The Colorful MacBook Neo Is Apple’s Cheapest Laptop Ever

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After a week of product announcements—starting with the iPhone 17e, a refreshed iPad Air, and more powerful MacBook Pro models—Apple has unveiled a new category in its laptop lineup for the first time in a while: the “MacBook Neo.”

Positioned below the MacBook Air as an entry-level machine, this new MacBook is the most affordable laptop the company has ever made, with a starting price of $599. While it's been possible to buy a new MacBook Air at lower prices—like the 2020 M1 MacBook Air Apple sold for several years for $699 exclusively through Walmart—this is officially the cheapest MacBook out the gate.

Aside from the price, its approach to color also makes it unique among the other MacBooks in Apple's lineup. You have several bold color options, including Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus. The colors harken back to the iBook G3 of yesteryear and are akin to the current iMac design. While there are several color options for the MacBook Air, they are much more subtle. Apple says it weighs 2.4 pounds but hasn't commented on the thickness yet.

Despite its price, Apple doesn't appear to be cutting corners on the screen. With a resolution of 2408 by 1506 and up to 500 nits of brightness, Apple boasts that it is “both brighter and higher in resolution than most PC laptops in this price range.” The display doesn't use a notch for the webcam, so it has thicker bezels around the screen than on the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. There's a 1080p camera, a Touch ID sensor, and side-firing speakers with Dolby Atmos. Unfortunately, the Touch ID sensor is only available on the $699 model, which comes with 512 GB of storage.

The MacBook Neo does make plenty of other concessions to hit its aggressive price though. It's powered by the A18 Pro chip—the same processor inside the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Yup—you read that right. iPads have used Mac chips for years, but now a MacBook is using an iPhone chip. Still, this processor should deliver more power than the original M1 chip in the MacBook Air. Apple claims the chip gives the MacBook Neo up to 16 hours of battery life. That's less than the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. Apple also says the chip is up to 50 percent faster in daily tasks like web browsing than “the bestselling PC with the latest chipping Intel Core Ultra 5.” According to the liner notes, this was based on a Speedometer test, a popular browser-based benchmark.

Other compromises to the device are the use of a mechanical multi-touch trackpad (rather than one that uses haptic feedback), a non-backlit keyboard, and the more limited port selection. The use of the iPhone chip means this MacBook only supports one external monitor through one if its two USB-C ports. Either port can be used for charging. There's also a headphone jack, located in an odd position next to the side-firing speakers near the front of the device. While technically this is the same amount of USB-C ports as the MacBook Air, it's missing the magnetic MagSafe 3 charging port, which frees up one of the USB-C ports.

The biggest compromise appears to be in memory, though. While Apple doesn't include it in the main body of its press release, but when you go to preorder the device, it appears to only come with 8 GB of unified memory, without an option to upgrade. You do get the option of either 256 GB or 512 GB of storage, which only costs $100 more.

Interestingly, this cheaper MacBook Neo comes a day after Apple announced an update to the MacBook Air that creates a bit more space in the lineup for this base MacBook. The MacBook Air now starts with 512 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM and costs $1,099, meaning there's less crossover with the entry-level MacBook.

This machine won't be the best option for demanding tasks like gaming, or photo and video editing, but it will be perfectly suited to web browsing and standard-fare tasks like document creation. Think of it like a souped-up Chromebook that's more versatile. In fact, Apple may very well be targeting the education market with this MacBook, as it's only charging $499 for students and teachers.

The last time Apple had a third MacBook in the lineup was the 12-inch model from 2015. Rather than an entry-level option, however, it was positioned as a more advanced, ultra-thin device, costing more than the MacBook Air at the time. That model was discontinued in 2019. This new MacBook, however, uses the same playbook as the current iPad lineup, which is broken into three segments with the same branding.

You can preorder the MacBook Neo starting today, and they'll be available to buy in person at Apple Stores on March 11.

This is a developing story.