptop to its MacBook lineup. Back in 2022, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the company was working on a 12-inch MacBook, with an expected late 2023/early 2024 launch window. That ultimately didn’t happen, but Gurman did accurately predict the release of the 15” MacBook Air in Spring 2023.

You may remember the 12-inch MacBook with a single USB-C port that Apple released back in 2015 before discontinuing it four years later. That model wasn’t exactly cheap as it launched with a $1299 starting price, and it also came with Apple’s terrible Butterfly keyboard. Despite its premium design, this smaller “Retina MacBook” wasn’t really a good value, and its single port was quite inconvenient.

This year, Apple dropped the price of its 13.6” M4 MacBook Air to $999, which is $100 cheaper than the M3 model it replaced. It would be surprising to see Apple release an even cheaper MacBook, though using an A-series chip instead of the more powerful M-series chips may help to decrease the cost.

Apple’s latest entry-level iPad also uses an iPhone chip, the A16, previously seen on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 series, while the iPad Air and iPad Pro continue to use the more powerful M-Series chips seen in MacBooks. A new entry-level MacBook powered by an A-Series chip would be consistent with what Apple is doing with its iPad lineup. However, Apple better not reiterate the mistake of only including a single USB-C port.