A few days ago, TrendForce reported that Apple’s upcoming lower-end MacBook would feature a smaller screen, specifically 12.9 inches along the diagonal (vs. 13.6 inches on the smaller M4 MacBook Air). As this is expected to be a budget-friendly model, you could imagine that Apple would need to cut costs in some way, and we’ve seen Apple reusing components from previous-generation devices for its more modern products before, such as the iPhone 16e, the base iPad, and the Apple Watch SE.
Now, you may have heard that number “12.9” before. That is the exact same screen size as that of the current 13-inch iPad Air (M3). You may see where I’m going with this. I’d like to preface that this is just a theory, but hear me out: what if Apple reuses the same display from the larger iPad Air for its upcoming smaller MacBook? From an R&D cost standpoint, this would make perfect sense. For a budget laptop, we shouldn’t expect anything more premium, such as either a mini-LED or an OLED display. Just a standard LCD would get the job done, so bringing the same iPad Air’s display to the upcoming MacBook would reduce R&D costs overall.
Another important aspect to consider is that the 13-inch iPad Air’s screen is in a taller 4:3 aspect ratio, whereas the smaller 11-inch iPad Air’s screen has a wider aspect ratio (approximately 7:5 aspect ratio). In other words, the larger iPad Air’s screen is more ideal for productivity, and the smaller iPad Air’s screen is more ideal for content consumption. Let’s go to Display Wars and do a quick comparison between two screens with 12.9 inches (diagonally): one has a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the other has the same aspect ratio that the current 13-inch MacBook Air uses. As you can see, the one with the 4:3 aspect ratio is taller.
In another comparison between the (theoretical) 12.9-inch 4×3 display and the current 13-inch MacBook Air’s display, you’ll see that the former is just slightly taller than the latter. Another interesting tidbit is that the width of the 13-inch iPad Air is the same as that of the 13-inch MacBook Air at 8.46 inches. (214.9mm for iPad Air/215.0mm for MacBook Air – very negligible difference!). Since Apple is able to fit a more full-size keyboard on the Magic Keyboard for the 13-inch iPad Air, Apple will definitely be able to fit such a keyboard on the upcoming 12.9-inch MacBook, most likely to retain those full-height function keys that everyone will appreciate.
Come to think of it, this may be the first laptop from Apple with a 4:3 aspect ratio since the 12-inch PowerBook G4, which was introduced on this day 23 years ago!
So, a budget MacBook with a 12.9-inch screen that has a 4:3 aspect ratio at 2732 by 2048 pixels at 264 ppi, this would be the highest pixel density ever on a MacBook, even beating the latest MacBook Pro’s 254 ppi. (FYI, the smaller iPad mini also has a higher pixel density at 326 ppi vs. the larger iPad displays at 264 ppi)
Furthermore, this upcoming MacBook will likely have the best display compared to other budget PC laptops within that price range. Usually, competing PC laptops would skimp out on display quality, so this MacBook, along with its unrivaled performance and efficiency from its rumored A18 Pro chip, will definitely destroy both the budget PC laptop and Chromebook markets, and this may be Apple’s best-valued Mac since we can expect huge deals in the coming months after its launch.
