The first-ever entry-level MacBook could soon hit the market with a low price that could attract a huge new audience to macOS laptops.
Could a cheaper MacBook be in your future? Here’s what the rumors reveal about its specs.
Cheap MacBook: With Windows and a Chromebook
Apple computers fare as well as or better than virtually all of their Windows rivals in the annual US Customer Satisfaction Index, but they don’t come cheap. And that limits their appeal.
The average selling price of a laptop is around $600, and the ones that consumers buy can be quite a bit less. In contrast, the most affordable macOS laptop is the $999 MacBook Air.
That’s why there’s so much excitement about the entry-level MacBook news. There’s no definitive word on the exact price, just “under $1,000.” It is speculated to be around $599 – which is about the average selling price of laptops. (The Mac mini sells for the same amount.)
In the $600 to $800 price range, Apple’s laptop could appeal to first-time buyers, students, and users who might otherwise consider a Chromebook or a budget Windows laptop.
Lower price is not lower quality
Even if the entry-level MacBook comes in at $599, it will face stiff competition. There are many laptops on the market priced at $500 or less. However, many of them are, in technical jargon, cheap crap. A budget MacBook will not.
Most notably, it will reportedly have an aluminum chassis, not plastic, according to BloombergMark Gurman in Sunday’s edition of his Turn on bulletin.
And it could be quite colorful. That’s not surprising considering that Apple’s current consumer-focused MacBook Air comes in a range of pastel colors.
As Gurman also said on Sunday, “Over the past year, Apple has been testing options like light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver, and dark gray — though it’s unlikely they’ll all come.”
The basic MacBook will have basic specifications
Concept: Google Gemini
While the rumored budget MacBook, reportedly codenamed J700, won’t be made cheaply, Apple still needs to scale back the specs to lower the product’s price.
According to Gurman, it will reportedly have a smaller display than Apple’s current laptops and will measure “just under 13 inches”.
And it will reportedly run on an Apple A-series processor, not an M-series processor. The most likely candidate is the A19 Pro, the same chip used in the iPhone 17 Pro models.
It’s no slouch and features a 6-core CPU (2 powerful and 4 efficient cores) and a 6-core GPU. In the iPhone, the chip scored a multi-core score of 9,831 on Geekbench 6. By comparison, the Intel N100, a chip commonly used in entry-level Windows notebooks, only scored 3,129 on the same test. But the MacBook Air 2025 has a score of 14,724.
Still, the A-series chip-powered MacBook will be fast enough for the low-cost MacBook to “browse the web, work on documents or edit light media,” according to Bloomberg, just what consumers need for home use.
It should even be able to handle Xcode – Apple’s tool for building iPhone and Mac apps – but only within strict limits. A computer can be good for learning coding and building small applications. Serious development really requires a loaded MacBook Pro. Even the base MacBook Air isn’t enough.
Cheap MacBook release date
The “Special Apple Experience” is scheduled for March 4, 2026 in New York, with simultaneous meetings in London and Shanghai. While the company hasn’t announced specific products, the timing is fueling speculation that this budget MacBook could be one of the main ones.
The Apple logo in the event invitation is yellow, green and blue, which may hint at the colors of the cover of the new macOS notebook.
But even if the computer is a no-show at that time, it’s still expected sometime in the first half of 2026.
Ed Hardy He has been writing about the technique full-time for 25 years and has been using it for much longer. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but he now uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. It is written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthandas well as other sites.