If you’ve been waiting for a cheap MacBook, then your day has arrived. Today, Apple announced the low-cost MacBook Neo that’s sure to be a hit for those on student budgets. No longer will you need to spend $1,099 on a MacBook Air if you want an Apple laptop for school. The new MacBook Neo starts at $599, and you can get it for $499 with Apple’s educational discount.
Taking on Chromebooks and cheap Windows laptops, the MacBook Neo isn’t based on an Apple M-series processor, which powers Apple’s newly announced MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. Instead it uses the A18 Pro chip that’s found in the iPhone 16 Pro from 2024. The A18 Pro has a six-core CPU (two performance cores and four efficiency cores) and a five-core GPU. Compare that with the M5 chip that powers the new MacBook Air: The M5 has a 10-core CPU (four performance cores that Apple now calls “super cores” and six efficiency cores) and either an eight- or 10-core GPU.
To hit a lower price, the MacBook Neo has a 13-inch display that’s slightly smaller than the 13.6-inch screen on the smallest MacBook Air. Still, the size is a pleasant surprise since rumors were pointing toward a 12-inch display for Apple’s budget MacBook. It’s a Liquid Retina display that should look plenty crisp, with a 2,408×1,506-pixel resolution. And it’s rated for an ample 500 nits of brightness, so you should be able to use it outside and still make out what’s on the screen.
Not surprisingly, the baseline MacBook Neo forces you to make do with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which is half the memory and storage that Apple offers on the baseline MacBook Air.
You can’t upgrade the memory, but you can double the storage to 512GB, a $100 upgrade that also adds Apple’s Touch ID to the keyboard. That’s it in terms of Neo upgrades.
Color isn’t cost prohibitive because Apple offers the MacBook Neo in an array of colors: blush (pink), citrus (yellow) and indigo (dark blue) in addition to basic silver. The color options are more muted than the bright hues I was hoping to see.
Ports are minimal and underwhelming. Instead of the speedy Thunderbolt 4 ports found on the MacBook Air, the Neo supplies a pair of slower USB-C ports. You get a 10Gbps USB 3 port and a 480Mbps USB 2 port along with a headphone jack.
Another sacrifice you must make with the Neo is sure to disappoint students who put off doing their homework until the wee hours of the night: The keyboard does not have backlighting.
You can preorder the MacBook Neo now, and it will start shipping next Wednesday, March 11.
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