All the low-cost 2026 MacBook has to do is avoid these five pitfalls

It seems that every other day we get a new story or video about Apple’s rumored upcoming products for Q1 and Q2 2026, most of them revolving around the new entry-level iPhone, the fastest new MacBook Pro laptops, the most powerful Mac Mini and Mac Studio desktops, even the long-overdue refresh to the Apple TV 4K. There’s one rumored Mac product, though, that could potentially sell more than any other Mac this year and beyond: a true game-changer not just in Apple terms, but also in terms of the personal computing market as a whole. A product that, frankly, is not currently getting nearly as many headlines as it should.

Yours truly is obviously talking about the entry-level MacBook or “MacBook SE” or “MacBook Mini” or “just MacBook” as different media outlets have referred to in the past. This is the long-rumored Apple laptop designed to occupy the low-end of the company’s line-up, serving as a true alternative to cheap Windows laptops in the consumer market and Chromebooks in the education sector. For that to happen, it will have to be more affordable than any other MacBook in history – and current speculation about its pricing is fluctuating between $599 and $799, depending on how aggressive Apple wants to be right out of the gate.

The thing is, though, that Apple loves its profit margins… so how does it plan to introduce a MacBook that can be had brand-new for less than $800? By cutting corners, obviously, but which corners those will be is going to make all the difference between an excellent user experience and a substandard one. Apple would not want to associate the MacBook brand with a bad product, so it will have to make some careful decisions in order to offer an affordable laptop that does not suffer from any obvious drawbacks.

Since yours truly will be getting this laptop himself as a secondary machine – as well as an easy way to start moving away from Windows – he did a bit of thinking about what he would definitely not like to see on this new, entry-level MacBook. Keeping in mind that we just can’t have everything for $800 or less, these are five potential weaknesses that would hurt the chances of such an Apple laptop becoming the market-disrupting product it clearly can be. Let’s break everything down.

The MacBook SE should come with 256GB of storage – and a 512GB option too

It sounds absurd to even discuss whether a new laptop would come with at least 256GB of storage or not in early 2026, but this entry-level MacBook is going to rely on an Apple mobile chip – either the A18 Pro or the A19 Pro, most probably the former – and the base storage of the iPhone 16 Pro was a mere 128GB.

Apple should not make the mistake of compromising here, as the latest macOS needs more than 35GB of storage space all on its own and macOS apps generally need more space than iOS ones. Ideally, for people who plan to keep this laptop for a long time, Apple should offer a 512GB option even if this particular MacBook is not intended for demanding or professionally creative use.

The MacBook SE absolutely needs to have 16GB of RAM

The A18 pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro was paired with 8GB of system memory and that was perfectly fine for iOS – but, for macOS, consumers’ expectations call for 16GB of RAM for a number of different reasons. These vary from OS futureproofing and proper multitasking to Apple Intelligence compatibility and SSD longevity.

Apple would have to make changes to the A18 Pro or the A19 Pro system-on-a-chip in order to pair it with 16GB, but this is absolutely necessary if this MacBook is to be used comfortably for years to come.

The MacBook SE deserves to have a good enough screen

This is where some corners will surely be cut, but it’s important they don’t end up being too many. The entry-level MacBook will come with a screen of under 13 inches in diagonal, based on an LCD panel “of standard quality” compared to the one used by e.g. the MacBook Air. Apple will still want it to be a Retina display, though, plus – since it will be an ultraportable computer – this MacBook will be extensively used outdoors as well, so its screen cannot be too dim (offering e.g. less than 350 nits of brightness) lest it would be unusable.

It will definitely be a 60Hz screen, yes, and one can’t realistically expect it to properly display HDR content, but it needs to be a decent one for everyday computing. A mainstream iPad-like screen would probably suffice.

The MacBook SE needs to come with a laptop-class battery

Since this particular laptop will be built around a smartphone chip – one that can perform on par with Apple’s M1 or even M2 chip, mind you – it’s easy to assume that it will offer truly epic battery life compared to devices based on laptop chips, since its power requirements are much lower by design.

But that will only be true if this affordable MacBook sports the kind of battery found on laptops. See, Apple could always use a smaller battery instead in order to save money, space and weight (while still allowing this model to work well for 12-14 hours on a single charge). There’s a unique opportunity for a true all-day battery life macOS-based laptop here and Apple should definitely make the most of it.

The MacBook SE should offer at least one data-only USB-C port

This one is a concern for two quite different reasons: (a) it’s not clear whether the A18 Pro or the A19 Pro are actually able to support two USB-C ports, even with a modified system-on-a-chip and (b) it would be an obvious corner to cut on Apple’s part. One of the reasons, though, why the iconic 12-inch MacBook of 2015 ultimately proved to be a good purchase for specific use cases only was the single USB-C port it offered.

One can imagine how limiting that would seem nowadays: a new MacBook one can’t attach anything to it while it’s charging is almost unthinkable in 2026 terms. That is why this device should either offer a Magsafe port and a data-only USB-C port or two USB-C ports, one for charging and one for data.

An extremely promising product… if carefully balanced between features and cost

Different people care about certain aspects of tech products more than they do about others, so it’s often tricky to find a baseline the vast majority of consumers is happy with. But yours truly is willing to bet that, in the case of this new affordable MacBook, most people interested in one would be OK with the absence e.g. of a biometric security feature or a headphone jack or the latest Wi-Fi connectivity. They’d be able to live with a webcam of mediocre quality or just passable speakers. Over time, though, they’d be annoyed by e.g. an 8GB/128GB machine that’s incapable of keeping up with their need to do more with it, one that’s almost unusable outdoors or one that should be charged before anything is connected to it.

That is why Apple, in the case of this particular laptop, needs to nail the balance between an attractive price tag and the features offered for that cost. There’s no point in finally making a MacBook most people can buy… only to disappoint them later on, when they find out that too many corners have been cut to make it this affordable.

Yes, the MacBook SE will look nice. Yes, it will sport enough processing power to handle basically all everyday, mainstream computing tasks imaginable. Yes, it will most probably offer killer battery life. Yes, it will initially sell like hot cakes based on unusually low pricing, hype and novelty alone. But if it’s not a good product, it’s just not going to achieve its full potential long-term. Tech publications will recommend avoiding it and picking older MacBook Air models instead… and that would be it.

If Apple goes all in when it comes to aggressive pricing – offering a $599 MacBook of decent quality – that would open the doors of macOS to a much, much wider audience (which would probably upgrade to better MacBooks in the future) bringing some much-needed competition in the entry-level laptop space in the process. In fact, even at $799 this MacBook would be the most affordable way to enter the Apple ecosystem: yes, the baseline Mac Mini goes for less than $499 these days but, by the time anyone adds a decent monitor, mouse and keyboard to it, he/she arrives at pretty much the same $799 price point.

A self-contained, portable Mac like this one would be preferable in the eyes of countless consumers out there looking for a simple but capable personal computer. But, in order to succeed – regardless of how low Apple is willing to go in terms of pricing, even – this affordable MacBook needs to be a usable, well-rounded machine first and foremost. No corner cutting where it matters. No compromises that affect the overall user experience. No spec upselling that renders the point of making an affordable laptop moot. If Apple can actually do that, it will have a “tech product of the year” contender in its hands. We will find out soon enough, no?