Apple has introduced the MacBook Neo, a new entry-level laptop starting at $599 that replaces the 13-inch MacBook Air as the company’s most affordable Mac. It goes up for preorder today and arrives in stores on March 11.
The machine comes in four colors — silver, indigo, blush, and citrus — with a color-matched keyboard. It will be available through Apple’s website, retail stores, and third-party retailers.
What’s inside
To reach that price point, Apple made deliberate hardware trade-offs. The MacBook Neo runs on an Apple A18 Pro chip rather than an M-series processor. That chip carries a six-core CPU split between two performance cores and four efficiency cores, compared to the four performance and six efficiency cores found in chips like the M4 and M5.
GPU performance is similarly reduced. The A18 Pro offers five GPU cores versus the typical 10 in current M-series chips. Memory is fixed at 8GB. Apple says this is sufficient for Apple Intelligence and everyday tasks, but the machine will likely show its limits when handling dozens of open browser tabs or demanding creative software.
Screen and connectivity
The display is a 13-inch LCD with a 2408×1506 resolution and 500 nits of maximum brightness. It does not support the P3 wide color gamut or Apple’s True Tone technology, placing it a step below even the older M1 MacBook Air’s 2560×1664 screen. The panel does feature rounded upper corners like current MacBook models, but skips the notch.
External display support is limited to a single monitor at up to 4K at 60Hz, which rules out compatibility with Apple’s 5K Studio Display. The M4 and M5 MacBook Airs each support up to two external displays.
Port selection is similarly stripped back. The Neo has two USB-C ports — one USB 3 running at 10 Gbps, and one USB 2 running at 480 Mbps. Neither port is Thunderbolt. Both support charging. There is no MagSafe connector. The headphone jack, however, remains.
Tiers and extras
The base $599 model ships with 256GB of storage and notably omits Touch ID. Buyers who want fingerprint authentication need to step up to the $699 model, which also doubles storage to 512GB.
Both configurations include a 1080p webcam. Apple rates battery life at up to 16 hours from a 36.5 WHr cell.
Context within Apple’s week
The MacBook Neo is part of a broader wave of announcements Apple staged ahead of a “special experience” event. The company also revealed the iPhone 17e, an updated iPad Air with an M4 chip and additional RAM, new MacBook Pros with M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, updated Studio Displays, and the M5 MacBook Air lineup starting at $1,099.
At $599, the Neo matches the price Apple has been selling the M1 MacBook Air through Walmart, signaling a deliberate effort to keep a foothold at the lower end of the laptop market without discounting its newer silicon.
Photo by Ilya Klimenko on Pexels
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