Apple MacBook Air with iPhone 16 Pro’s Chip Tipped for 2026—Will It Compete with Low-Cost Windows Laptops?

Apple’s next plan to disrupt the low-end laptop market reportedly focuses on a low-cost MacBook Air model powered by the chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, a credible source for Apple-related leaks, this affordable MacBook Air could arrive as early as next year, helping Apple enter the budget laptop segment dominated by Windows-based machines.

iPhone chip on a MacBook Air

After it broke off from the Intel partnership, Apple has aggressively pushed its M-series silicon across Mac products. With every generation, Apple has upgraded the performance and efficiency of M-series chips, helping the company bolster its position in the ultrabook and high-end laptop markets. That upgrade caused Apple’s entry-level MacBook Air to become costlier, touching the ₹1 lakh mark. Apple’s next move could help reposition the MacBook Air in the more affordable laptop segment, currently dominated by several Windows-based laptops. Companies like HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Dell offer several laptop options that cost around ₹50,000, aimed at students and light users. 

iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro, a powerful and energy-efficient chipset, will help Apple achieve that strategy. The A18 Pro chip is revered for high-end performance, and its use in the next MacBook Air could help Apple continue with the fanless design. It could also provide an all-day battery and better integration with iOS and macOS apps without compromising on the user experience. Apple's latest macOS packs features that make it more compatible with iOS and iPadOS, bridging the gaps between MacBooks, iPhones, and iPads.

Still, the A18 Pro is a mobile chip, so there will be limitations, such as multi-core scaling that Air’s M4- or M3-based counterparts can offer. That is a demarcation Apple wants to create through the A18 Pro-powered MacBook Air’s affordable price. It could cost well under $999, roughly ₹85,000 — a major shift for Apple’s MacBook Air laptops, which have lately become a cheaper alternative to the MacBook Pro.

According to Kuo, the low-cost MacBook Air could still feature a 13-inch screen with minimal changes to the specifications of the latest M4 model. The A18 Pro chip could perhaps be the biggest tweak that Apple could make to bring down the cost of the MacBook Air.

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