How cheap will Apple’s cheap MacBook actually be?

It’s not long now. Based on Apple’s upcoming “Global Experience” on March 4th, dwindling M1 MacBook Air supplies, and near-universal consensus among pundits and leakers alike, the much-anticipated low-cost MacBook will be with us in the next seven days. But we still don’t know the answer to the key question.

How cheap are we talking about?

Because here’s the thing: In general, Apple doesn’t do things on the cheap. It prefers to focus on the premium end of the market where margins are higher and it can get more mileage out of its luxury brand. Conversely, dabbling in the budget market risks tarnishing the brand: if everyone can afford an iPhone, owning an iPhone will cease to be a status symbol.

From the iPhone 5c and Apple Watch SE to the AirPods 4 and the Mac mini, fans have often been excited about the impending launch of a “cheap” Apple product, only to be disappointed when it turns out to sit roughly on the border between budget and solidly affordable mid-market. They are (mostly) good products that perfectly deliver value for money. But that’s not quite the same as being out and about cheap.

Despite the rising cost of living in the US and several major international markets, Apple seems less inclined than ever to cater to buyers on a tight budget. This time last year, it released the iPhone 16e, which was certainly more affordable than its siblings, but cost $170 more than the iPhone SE it nominally replaced. The new “e” phone felt like a signal that Apple no longer wanted to participate (or pretend to participate) in the budget smartphone market. And the iPhone 17e, which we also expect to launch in a matter of days, is unlikely to change this decision.

So what would be a reasonable asking price for a MacBook with an iPhone A19 chip? For comparison purposes, let’s look at the rest of Apple’s current lineup. At the top, the MacBook Pro starts at $1,599 for the 14-inch model with the M5 chip, while the MacBook Air starts at $999 for the 13-inch model with the M4 chip. Even if the budget MacBook has the same 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM as these models (which is not guaranteed), it will cost less than both, so we can start subtracting from the thousands.

At the other end, the most interesting comparator is the M1 MacBook Air. Apple once sold the machine for $999 long after its debut, and Walmart continued to sell it until recently. In 2024, Walmart sold the M1 Air for $699, but the price dropped over the months to $599, $549, and finally $499 on Cyber ​​Monday last year, so that’s our word.

Now that we’ve established that cheap is between $499 and $999, let’s take a deeper look. The affordable MacBook will be aimed at customers who need to do light work on the go, and that’s getting into iPad territory. The basic and mini versions of the iPad don’t quite fit this target audience, but the iPad Air is about right. It starts at $599. Throw in the Magic Keyboard and we’re up to $868. I would expect our MacBook’s price tag to sit somewhere between those two numbers, hopefully closer to the lower end.

And that’s more or less where the scholars ended. Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg, says the budget MacBook will cost “well under $1,000.” Others have more ambitiously argued that it could start as low as $599 to compete in the popular Chromebook market, and perhaps Apple can pull it off by making major compromises in specs and feature set. But I’d be surprised, given how recently Apple fans were expected to part with the same amount for a five-year-old MacBook Air. Based on our experience moving from the iPhone SE 3 to the iPhone S16e, I would expect the A19 Pro MacBook to stand somewhere between $699 and $799with $50 or $100 off for education buyers.

Of course, there are plenty of customers who would be happy if Apple went lower. Our colleagues at PCWorld have a full article recommending laptops under $500, and that includes one selection under $300 and another under $200. If Apple really wanted to crack the ultra-budget Chromebook market, it would be targeting numbers like these. But it won’t. And the sooner we accept it, the better.

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