After years of rumors, Apple revealed the MacBook Neo – the company’s most ambitious attempt to offer a truly accessible laptop. With a starting price of just $599, this is an especially aggressive move intended to shake up the mid-range computer market, precisely at a time when the prices of the company’s flagship models have risen. The Neo is not intended only to fill a gap on the shelf, but to serve as Apple’s official answer to cheap Windows computers and Google’s Chromebook, which dominate the education and student sector.
At the heart of the device beats the A18 Pro chip, the same powerful silicon that powers the iPhone 16 Pro series. The chip includes a 6-core CPU, a 5-core GPU and a 16-core neural engine for AI performance. On paper, these are lower figures than modern M chips, but for everyday tasks such as browsing, writing documents and consuming content, this power is more than sufficient. According to Apple, it is 50 percent faster in everyday tasks compared with the best-selling PCs with Intel Core Ultra 5 processors, and three times faster in on-device artificial intelligence performance.
The base model comes with 256GB of storage and a modest 8GB of RAM. For those who need more, an additional $100 will double the storage to 512GB and add the Touch ID sensor to the keyboard, which is surprisingly absent from the cheapest entry-level model.
To reach the target price and compete head-to-head with the cheap computers of its rivals, Apple made several noticeable technological cuts. The 13-inch LCD display offers brightness of 500 nits, but for the first time in years, the company gave up True Tone technology and it does not support the wide color gamut (P3).
The trackpad has also undergone a change and returned to a physical mechanical mechanism that moves when pressed, instead of the sophisticated Force Touch surface that does not move and relies on vibration. In addition, the computer does away with the magnetic MagSafe connector; charging is carried out through one of the two existing USB-C ports, which means that while the computer is connected to power, you will be left with only one free port for external accessories.
Despite the cuts, the Neo maintains a high construction standard with a rigid aluminum chassis offered in four colors: Silver, blue (Indigo), pink (Blush) and orange-lemon (Citrus). The computer includes a 1080p camera, speakers that support Dolby Atmos and a light weight of 1.2 kilograms.