Starting on Monday, we're going to get our first major product announcements of 2026. Apple CEO Tim Cook teased a "big week ahead" with an "Apple Launch" hashtag, plus Apple has media events scheduled in New York, Shanghai, and London on Wednesday, March 4. We're expecting the iPhone 17e, an all-new low-cost MacBook, and minor refreshes to the Mac and iPad lines.
Rumors about the MacBook's design make it sound a lot like the MacBook Air. It will have an aluminum chassis in a range of colors, and a 12.9-inch or 13-inch display, depending on the rumor.
It's possible the low-cost MacBook will have a thin and light design because it's going to use a lower power A-series chip that doesn't require a lot of heat dissipation, but that's not yet confirmed. Apple used to have a 12-inch MacBook with a thin design and a low-power Core M chip, and it's been suggested that this new MacBook could be something of a revival of that machine.
Thinner and lighter typically means more expensive with Apple products, so a super slim design might not be what Apple is optimizing for. Making the low-cost MacBook thinner than the MacBook Air could just confuse the MacBook lineup.
With the low-cost iPad, Apple keeps the price down by using older display technology that's not as thin, so we could see that same strategy with the low-cost MacBook. A thicker chassis and a super efficient chip could mean a long battery life, which would be ideal for an educational environment.
The low-cost MacBook is expected to have lower max display brightness, no True Tone support, no backlit keyboard, slower SSD speeds, and no N1 chip.
The MacBook is going to come in a selection of fun colors, and Apple has tested light yellow, light green, blue, pink, silver, and dark gray, according to Bloomberg. Not all of those colors are likely to ship, but it sounds like we'll get at least four of them.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks the MacBook will come in yellow, silver, blue, and pink, which would be the same colors that Apple offers for the iPad.
The most consistent rumor we've heard about the MacBook is its planned chip. Rather than an M-series Mac chip, Apple is planning to use an A-series chip. The low-cost MacBook is expected to use the A18 Pro chip, which Apple first debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro.
The A18 Pro uses a second-generation 3-nanometer process. It has a 6-core CPU with four performance cores and two efficiency cores, along with a 6-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine for AI-based tasks. In Geekbench benchmarks, the A18 Pro has an average single-core score of 3451, and a multi-core score of 8572. For comparison, the M4 iPad Pro earns a single-core score of 3694 and a multi-core score of 13732 (Apple's next MacBook Air is going to use the M5 chip).
The A18 Pro outperforms the M1, which is the chip that Apple kept around in a lower-cost version of the MacBook Air for several years. An A18 MacBook wouldn't be too far off from the M4 Mac/iPad chips in terms of single-core performance, but there would be a difference in multi-core performance.
A MacBook with the A18 chip would be more than powerful enough for day-to-day use like web browsing, document creation, watching videos, and even light photo and video editing. It won't be ideal for system-intensive games or tasks like 4K video editing and 3D rendering, but it will do almost everything an iPhone or iPad can do.
Apple is developing the low-cost MacBook with students in mind, and it sounds like it will be the Apple equivalent of the affordable Chromebook PCs that are often used by students.
Macs start with 16GB RAM, but the iPhone 16 Pro has 8GB RAM, the minimum for Apple Intelligence. We can expect an A18 Pro MacBook to have at least 8GB RAM so it can support Apple Intelligence, but it's possible Apple will give it the 16GB that all Macs have.
The MacBook Air starts with 256GB of storage, but Apple could possibly launch the low-cost MacBook with 128GB.
The A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro models doesn't support Thunderbolt, so the MacBook will be limited to USB-C (10GB/s) and won't offer Thunderbolt speeds. That will limit display connectivity, so it's likely the A18 Pro MacBook will only support a single external display.
Pricing on the MacBook Air starts at $999, and the low-cost MacBook is expected to be priced much lower.
Apple probably won't want to undercut its iPad pricing by too much. The low-cost iPad with A16 chip starts at $349, and the iPad Air with M2 chip starts at $599. A price between $599 and $799 could make the most sense because it wouldn't be as expensive as the MacBook Air or iPad Pro, but would come in at or just over the iPad Air's cost.
$599 would be on par with some of the highly rated Chromebook options that people often purchase for school use, while a $699 or $799 price would be in the same general pricing area, but a little more of a premium price tag. $599 is also the cost of the iPhone 16e, Apple's most affordable iPhone that uses a slightly less powerful A18 chip.
The iPhone 16e that came out in February 2025 is due for a refresh. The iPhone 17e is getting some useful upgrades over the iPhone 16e that will make it even more worth the purchase price.
The iPhone 17e will look a lot like the iPhone 16e, featuring the same 6.1-inch display size, single-lens rear camera, and black and white color options.
The iPhone 17e is expected to feature the same display panel as the iPhone 16e, which means it will be limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Apple brought 120Hz ProMotion refresh rates to the standard iPhone 17 in 2025, but the same technology is not expected for the more affordable iPhone 17e.
The iPhone 17e will continue to be Apple's only new release iPhone without 120Hz support.
120Hz refresh rates provide video improvements and smoother scrolling when viewing webpages.
The iPhone 16e does not have always-on display technology, and that's not likely to change with the iPhone 17e. To support always-on, the iPhone 17e would need an OLED display with 1-nit minimum brightness, which is limited to Apple's more expensive iPhones. HDR and brightness are also lacking compared to Apple's flagship lineup.
The iPhone 16e uses the notch that Apple has eliminated in its newer flagship iPhones, but the iPhone 17e could eliminate it. Some rumors suggest that the iPhone 17e will have a Dynamic Island instead of a notch, giving it an updated look.
The Dynamic Island is a pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone's display that houses the TrueDepth camera system and the front-facing camera. It takes up less display area than the notch, and it is better integrated into the iPhone.
While some rumors indicate we could get a Dynamic Island, other rumors suggest the iPhone 17e will continue to use a notch, so the Dynamic Island upgrade isn't a guarantee.
The iPhone 17e will use Apple's A19 chip, which is the same chip that's in the iPhone 17. The A19 chip is built on an upgraded N3P 3-nanometer process, offering a 5 to 10 percent performance improvement over the A18 chip.
Apple could be planning to use a downclocked version of the A19 chip in the iPhone 17e, and if that's the case, its performance won't quite match the iPhone 17's performance.
The A18 chip that Apple used in the iPhone 16e had a 4-core GPU instead of a 5-core GPU like the version from the iPhone 16, so the iPhone 17e could get a similar GPU downgrade.
Aside from the improved CPU and GPU, the A19 has an updated display engine, image signal processor, and Neural Engine for improved AI performance. Every GPU core features a Neural Accelerator to boost the performance of local AI models.
We are expecting the iPhone 17e to continue to include 8GB RAM like the iPhone 16e. Apple's other models have 12GB.
The iPhone 16e does not have a magnetic ring for MagSafe charging, but the iPhone 17e is expected to get a MagSafe upgrade.
Apple's iPhones have used MagSafe since the iPhone 12, so there are a wide array of MagSafe cases and accessories. The iPhone 16e is not compatible with these accessories, which is a major limitation.
Since it doesn't have MagSafe, the iPhone 16e is limited to 7.5W wireless charging speeds. MagSafe would upgrade that to at least 15W. The current iPhone 17 models can charge at 25W over MagSafe, though the iPhone Air is limited to 20W.
The iPhone 17e is expected to have a single 48-megapixel Wide Angle camera at the back, with no upgrade rumored. The iPhone 16e doesn't have a Camera Control button, and there's no sign that Apple plans to bring it to the iPhone 17e, either.
The iPhone 17 models got an upgraded 18-megapixel Center Stage front-facing camera, but rumors suggest the iPhone 17e will continue to use the same 12-megapixel front-facing camera as the iPhone 16e.
The iPhone 17e will adopt Apple's C1X modem, the modem chip that Apple first debuted in the iPhone Air. The C1X modem is faster and more efficient than the C1 modem that Apple used in the iPhone 16e.
Apple says the C1X modem is up to 2x faster than the C1, and it is far more energy efficient than Qualcomm modems.
