The next affordable MacBook might be powered by an iPhone chip

A more affordable Apple MacBook may be coming, with a somewhat surprising chip choice.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is working on a new type of MacBook, which could have a 13-inch display and an Apple A18 Pro chip inside. That chip does not officially exist yet, but it's expected to power the next generation of iPhone Pro models.

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This doesn't have to mean this MacBook would be underpowered. Apple's A series of phone chips are incredibly powerful for their size, and extremely energy efficient, which could make this new MacBook a battery life king.

As a reference, the Apple A17 Pro chip, which powers the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max phones, is a six-core CPU, with two performance cores and four energy-efficient cores, and it comes with 8GB of RAM. It also integrates a six-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine.

Apple's A-series and M-series chips share a similar architecture, though the M-Series chips typically have more cores running at higher clock speeds, as well as larger cache sizes and support for some Mac-specific features.

Kuo didn't share any other specifics about this MacBook or the chip powering it, besides saying it'll be "more affordable." He did say the new MacBook will potentially come with the following color options: silver, blue, pink, and yellow.