Do you still remember that you could get the M1 MacBook Air in new condition at Walmart? When Apple updated the MacBook Air with the M3 chip in March 2024, Apple kept the previous M2 13-inch MacBook Air around, but it also stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air. That laptop was one of the very first Macs with Apple silicon that Apple ever introduced in history. However, Apple didn’t technically discontinue that laptop altogether. Instead, Walmart partnered with Apple to continue selling the M1 MacBook Air at a significantly lower price point at just $699, and those came with 256GB of SSD capacity and 8GB of unified memory. Beforehand, its MSRP was $999 when you ordered it directly from Apple. Since then, the price would eventually drop to $649, then to $599, and then to $549 for a limited time as part of the Black Friday promotion last year. Now, notice I used “could” because, as spotted by PCMag and MacRumors, the M1 MacBook Air is now out of stock at Walmart.
This further implies that we should see the revival of Apple’s moniker-less MacBook (not “Air” or “Pro”) in the not-too-distant future, but this time, it will be positioned as the newest entry-level model in the lineup, and it will certainly replace the aging M1 MacBook Air at around that price point. To recap, this upcoming MacBook is expected to feature the A18 Pro chip, whose multi-core performance is similar to that of the M1 chip from over five years ago, according to Geekbench benchmarks. Of course, as the A18 Pro chip is built on a more modern 3nm architecture, it should feature faster single-core performance and graphics capabilities, especially with support for hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and mesh shading. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested that this MacBook would come in several fun colors, and a recent report and a few subtle hints from the invite’s graphic suggested that the color options would at least be: yellow, light green, and light blue.
The last time that Apple revived the “MacBook” brand was back in March 2025, where it was positioned as the thinnest and lightest laptop in the line, yet it was overpriced for its specs. It was riddled with several flaws, and don’t get me started on the butterfly keyboard. This ultralight premium laptop that sat between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro never caught on with the mainstream market, as more people opted for the cheaper MacBook Air that could perform better. So with this upcoming “MacBook”, it will surely fix all the flaws that the previous “MacBook” had, since it will feature Apple Silicon for performance and efficiency that would just spin circles around any competing budget PC laptop or Chromebook.
I’m personally excited for this MacBook, and I can’t wait to see how Apple will market this laptop for the mainstream consumer base.
