How might Apple make its MacBook more affordable, and thus more appealing to new customers? By sticking a more affordable chip inside, silly. According to notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, that’s exactly what the Big Fruit Company has planned, with the idea being to include a less powerful A18 Pro chipset inside the device.

For the love of MacBooks

That, if you’re at all familiar with the Apple ecosystem, is the SoC found inside the iPhone 16 Pro. This would make it the first MacBook to be powered by an iPhone chipset, breaking the company’s streak of using its homegrown M-series of chips. The device will apparently also feature a 13in display.

If you needed any more convincing, soon after Kuo’s article went live, MacRumors confirmed that it “first spotted evidence of such a device in backend code related to Apple Intelligence last summer,” also noting the device’s inclusion of the A18 Pro chipset. The machine is supposedly identified as ‘Mac17,1’ in the backend.

“Apple aims to return total MacBook shipments to the COVID-19 peak of around 25 million units in 2026 (vs. an estimated 20 million units in 2025). The more affordable MacBook is projected to account for 5–7 million units for 2026,” Kuo said.

Kuo expects the device to enter mass production in late Q4 2025, or early Q1 2026, which begs the question of why Apple won’t be using the A19 Pro series chipset, which is expected to debut in the iPhone 17 later this year. Regardless, you can expect this more affordable MacBook to turn up in silver, blue, pink, and yellow.

Notice how we called it a “more affordable” MacBook and not an ‘affordable’ MacBook? Yeah. Even with the cuts to Apple’s typical silicon M-series of chips, we’re not expecting it to be cheap. Don’t forget that, even months later, the iPhone 16 Pro still demands a price of R25,000, without accounting for the 13in display Kuo expects here. Sure, by the time the device is ready, it’ll be firmly ‘last-gen’, but we don’t see that stopping Apple. Do you?

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