Apple has officially unveiled the all-new MacBook Neo, and it’s… all-old. Neo is a brand new addition to the Mac lineup aimed squarely at budget-conscious buyers. Starting at $599 ($499 for students) it’s a refreshing move from a company that’s been pushing prices upward elsewhere. Whether it lives up to the promise depends a lot on what you’re expecting from it.
What to expect
The MacBook Neo is essentially Apple’s first ever “budget” laptop – a full-sized 13-inch machine built around older but still capable components. Think of it as Apple’s answer to the Chromebook: good enough for light users, at a price that’s much easier to stomach.
To hit that $599 price point, Apple has leaned on hardware from previous generations. The chip powering the Neo is the A18 Pro – the same silicon that debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro back in 2024 – with display and camera modules also carried over from previous MacBook lines.
Performance
Despite the recycled spec sheet, the A18 Pro is no slouch. Apple claims the Neo is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks like web browsing than the bestselling Intel Core Ultra 5 PC laptop, and up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads. For web browsing, homework, streaming, the odd bit of photo editing, there’s plenty of headroom here.
At 2.7 pounds with an aluminum build, the Neo feels premium despite the price. The 13-inch Liquid Retina display runs at 2408×1506 with 500 nits of brightness, which Apple claims beats most PC laptops at this price range. Battery life comes in at up to 16 hours, and connectivity covers two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6. The fanless design also means it runs completely silently.
Dealbreakers
MacBook Neo ships with no MagSafe, and no Touch ID without a $100 upgrade fee.
More notable it ships with a measly 8GB of RAM, and no way to upgrade it. For the target audience that’s probably fine – macOS is efficient, after all – but anyone with vaguely demanding workflows will notice the lack of memory pretty quickly. Still, for a device that’s almost half the price of the MacBook Air, there are always going to be compromises.
Availability
MacBook Neo is available to pre-order now in blush, indigo, silver, and a bold new citrus yellow, and will ship from March 11.