Apple has unveiled MacBook Neo, an all-new laptop that starts at $599, or $499 for students, making it the most affordable Mac laptop the company has ever sold. It comes in four colors, blush, indigo, silver, and citrus, and is available for pre-order now, with availability starting March 11.
It’s not state-of-the-art, but you are getting pretty solid hardware for the money. The 13-inch Liquid Retina display has a 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness, which on paper is both sharper and brighter than most PC laptops you'll find at this price. Having tested a ton of laptops, I expect it will also look much better than what you typically get in this range.
Powering the MacBook Neo is the A18 Pro, the same chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro. It's a pretty capable processor that should handle everyday tasks like web browsing, streaming, and working in apps pretty well. It also runs Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools and text summaries on-device. And because there are no fans inside, the MacBook Neo will run completely silent, which is a pain point with most budget laptops.
Apple is promising up to 16 hours of battery life on a single charge, so you should be able to get through a full day of school or work without hunting for an outlet. The 1080p Full HD camera, dual-mic array with voice isolation, and stereo speakers with Spatial Audio support are all solid for video calls and streaming video, and you get two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6. There's also a key with Touch ID for quick logins (for the 512GB model) and a multi-touch trackpad.
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Not enough RAM, but the MacBook Neo has a niche
The MacBook Neo has only 8 GB of RAM with no option to upgrade it, which is my biggest concern here. For everyday tasks like browsing, streaming, email, and working in apps like Pages or Google Docs, 8 GB will get the job done just fine. But if you're planning to do anything that requires more headroom, like editing lots of photos or running a bunch of apps at once, you'll probably feel the squeeze pretty quickly. However, I think you’ll still have a better experience with 8GB of RAM on a Mac than you would on a Windows laptop at this price.
That said, the MacBook Neo is still a great option for many people. The build is aluminum, not plastic like most budget laptops, and you're getting macOS with the full suite of built-in apps and easy iPhone integration. For students, especially, the $499 education price makes this a no-brainer over a Chromebook. As much as I like Chromebooks, if you want a headache-free experience, a Mac is the better choice, especially for iPhone users.
If you're shopping for a first computer, need something reliable for browsing and schoolwork, or want a solid laptop for a student, this is the budget pick now. I do expect future versions to bump up the RAM, making the Neo lineup even better. But as a starting point, Apple has made the Mac more accessible than ever, and I'm curious to see how it does.
MacBook Neo is now available to pre-order at apple.com and in the Apple Store app, starting at $599 for the 256GB model and $699 for the 512GB model, which has the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.
[Image credit: Apple]
