Apple isn’t exactly known for undercutting its rivals with affordable price tags, so it’s unusual to hear that the premium brand is on the verge of launching an affordable MacBook – or so the rumors claim.
That growing speculation, which comes from reputable sources including Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo, suggests that a cheaper MacBook could arrive as soon as March 4 in a variety of bright colors.
On paper, that means it could be a great option for people considering getting an iPad Air. And in my view, it’ll likely be a much better choice for a lot of people.
A tempting iPad alternative
For years, customers looking for an affordable MacBook have been told to get an iPad and pair it up with a keyboard case. That brings both protection and a laptop-like experience without the high cost of one of Apple’s laptops.
But I’ve never been wholly convinced by this argument. Sure, combining an iPad with a keyboard case is cheaper than a shelling out on a MacBook, but in my view the experience isn’t anywhere near as good.
For one thing, iPadOS doesn’t feel as powerful as macOS – it’s designed for touch controls rather than a mouse and keyboard (despite some recent improvements), and many of the best Mac apps and Mac games are not compatible with iPadOS.
Keyboard cases also aren’t as satisfying to type on as a mechanical keyboard made for the Mac – and while you could pair one of these up with an iPad, doing so compromises its portability. If you’re a Mac fan looking to get the same typing feel on an iPad, you’ve got to make some sacrifices.
That’s where the rumored cheaper MacBook, which will apparently be powered by an A18 Pro iPhone chip, could neatly fill a gap.
It’ll apparently be available in an array of “playful colors,” with Apple testing “light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver and dark gray” over the past year. That makes it reminiscent of the iPhone 5c, which was a cheaper iPhone that came with several bright color options.
But unlike the iPhone 5c, the affordable MacBook will feature an aluminum chassis, meaning it’ll dodge the route taken by some budget laptops that are kitted out in flimsy plastic. Gurman says that Apple won’t be “cutting corners” when it comes to the device’s build quality, and that makes sense given Apple’s tendencies.
It’s also an important decision, as this low-cost MacBook will be many people’s initial experience of the Apple ecosystem. Clearly, Apple doesn’t want to give them a bad first impression.
By maintaining the quality, Apple also gives iPad users another reason to consider switching to the Mac. The use of aluminum ensures there’s no loss of quality by stepping up from, say, a $599 iPad Air to a MacBook that’s expected to cost around $700. If the new MacBook was made of plastic, that would be instantly off-putting for any existing iPad user.
Which should you pick?
That’s what we expect on a surface level, but how might the low-cost MacBook compare to the iPad Air’s performance? After all, a MacBook that feels great in the hand isn’t worth much if it can’t compete with a cheaper iPad Air.
One of the key questions is the chip housed inside the MacBook. This is widely touted to be Apple’s A18 Pro that originally launched in the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024. The current iPad Air, meanwhile, uses the M3 from 2023.
Despite the former being a mobile chip and the latter being designed for Macs, the two chips actually offer fairly similar performance according to benchmarks, with the A18 Pro pulling slightly ahead in single-core tests and the M3 taking the lead in multi-core performance.
Another area where customers will potentially find similarities is the display. The iPad Air can be bought in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, while Gurman’s reporting has claimed Apple will offer the MacBook with a display that’s a little smaller than the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch screen. Gurman says the MacBook’s display will be a “lower-end LCD display,” and while we don’t know exactly how that compares to the iPad Air, that tablet also uses LCD tech (as opposed to OLED or mini-LED).
Given the larger internal space in a laptop compared to a tablet, though, one key difference we can expect is with the battery. The current iPad Air will last up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback, according to Apple. The 13-inch MacBook Air, meanwhile, goes strong for up to 18 hours, with the slightly larger 14-inch MacBook Pro lasting for up to 24 hours. If battery life is important to you, the upcoming MacBook is likely to be a better bet than the iPad Air.
That said, the iPad’s flexibility is undoubtedly something the MacBook won’t be able to match. You can use the iPad Air as a tablet or as a laptop-style device when paired with a keyboard, and it packs in touchscreen tech that will be absent in the MacBook. It’s also much more compact and lightweight and can more easily fit into a backpack on your travels.
That all suggests that picking between the forthcoming MacBook and one of Apple’s tablets isn’t going to be a straightforward affair. But if you’re thinking of buying a mid-range iPad, it does mean it’s worth waiting until early March to find out.
A return to the Steve Jobs way
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs often said that he wanted to make good-quality tech products affordable, and many of the products he developed can be seen to have achieved that.
The original iPad, for example, was priced far lower than most analysts expected, despite its trailblazing features. The iMac G3, too, launched at close to half the price of comparable computers and helped to revolutionize the entire PC industry.
As Jobs himself put it, “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much … It was the original vision for Apple.”
In that sense, we shouldn’t be too surprised to see an affordable MacBook make an appearance in Apple’s product roster. Making great tech at an approachable price has a strong history at Apple, even if it’s been hard to spot in recent years.
And if you’ve been looking to pick up a new iPad, it might just give you more food for thought.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
