If you are thinking of upgrading your laptop to one of the latest MacBook models, or even an older secondhand or refurbished model, you may want to hold off until March even if your computing situation is getting desperate.

That’s because, according to the latest industry rumours, Apple is gearing up to launch a brand new, cheaper MacBook on March 4. If you were to buy a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro before then, you might end up with a smidge of buyer’s regret if you don’t wait to see what Apple has in store.

Bloomberg’s Apple reporter Mark Gurman said in his latest newsletter than Apple will soon announce a “low-cost aluminum MacBook” that will “come in a slew of fun colors”. He states it will cost “well under $1,000” and run an iPhone chip instead of an M-series processor.

Gurman claims that the laptop will be made of aluminium despite the lower price – the cheapest MacBook Air in Apple’s line up costs £999 – and is made with a new manufacturing process. The computer is said to be marketed to students and enterprise customers but will come in bright colours, with Apple having tested “light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver and dark gray” as options.

Perhaps a clue to the colours chosen are to be found in Apple’s event invitation that several media shared on social media. The Apple logo is made out of thin slices of colour, with yellow, green and blue represented. Apple usually hides a hint to the event within these images, so this could point to three new MacBook colours.

If this MacBook comes to exist, it could simply be called ‘MacBook’, and will be the successor to the 12-inch MacBook the firm launched in 2015 but discontinued shortly after in 2019. At the time, the razor thin laptop was considered underpowered and too forward-thinking with its single USB-C port.

An option like this today with much improved processing power, a better keyboard and longer battery life would surely be a hit – the 12-inch MacBook is still one of my favourite ever Apple devices, and one of the last that made me feel inspired by its design chops in the same way I felt about the iPod mini and the iPhone 5s.

The MacBook could have a display slightly less than 13-inches, so it may not be the laptop for you. But if Apple really is about to dip its toe into the low-cost laptop market for, realistically, the first time, you really might want to wait to see if you can spend less on a MacBook come March 4 than you would have to spend if you bought one today.

Gurman says it’s also possible the March 4 event could see the launch of the iPhone 17e and new iPad models for the entry-level and Air range, so if you have any tech purchases in mind it really might be worth waiting for a few weeks to see what’s new from Apple.