Apple has unveiled the MacBook Neo, a new entry-level laptop designed to bring the Mac experience to a broader audience with a significantly lower starting price. Starting at $599 / £599 / AU$899, the MacBook Neo is now the most affordable Mac laptop Apple has ever produced, positioning it directly against budget Windows laptops and even Chromebooks.
The MacBook Neo represents an interesting shift for Apple. Its MacBooks have always sat at the more premium end of the laptop market, starting with the MacBook Air, but with recent MacBook sales growth stagnating, Apple has clearly seen the entry-level market as the way forward. Introducing a new tier below the Air offers the familiar macOS experience in a cheaper, far more stripped-back package, but with so much work done now in the browser, this might be all many people need.
Apple's cost savings start with the processor. The MacBook Neo uses Apple’s A18 Pro chip, originally designed for phones; it's also not Apple's most recent processor, and was previously seen in last year's iPhone 16 Pro lineup (this year's iPhone 17 Pro uses a newer A19 Pro chipset).
However, Apple says the processor delivers more than enough performance for everyday tasks such as web browsing, video calls, photo editing, and even running AI-powered apps. Apple also rather boldly claims that the Neo can be up to 50% faster for common tasks than an (unspecified) best-selling PC with an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, three times quicker for AI-related processing, and two times faster photo editing. The iPhone does have incredible performance, but it'll be interesting to see if this phone's processor can stretch to a bigger screen and heavier multitasking.
Despite its lower price, the MacBook Neo still carries much of the familiar MacBook DNA. The laptop uses a recycled aluminium enclosure, includes Apple’s excellent Magic Keyboard and large multi-touch trackpad, and offers connectivity via two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack, alongside WiFi and Bluetooth.
The MacBook Neo is available in four colors – Silver, Blush, Indigo, and Citrus – each with colour-matched keyboards, giving the Neo a slightly more playful look than Apple’s traditional MacBook palette.
The Neo features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with support for one billion colors and up to 500 nits of brightness, as well as a 1080p camera for FaceTime video calls. Audio comes from dual side-firing speakers with support for Dolby Atmos and spatial audio, and a dual-microphone array should isolate your voice during calls. And according to Apple, battery life is rated for up to 16 hours.
The base MacBook Neo features 256GB of storage, but does miss out on Apple's TouchID; however, jumping up to 512GB of storage restores TouchID to the power button (which, honestly, is a feature I would really struggle to live without).
Pre-orders are open now, and in-store availability starts from March 11. The Neo starts at $599 / £599 / AU$899 with 256GB of storage, or $699 / £699 / AU$1,099 with 512GB – and you can knock a further $100 off these prices with Apple's student discount.
