Apple is set to disrupt the budget laptop market next week with the launch of its first low-cost MacBook, featuring a 12.9” display and powerful A18/A19 Pro chips, priced between R13,000 to R15,000, potentially filling the gap left by the discontinued M4 Air. Picture: Michael Sherman/IOL
Image: Michael Sherman/IOL
The budget laptop, specifically devices running Windows, market is set to be taken by storm next week with Apple’s first-ever low-cost MacBook.
While the MacBook did exist at times in different forms before it was discontinued in 2019, it was never sold at such a low price.
The speculation is that the new MacBook will cost between 500 and 700 US dollars, which works out R7,953 and R11,134. With import costs to South Africa, this could mean a device going from R13,000 to R15,000.
The current cheapest new MacBook is the M4 Air, which retails at R18,500. There’s also the 2020 M1 MacBook Air, which is listed as R12,999 on iStore.co.za.
However, there is currently no stock, which means it’s probably about to be discontinued.
That would leave a gap in their product line for the new MacBook.
According to what YouTuber MaxTech told his 1.25m subscribers, the laptop will come with a 12.9” display, which is only slightly smaller than the 13.6” of the M4 Air.
The new MacBook would be a reintroduction of the model launched in 2015. Back then, the laptop featured a 12” screen, the awful butterfly keyboard, and a severely underpowered Intel processor.
The design was way ahead of its time, and the hardware could not keep up as it was prone to overheating and would freeze if you tried to do basically anything on the device.
Now, it’s a different story as the processor that would be used for a new MacBook would either be an A18 Pro or, less likely, an A19 Pro chip, which are the same ones used in the iPhone 16 Pro and new iPhone 17 Pro models.
The processing power of these chips is roughly the equivalent of the 2020 M1 MacBook Air. The M1 Air was the first MacBook to use the new Apple silicon chip after the company moved away from the underpowered and battery-sapping Intel processors.
Between Monday and Wednesday next week, a host of new devices are expected to be announced by Apple - but the MacBook is the only ‘new’ product rumoured.
The other devices expected are the M5 14” and 16” MacBook Pros, iPad 12th gen and iPad Airs. None of these are expected to feature any design changes, only spec bumps.