Apple’s New $699 MacBook: Read This Before Buying It

As of February 11, 2026, the most interesting “MacBook Air rumor” is not actually about the Air.

Multiple reports say Apple is preparing a new entry-level Mac laptop, likely called simply MacBook, that sits below the MacBook Air in price and performance. The headline feature is wild: it may use an iPhone-class A18 Pro chip, not an M-series chip.

If you are a student, a parent buying a first laptop, or someone who just wants a reliable Mac for light work, it could be a great deal.

If you are a pro, or even a “pro consumer” who multitasks hard and wants local AI, you should read the limitations first.

What’s rumored so far

Here’s the rumor stack that keeps showing up:

• Price: around $699, well below the MacBook Air’s usual $999 starting point.

• Chip: an A18 Pro class chip (iPhone and iPad tier), rather than an M-series chip.

• Display: around 12.9 inches (slightly smaller than the 13.6-inch Air), with an LCD panel.

• Colors: reported options like blue, pink, yellow, silver have been attributed to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in the rumor cycle.

• Timing: “first half of 2026” has been reported, with some chatter that it could land soon.

None of this is confirmed by Apple yet, so treat it as a buying guide for a likely product, not a product announcement.

Why an iPhone chip in a Mac is not automatically bad

The A18 Pro is a serious chip for everyday computing. Apple lists it as a 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine in iPhone 16 Pro tech specs.

And Reuters, summarizing Bloomberg reporting, said internal testing suggests the iPhone processor in this budget Mac could outperform older Mac chips like the M1 in some cases.

So for student workloads like these, it will probably feel fast:

• web browsing and research

• docs, slides, email

• streaming, messaging, school portals

• light photo edits

• light coding (depending on toolchain and memory config)

If Apple nails battery life and keeps it fanless, this could be the “Chromebook killer” Mac that families actually buy.

The big catch: pros buy Macs for headroom, not just “it runs”

This new MacBook, if it ships as rumored, will be designed to hit a price, not to be a long-term pro workhorse.

1) Expect tighter performance ceilings

Even if the A18 Pro is snappy, Apple’s M-series is built for sustained laptop workloads: heavy multitasking, long renders, big projects, external displays, and pro apps.

This entry model is widely described as “basic computing needs” oriented, which usually means fewer compromises for light tasks, and more compromises once you push it.

2) Local AI is where the gap will show

If your idea of “pro” includes any of the following:

• running local LLMs

• large embeddings or on-device RAG

• heavier creative AI tooling

• big photo libraries plus AI indexing

Then the most important spec becomes memory headroom, and we do not yet know what memory configurations Apple will offer on this model.

3) Video editing and heavy creative work will be the stress test

Light edits are one thing. Multi-stream 4K timelines, motion graphics, large Lightroom catalogs, 3D, and big Xcode builds are another. If that is your world, you buy for sustained throughput, not entry-level efficiency.

Who should buy it

Buy the new $699 MacBook (if it ships like the rumors) if you are:

• a student doing schoolwork and light creative tasks

• buying a first Mac for a teen

• a travel laptop person who lives in browser tabs and docs

• a “secondary machine” buyer who already has a workstation

It is likely a very good “first Mac” story.

Who should not buy it

Skip it if you:

• want a laptop you will keep for 5 to 7 years with minimal friction

• regularly work with heavy pro apps

• want to run local AI models seriously

• keep 30 to 100 tabs open, plus Slack, plus multiple pro apps, all day

• need maximum flexibility for future workflows

If you are in this bucket, you are better off buying an M-series MacBook Air, even an older one.

The pro-consumer on a budget move: buy a refurbished M1 or M2 MacBook Air with 16GB or more

Here is the simple logic:

• The rumored new MacBook wins on price.

• A refurbished or used M1 or M2 MacBook Air often wins on long-term value for power users, because M-series machines are designed for heavier laptop workloads.

So if your budget is around the rumored $699 to $799 range, it is worth comparing:

• New entry MacBook (A18 Pro): best for light work, best for students.

• Refurb or used M1/M2 Air with 16GB+: better for pros, more headroom, more future-proof.

If you can stretch to 16GB or 24GB (where available) on an M-series Air, you will feel it every day.

Where Fenn fits (and why this matters for your Mac choice)

A lot of people want “AI on my Mac” but they actually mean something specific:

• search across PDFs, slides, docs, screenshots, scans

• find the exact page or slide that contains the thing you remember

• extract the snippet you need without uploading confidential files to a cloud model provider

That is what Fenn is for: Private AI that finds any file on your Mac.

If you want the full benefit of private, on-device file intelligence, an M-series MacBook Air with 16GB or more is usually the better foundation than a cheaper entry model, because it gives you more headroom for indexing and AI-assisted workflows.

So yes, the $699 MacBook could be a great student laptop. Just be honest about what you are buying it for.

If you are a student or buying for one, the rumored $699 MacBook could be Apple’s best entry laptop in years.

If you are a pro consumer on a budget, the smarter buy is usually a previous-gen MacBook Air with an M-series chip and at least 16GB of memory, especially if you care about private AI workflows and long-term headroom.