The MacBook Air currently starts at $999 a pop. This makes the MacBook Air Apple’s most affordable laptop. This could change as early as next week. Among other devices, a new laptop will be presented then, which should be significantly cheaper. Some observers are expecting it to cost just $699. Of course, this price point means that Apple cannot use the same components as the more expensive siblings. There are new indications of where the iPhone manufacturer could compromise to offer such an attractive price point.
Budget MacBook: Differences with the More Expensive Models
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman already made it clear that Apple does not want to make do without premium materials. The chassis of the new MacBook will continue to be made of aluminum. Hence, it’s mainly about internal differences. This has been confirmed by leaked information from internal software, which was discovered by MacRumors and others on Weibo. All mentioned differences are plausible and unsurprising.
It begins with the display’s cost-saving measures. The maximum brightness is said to be lower than that of the MacBook Air. The latter offers up to 500 nits. True Tone is also touted to be missing. The feature ensures that on-screen colors and intensity are automatically adjusted to the ambient light, thanks to sensors.
Further compromises were discovered in the internal memory. The new MacBook will only be available with 256 or 512 GB storage for normal customers. However, it is conceivable that education customers could also order a version armed with just 128 GB of storage. The built-in SSDs are also said to be slower than the more expensive MacBooks. Apple could possibly only use a single memory chip, which would lower costs but also reduce performance.
Apple has also been using its own N1 chip in its hardware for some time now. This is responsible for the network connections and should offer better performance and reliability for features such as AirDrop and the hotspot. This chip will allegedly not be used in the new MacBook. Instead, the laptop will use a chip from MediaTek. However, it is unclear whether the new MacBook will support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread standards.
Changes to the Keyboard and Charging
Apple also reportedly planned another change in the keyboard. Instead of all other current MacBooks, the cheapest model will not have a backlight. You will have to live without fast charging.
Since 2021, many current Macs also offer a minor yet special feature for headphone connectivity. High-impedance models are automatically recognized. This support for high-impedance headphones is also said to be missing from the low-cost MacBook.
As the affordable laptop will be powered by Apple’s A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro, it was already assumed that it would only have 8 GB of RAM. This chip also means the budget MacBook will only have regular USB-C ports and will miss out on Thunderbolt.
We will hopefully find out how Apple has equipped the new MacBook officially in a few days!
