Leak Lounge | Apple MacBook: Rumored low-cost laptop arriving next week with several possible downgrades

Apple's next product launch cycle is closer than ever, with the company having organized a three-day long "Apple Experience" next week. The vast majority of the products expected are plain product refreshes, but we do have one exciting new product to talk about, which is being brought back from the dead for the second time.

The MacBook, which originally served as Apple's entry-level laptop from 2006 to 2012, was thought to be dead. The lineup was brought back in 2015, but not as an affordable Mac, but rather as 12" premium offering with a price tag matching that of the high-end 13" MacBook Pro.

As we know by now, courtesy of a surfeit of leaks and rumors, the MacBook is being brought back yet again, as a low-cost entry-level Mac with an iPhone A-series processor. Rumors seem to indicate that Apple will opt for the A18 Pro SoC, which should be perfectly admirable for daily tasks.

How powerful will the Apple MacBook be?

Although the SoC's single-core performance keeps up with the best, its multi-core performance only matches that of the 5-year-old Apple M1. That said, the M1 SoC is still pretty competitive in the entry-level space in 2026, which should make the budget MacBook decently pleasing to use for lighter workloads. GPU performance is also likely to be nearly identical to the Apple M1.

However, things somewhat fall apart when we look at the system's rumored memory amount. A paltry 8 GB of RAM may have been enough in 2020, but it most definitely isn't now. Students, particularly, often have to keep multiple tabs open for research and other purposes, which will surely make the system struggle to some extent, if the rumors are true.

Moreover, operating systems are not getting any lighter, making 8 GB of unified memory shared between the CPU and the GPU far from ideal for future proofing purposes. Considering that there is an exactly 0% chance of Apple allowing for upgradeable memory, the entry-level 8 GB variant will be a no-go for many customers right off the bat.

Will the cheap MacBook have a substantially worse display?

The MacBook's 12.9-inch display is likely to be Retina panel, but has also been rumored to feature much lower brightness compared to Apple's "premium" devices. For reference, the MacBook Air sports a 500-nit panel, while the smaller MacBook Pro (currently $1,449 on Amazon) sports up to a whopping 1,000 nits of sustained brightness. Earlier MacBook Air variants did sport 400-nit panels, which is where Apple might go with the low-cost MacBook.

Moreover, the lack of an ambient color temperature kext has made tipsters claim that the MacBook's display will lack True Tone capabilities, which will definitely disappoint folks who liked the feature.

Storage options, colors, and more

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the low-cost MacBook will ship with very limited storage options. Recent tipsters have indicated a maximum of 512 GB, which should be enough for students, but might not be enough for folks with heavier demands.

Further, a 128 GB variant might also be available exclusively for students. It is worth noting that the last time Apple introduced a MacBook with that little storage, was around seven years ago.

The MacBook is expected to arrive with several fun color ways to choose from, with the likely options being light blue, light yellow, pink, classic silver, and dark gray. Interestingly, these color options were once intended to grace the Apple Silicon MacBook Air, but Apple decided against the idea.

Other details, such as thickness, weight, I/O options, are unclear as of this writing. However, leaks have indicated that the system will not sport high-impedance headphone support.

More shockingly, the same source has also claimed that the low-cost MacBook might not sport a backlit keyboard either. If true, it will definitely be a major deal breaker for many people. Considering that Apple has not shipped a MacBook without a backlit keyboard in over 15 years, this does seem quite unlikely.

One aspect where the company is unlikely to make any sacrifices, is build quality - the MacBook will feature an all-aluminum build after all. Apple has reportedly developed new manufacturing processes which speed up production, allowing for lower costs.

How much will the "low-cost" MacBook cost?

Pricing will definitely be the most crucial aspect of the upcoming budget MacBook. After all, the Internet has nicknamed the product "low-cost" MacBook for a good reason - its success will depend on just how low Apple manages to price the product.

Considering the rumored sacrifices, a price higher than $599 might be hard to digest. This is exactly what Apple had intended, but recent reports have indicated that the company may be forced to go with a price as high as $749, owing to skyrocketing component prices. In fact, Apple recently agreed to 100% price hikes for LPDDR5X modules from Samsung, its primary supplier for the same.

Considering we only have a few days left to wait before Apple unveils the long-rumored MacBook, all speculation can be put to rest soon enough. The company is also likely to launch the iPhone 17e, and grant SoC upgrades to the high-end MacBook Pro, iPad, iPad Air, and MacBook Air lineups.