Right now, the most affordable MacBook you can buy is a MacBook Air—and they are brilliant, but as Apple has shown with the iPhone SE, it can go lower without losing that Apple magic.

So I think it’s high time Apple comes out with a MacBook SE. A colorful, plastic, and sub-$500 laptop that would almost certainly sell so fast, it would make your head spin.

The iPhone SE Is a Brilliant Idea

Apple had a stroke of genius when it came to making its version of a more affordable phone. The company re-used an older phone frame, but with the internals of its new phones. The result was an affordable phone that performed the same as the mainstream model, but cut out some features and lowered the specs on components like the cameras and screen.

It’s been a few years since the last SE, but it’s an idea that still has merit and we may even see another model. Unless, that is, the rumored iPhone Air is meant to replace the niche the SE sits in. However, according to Mark Gurman (via his newsletter) the Air will likely replace the iPhone “Plus” model instead.

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We even essentially have an iPad “SE’ in the form of the base model iPad, which doesn’t get an external refresh often, but has killer internals for a tablet in its price class. So why not do the same thing for the MacBook?

The MacBook Air Isn’t Actually Meant to Be a “Budget” Mac

You might already be thinking that the MacBook Air is already doing this job. Even though the latest MacBook Air usually sits around $999 for the base model, you can often get older models on sale dangerously close to that magic $500 mark. However, the MacBook Air was never meant to be a “budget” MacBook. It’s still a premium device, meant for people who don’t need all the performance of a MacBook Pro, but still want everything else to be top-tier.

Initially, the Air’s main selling point was how thin, compact, and stylish it is, but these days you can hardly complain about the girth of a MacBook Pro. Nonetheless, the Air is a premium laptop that offers an alternative to the Pro with different compromises. Not specifically a budget system.

Apple’s M1 Is Still Overkill for Most People

The other reason I think we’re ready for a MacBook SE is how well Apple Silicon has aged. The base model M1 chip that featured in the original Apple Silicon MacBook Air is still overkill for 99% of laptop users almost half a decade later. Apple can still crank these older chips out, and probably at a much reduced cost compared to the latest M4 chips.

So why not take those old M1s (or the newest chip that hits the cost sweet spot) and put them in a MacBook SE? In fact, it could even be a cut-down version of the M1 and still blow every Chromebook or sub-$500 Windows laptop out of the water. I’m still using an M1 MacBook Pro for video editing, and it does not feel like a computer from five years ago!

A Fatter, Retro Plastic MacBook Would Sell Like Hotcakes

The other iPhone that could serve as inspiration for the MacBook SE was the sadly short-lived iPhone 5c, which was the direct predecessor to the iPhone SE. Apple’s strategy here was to use cheaper materials, and the 5c remains the only plastic iPhone as far as I can tell. Of course, by going with plastic it was possible to use fun and funky colors, which is a plus in my book.

If Apple took some inspiration from the old iBooks, we could have an interesting product that also gets around the cost of precision-engineering and manufacturing a metal unibody laptop. I think there are plenty of people who would actually prefer it and some retro-futuristic styling would go down well too, I think.

This laptop doesn’t have to be thin enough to slice vegetables, and modern plastics are pretty great either way, so there’s no issue when it comes to making something durable that doesn’t feel cheap.

There’s a big gaping chasm below the $999 price point that’s just begging for a macOS-powered laptop, and even the popularity of the new Mac Mini supports that to some extent, I think. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

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