Apple's Rumored $699 MacBook is Now Here!

The $600 MacBook is finally here, and it's not what we expected. Last year we had a few rumors that Apple is going to make a weird, big change for them and start to sell more affordable laptops in 2024. I was super excited because for many years I would recommend Macs to my friends, family, and to you guys, but not everybody could drop $1,000 to $3,000 on a laptop, even if it would last much longer than a budget Windows computer and have way better resale value when it was time to upgrade. Apple has always been more of a luxury brand, and even though the value was always there if you cared about quality, well-rounded items, they knew how to make that money. They also innovated and pushed the limits. It is 2,880 pixels by 1,800. That's four times the number of pixels in the previous generation. When they would make something really good, like the Retina MacBooks, the price matched or sometimes exceeded what you got, and keep in mind that this starting price was from 12 years ago. I also still remember this iconic moment. Let me take it out here. This is the new MacBook Air, and you can get a feel for how thin it is. The original MacBook Air was insanely cool, fitting in that thin envelope, and it sparked a revolution in thin and light laptops, but almost no one could spend that much money on a laptop that had crazy expensive SSD storage prices and really limited ports. And it only got popular after Apple updated it and dropped the price down, but then it became one of the most popular laptops in history. And then, they kinda tried it again, but this time, it didn't work out as well. The 12-inch Retina MacBook was also super cool. I loved owning one, at least at first, and it brought so much of what we love about the current MacBooks to the market, like stacked batteries, high-quality small displays, the magnetic trackpad that is still the best trackpad tech available almost 10 years later, but the price was dumb, along with the slow Intel chips, single USB Type-C port, and of course, the cursed butterfly keyboards just to make it slightly thinner. But in the last few years, Apple has really changed, and they're actually listening to what their buyers want, starting with actually deciding to make thicker laptops, which brings many improvements. After 5 long years, Apple finally ditched the USB-C only mindset, and they gave us HDMI and SD card slots in the Pro machines, along with MagSafe in the new Macs, which not only is nice to prevent your Mac from being pulled to the ground, but it frees up USB-C ports for other uses. This would've been perfect in the 12-inch Retina MacBook. Now what is even cooler, in my opinion, is finally giving us an affordable large-screen MacBook. For as long as I can remember, if you wanted a big display, you had to buy a 15 or 16-inch MacBook Pro for over $2,000, recently costing $2,500 at the base price, and many people would actually spend that much money just to get a large display when they didn't actually need the performance. I made a few videos wishing for a 15-inch MacBook Air, and they actually delivered, and it's a great machine. Now it wasn't out of the kindness of their corporate hearts, they were forced to do it because of declining sales in this inflationary time. And the same thing goes for this $699 MacBook. When those leaks came out, I dreamed of a new 12-inch Retina MacBook, and I still kind of do. Screen-wise, it is too small for some, but it would fit their budget, especially when you're forced to spend more money for a larger display. Now that we have Apple Silicon, performance would not be a problem because underclocked M.2 chips perform impressively well while sipping power, and they stay super cool as I showed off in my low power mode videos. And of course, with just one port, they could even use an iPhone chip if they wanted to, and it would still allow for one external display. And with MagSafe charging, that single port would not be used up by charging your laptop, and the keyboard could be a little bit thicker with a little more travel while keeping the Mac at an unbelievable 2 pounds because of the better battery efficiency now. Man, that would be sick, but to be honest, I think it would be too good and it would start to do too well as far as sales, and so Apple had a different plan to make more money. With the recent launch of the M3 MacBook Airs, the M2 MacBook Airs, which just last year finally got a price drop to a more reasonable $1,099, was now suddenly less than $1,000, and the M1 Air was stuck at the popular price of $999, was no longer available, but that only lasted a few days. Based on what we know, Apple made a deal with Walmart of all places, who has never sold MacBooks. At first I thought, okay that makes sense, they probably have a bunch of stock that they don't want to sell on their website, and having to show that they sell cheap laptops, but no, because they could have done that with Best Buy and other websites and stores. It's only recently that I found out that Apple didn't actually stop making them, instead they did something that I don't think they have ever done before. Apple is actually continuing to make these laptops, but instead of discounting them and making them harder to find on their website, they are exclusively selling them through Walmart, which is known for their great value products. This is kind of genius. Apple can address the budget conscious market, broadening who they can sell to, while still attempting to maintain their premium branding in regular places that people buy premium tech at, as well as their website and brick and mortar stores. The 2020 M1 MacBook Air is Apple's $699 budget laptop, and if you didn't know, most of the parts in it are actually from 2018, so it's been 6 years now. So why would Apple make something new, and set up new assembly lines, order new displays, etc, when they could just use the things they already have. As new tech comes out, their older tech is easier and cheaper to make, and those parts over time have dropped dramatically in price. The M1 chip is now way cheaper for them to make compared to when it was released, especially as we have new chips like the M3, and licensing costs on things like Thunderbolt 3 is cheap because Thunderbolt 5 is about to come out. So while I would love to see something brand new, I feel like most people are stoked to be able to buy a 13 inch MacBook that still has really good performance. Sure, it doesn't have MagSafe, and the speakers and display are starting to fall behind, and the battery life is no longer shockingly impressive, and it has other limitations, but for the budget crowd that is most likely only going to be using it to browse the web, do emails, and watch YouTube, it doesn't really matter. To be honest, the A14 based M1 chip is still very capable, and you could do more simple photo and video editing as well, and it still destroys the computers that people will be upgrading from. And if something is a serious limitation, like the single display support, the slow neural engine for AI, or something else, Apple has a perfect solution with their newer machines. It's the perfect solution for Apple, and it's also a win-win for the consumer. And for us, we can now more easily help people get into a MacBook, possibly for the first time, and I think it's still going to be a killer seller for Apple. The $699 budget MacBook is here, and it's been in front of our faces for years. We have been raving about it for years now, starting from when it would destroy the Intel-based MacBooks that cost 3-4 times the price, and even when it's replacements started to come out, because the price to performance was just so good. And after all of these years, Apple still can't get rid of it. It's just too dang good, and people still want to buy it, so Apple is still going to let you. Let me know what you guys think about this down in the comment section below. Is this a great value, are you happy about this, or do you wish that the $699 MacBook would be a new model? Go ahead and click that circle above to subscribe and check out one of those great comparisons right over there. This has been Max, and I'll see you in the next video.