What to Expect From Apple's Rumored New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip

Apple proviso concatenation expert Ming-Chi Kuo expects an all-new, more-affordable MacBook model powered by an iPhone spot to motorboat adjacent year.


Below, we recap rumors and different possibilities for this caller MacBook.

Chip

The caller MacBook volition beryllium equipped with the A18 Pro chip, according to Kuo. If so, it would beryllium the archetypal Mac to ever usage an A-series spot from an iPhone.

Introduced successful the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max past year, the A18 Pro spot has a 6-core CPU, a 6-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine.

Unsurprisingly, the A18 Pro spot is astir 40% slower than Apple's latest M4 chip. As noted by Jason Snell connected Six Colors, however, the chip's multi-core CPU show is astir identical to the M1 spot successful the 2020 MacBook Air, and the A18 Pro spot adjacent outperforms the M1 spot for graphics. That matters for pricing — see below.

Pricing

Kuo said the caller MacBook volition beryllium a "more-affordable" model, but helium did not supply an nonstop terms point. The existent 13-inch MacBook Air starts astatine $999 successful the U.S., truthful the caller MacBook would apt person a starting terms of betwixt $699 and $899.

As mentioned above, the A18 Pro chip's show is akin to the M1 spot successful the 2020 MacBook Air, which Apple still sells for $649 done Walmart. Given this MacBook Air exemplary is astir 5 years old, it volition beryllium discontinued astatine immoderate point, and the MacBook with an A18 Pro spot could efficaciously beryllium its replacement sold straight by Apple.

Specs

As noted by Stephen Hackett connected 512 Pixels, the A18 Pro spot lacks Thunderbolt support, truthful the caller MacBook would apt beryllium equipped with regular USB-C ports. They would look the aforesaid arsenic Thunderbolt ports, but information transportation speeds would beryllium constricted to up to 10 Gb/s, and the caller MacBook mightiness natively enactment lone a azygous outer display.

iPhones with the A18 Pro spot person lone 8GB of RAM, whereas each existent MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models commencement with astatine slightest 16GB of RAM.

No different specs person been reported yet, but evidently a lower-priced MacBook volition person different limitations compared to MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.

Design

While this rumor whitethorn substance hopes that Apple is readying to relaunch the discontinued 12-inch MacBook, Kuo said the caller MacBook volition beryllium equipped with an astir 13-inch display, matching the smaller MacBook Air.

Still, the caller MacBook could person a batch successful communal with the aged 12-inch MacBook, including an ultra-thin and lightweight design.

Kuo said imaginable colour options for the caller MacBook see silver, blue, pink, and yellow, truthful the laptop could travel successful agleam and amusive colors, similar the iMac.

Release Date

While helium did not supply an nonstop merchandise date, Kuo expects the more-affordable MacBook to participate wide accumulation towards the extremity of the 4th fourth of 2025, oregon aboriginal successful the archetypal 4th of 2026. He said that shipments of the caller MacBook volition statesman astatine immoderate constituent successful 2026, truthful the laptop should beryllium disposable astatine immoderate constituent adjacent year.

Ever since the Mac lineup transitioned from Intel processors to Apple silicon, it has felt somewhat inevitable that Apple would relaunch its plain "MacBook" model. Arm architecture paves the mode for an iPhone spot to beryllium utilized successful a Mac, and Apple nary longer has to interest astir the powerfulness ratio constraints of Intel processors, allowing for the instrumentality of a ace compact, ultra-thin, and lightweight MacBook for mundane customers.
This article, "What to Expect From Apple's Rumored New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

Discuss this article successful our forums