Apple’s new budget MacBook will be an absolute deal - just don’t upgrade it.

Apple’s new rumored MacBook with multiple deep color options might be the best deal for students and first-time Mac users, but the minute you go past the base model’s specs, it’s value proposition and charm will fumble.

Rumored to start at 8GB of RAM and at 256GB of memory, it’s a solid computer for an alleged $599-$699 starting price. 8GB of RAM is a limitation though and historically Apple charges a $200 upgrade to 16GB. Now we’re at $799-$899 for this smaller laptop, right in MacBook Air territory, making the M4 MacBook Air the logical purchase since it’s always on sale for $799.

The Air will have the same storage and RAM numbers for that $799 price, but performance and monitor support will be significantly better compared to the new MacBook. My gut tells me most people will go for the base model anyway to keep prices low. Those that go for the higher spec’ed new MacBook know they’re getting a worse computer for the same amount of money, but the power of real colors on a MacBook is going to suck a lot of people in, logic be damned.

It’s already working for the orange iPhone 17 Pro.