Stay up late? OUT! Save time and sneak a peek at the new products of Apple's press conference.

There are still 48 hours left before we welcome the first Apple special event of 2026.

This event is truly "special" in the literal sense because it adopts a new format that Apple has never used before.

▲ Image | Reddit

As previously previewed by ifanr, the main event of this press conference will be held at 10 p.m. on March 4th, Beijing time. At that time, Tim Cook will take the stage to play the video just like in a regular press conference.

However, the duration of this event is not limited to the 4th.

According to the information received by ifanr: Apple will use the form of "listing on the official website" today (the 2nd) and tomorrow evening to announce some new products in advance, creating a rhythm of "one release per day", and finally make a unified introduction at the main event on the 4th.

Meanwhile, after the strong sales of the iPhone 17 series last year and the best financial report ever, Apple is also full of confidence in this event.

Apple expert Mark Gurman revealed:

Apple retail stores have received notices from their superiors, asking them to "prepare to receive a large number of customers after the new products are launched this week."

Some Apple store employees also said that the scale of the preliminary preparations is "comparable to that before the autumn iPhone press conference."

This indicates that Apple expects the demand for the new products after the March press conference to be quite strong, and at least one product will have extremely high market appeal.

So far, we can basically see the general outline of Apple's first press conference in the Year of the Horse:

• iPhone 17e
• MacBook (A18 Pro)
• MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/Max)
• iPad (12th generation)
• iPad Air (M3)
• New Studio Display
• New HomePod and HomePod mini
• New AppleTV
• Other miscellaneous hardware products

iPhone 17e: Cheap, but not necessarily worth it

As the most highly anticipated product from Apple, the iPhone 17e will undoubtedly be one of the focuses of discussion at this press conference.

Currently, people's expectations for the iPhone 17e mainly focus on these points: whether it will have a high - refresh - rate screen, whether it can use the Dynamic Island, and whether it supports MagSafe.

Judging from the leaks up to the last minute before the press conference, there won't be any obvious improvement in the screen of this year's iPhone 17e. The ProMotion high - refresh - rate screen is most likely still absent.

▲ Image | Threads @privatetalky

The leaks have shown obvious differences regarding whether the iPhone 17e will use the Dynamic Island.

Among the prior information obtained from various channels, the "Dynamic Island" camp and the "Notch" camp are almost evenly divided.

There must be some smoke - screens deliberately released by Apple. Considering the reality, it is more likely that the iPhone 17e will continue to use the same 6.06 - inch 60Hz Notch screen as the 16e.

▲ Image | PCMag UK

However, in terms of parameter configuration, the iPhone 17e has a significant improvement compared to the 16e, which also conforms to the tradition of the e - series of "buying a phone and getting a powerful processor for free".

Currently, it is basically certain that the iPhone 17e will use the same A19 processor as the iPhone 17, as well as the latest self - developed C1X baseband and N1 network chip.

▲ Image | MacRumors

In addition, in order to enhance competitiveness, there are reports indicating that Apple may go against the trend and increase the starting storage capacity of the iPhone 17e to 256GB, and continue to emphasize "excellent battery life" as the core selling point.

Currently, the biggest competitor of the iPhone 17e is neither the memory with soaring prices nor Android models in the same price range, but its big brother, the iPhone 17.

According to the latest news, the starting price of the iPhone 17e will remain unchanged at $599, that is, starting from 4,499 yuan in the Chinese mainland and 3,999 yuan after the national subsidy.

▲ Image | CNN

However, currently, the prices of the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air after the national subsidy are both 5,499 yuan.

The former has upgrades such as dual - cameras and high - refresh - rate screen, and the latter has the A19 Pro and a titanium alloy body, all of which are very noticeable improvements.

Therefore, ifanr's evaluation and purchase advice for this year's iPhone 17e remain the same:

The iPhone 17e is like a "sauce - flavored" phone. It's not very worth buying at the full price at the initial release. It's more suitable to wait until the national subsidy and the channel price drop further to around 3,500 yuan before purchasing.

MacBook: The netbook has a second spring

Another topic center of this press conference is the new MacBook that uses the iPhone processor.

Actually, Apple has been making this kind of MacBook without a suffix for many years.

From the earliest iBook to the later polycarbonate MacBook, Apple has always been trying to make laptops enter the truly affordable price range. The last attempt was the 12 - inch MacBook more than a decade ago. Limited by the extremely weak Intel Core M processor at that time, with a "netbook" positioning, even surfing the Internet was not smooth.

▲ Image | TechRadar

This new MacBook without a suffix, as a model focusing on extreme cost - effectiveness, will directly use the same A18 Pro processor as the iPhone, and all peripheral configurations will also use in - stock items, aiming for "more, faster, better, and more economical".

Can the new MacBook achieve "more, faster, better, and more economical"? Well, it's really possible.

▲ Image | Yanko Design

Apple's internal tests show that although using the A - series processor from the previous generation, with the larger body space and the support of macOS, the performance of the new MacBook is stronger than that of the Mac with the M1 processor.

And it runs the full - fledged macOS ——

This means that for document processing, browser - based office work, and lightweight design and photo - editing, the basic performance of the A18 Pro is completely sufficient.

▲ Image | AppleInsider

Actually, this new MacBook can be regarded as a small microcosm of Apple's vision for computer office work in the new era:

For many occupations that "only need a laptop for work", most of the work is actually done on the office software suite, chat apps, browsers, or cloud - based AI. There is no need for such strong local SoC performance.

The combination of the A18 Pro and macOS just fits perfectly into this range, and users can also get the standard MacBook screen, keyboard, speakers, and trackpad.

▲ Image | MacDailyNews

Considering that the national subsidy policy will continue in 2026, and with the education discount, the actual purchase price of the new MacBook in China may further drop to the 3,000 - yuan range.

The sales of previous generations have proven that when Macs truly enter the "affordable" range, the conversion rate of potential users will increase rapidly ——

If combined with the previously released Apple Creator Studio, a lightweight MacBook and a set of quasi - professional tools cost even less than a standard - version iPhone. What more could one ask for?

MacBook Pro: Stable upgrades, buy when needed

After nearly half a year, the M5 chip product line has finally welcomed the two major upgrades of Pro and Max, and the key upgrades are still concentrated on the GPU graphics capabilities.

Currently, we have seen that the shipping time of the M4 Pro/Max MacBook Pro on the Apple official website has been postponed, which is usually a precursor to the upcoming release of new products with higher configurations.

According to the estimation of foreign media MacWorld, the Geekbench 6 GPU score of the new MacBook Pro is very likely to exceed that of the M3 Ultra with 80 GPUs.

▲ Image | Wccftech

As for the hardware appearance, there are expected to be no significant new changes in the M5 Pro and M5 Max versions of the MacBook Pro. The planned double - layer OLED MacBook Pro will have to wait until at least after 2027.

New iPad and iPad Air: Rated as NPC

In addition to the relatively exciting new products mentioned above, we will also see the entry - level 12th - generation iPad and the new iPad Air with a new processor at this press conference.

Currently, it seems that the 12th - generation iPad will be equipped with the standard - version A18 processor, and the iPad Air will be upgraded from the current M