Best Podcast Episodes About Apple's Upcoming Low-Cost MacBook Faces Compromises Ahead of Launch

“The code leak suggests that the MacBook will not have a true tone display and it also won't have a P3 wide color gamut. That display will also reportedly have a lower max brightness than the MacBook Air's 500 nit display. It will reportedly not support fast charging of any sort. It might not have a backlit keyboard, a notable limitation considering Apple's laptops have had backlit keyboards for so long at this point.”

“The report says that volume shipments for the new low-cost MacBook are expected to begin in March, aligning with a release that month. Supply chain sources estimate that Apple will ship between 15 and 16 million units of the Mac over the first two years. Apple has also battled delays in production of this new MacBook. The report says mass production was first slated to launch in late 2025, but was ultimately pushed to the first quarter of 2026.”

“Like people want it to be $599, it'd be fantastic if it is, but I would be gobsmacked if it's that cheap. Like Apple is a premium brand and yes, they'll make education models that are cheaper. And I think the presence of a lower storage option just for education suggests that it's gonna be like, oh, to get it into the $500 price bracket for education, that's what we need to do.”

“There's never been a time when people need a good deal more, so it would do killer business, especially since the educational discount is usually $100 less. If it's $6.99 and the educational discount is $5.99 for it or something, I could see schools buying a bunch of these instead of Chromebooks. Like, yeah, it costs more than Chromebooks, but it's not a Chromebook. It's like, it's a Mac, you know?”

“Listen, Mac OS does a great job of optimizing or whatever you call it, whatever the word is, compared to like similarly priced or similarly specced Windows machines. Like it's just, Mac OS handles it better. It still needs, a MacBook Pro needs, I'll say at least 24 gigs of RAM to say I'm going to use this thing for the next five years. Yeah. Yeah. For a Pro? Yeah. Yeah.”

“It is going to be quite a different device ultimately, and a lot more comparable to something like an iPad Air in terms of its specifications and actually less powerful than an iPad Air, because of course it's rumored to contain the A18 chip, which is effectively equivalent to an M1. The iPad Air is about to be upgraded to the M4, so a lot less powerful than the MacBook Air, which itself is moving up a lot less powerful than the iPad Air, and a lot less powerful than the MacBook Air, which is about to move up to the M5.”

“I mean, for me, it's the low cost MacBook. Yes, absolutely. Not because I'm the target audience for it or the market for it, but I'm just so curious how, A, I'm curious to know what it looks like. Is it gonna be rivaled to the 12-inch MacBook or kind of like bring that back? How's Apple gonna position it so it doesn't take away MacBook Air sales? There's like so many questions that I have about this MacBook, but I am very excited and very intrigued by it, for sure.”

“The low-cost MacBook referenced is powered by the A18 Pro. It's widely expected to be released next month, featuring a display under 13 inches. It will also reportedly be made from aluminum, and Apple has tested multiple colors, including light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver and dark gray.”

“Inexpensive probably I doubt we're gonna get back to the old design... Maybe a little chunkier in some ways because again, it's supposed to be budget. They're not gonna make it as sleek, but the display obviously will still be retina... the price is the selling point and like you said we are expecting very faint colors on some aluminum here, but it will be a premium like unibody design.”

“They're gonna basically be pushing every single button they can push to say that this is a special experience, that you're not getting a lesser than, you're getting a different MacBook, you're not getting a lesser than MacBook. And the opportunities that they have at this moment, Microsoft has handed Apple a big opportunity in discontinuing Windows 10 and suddenly rendering entire collections of older, perfectly functioning Windows machines, Windows laptops, basically non-tenable.”