“Affordable” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when talking about an Apple product. And yet, that’s exactly what describes the MacBook Neo. In fact, it is the most affordable laptop the company has ever made – ironically, debuting in a year when personal tech devices are starting to get more expensive. It is aimed at new users who can’t afford to spend more than $1,000 on a machine, or those who don’t need the M5 power of the Air but want macOS in their laptop.
The barrier to entry for such users has dropped from $999 to $599. If you’re a student, you still get Apple’s $100 education discount with the Neo, which is 17% off on the sticker price compared to the 9% that students save on the Air. That’s a huge value proposition for students who own an iPhone but don’t bother investing in a MacBook because of its cost.
The MacBook Neo is lightweight, comparatively compact, and has the same premium design and durability that you’d expect from pricier models. It doesn’t look like a $600 laptop.
Apple’s most affordable laptop features an aluminum build, which is different from other laptops in the same price range. Most of them have a plastic keyboard deck and bottom panel that flexes, or a thin aluminum design where the trackpad registers ghost touches from the bottom of the laptop. You won’t find any of these cheap issues on the MacBook Neo.
In comparison to the MacBook Air, the Neo is slightly thicker (0.5 inches vs. 0.4 inches) and smaller. It weighs the same but has a more rounded design on the corners. The Neo comes in fun new colors that feature a color-matched keyboard and rubber pads on the bottom. I have the Citrus model, so my keys are light yellow (vs. black keys on the Air). You’ll get similar soft color-matched keys on the Indigo (navy blue), Blush (baby pink), and Silver options.
The MacBook Neo has thicker bezels than the Air, but there’s no notch. Before using it, I thought these thick borders would be a dead giveaway of cheap laptop quality, but that wasn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong, I’d have loved thinner bezels, but these didn’t bother me (and probably won’t bother anyone) because of the screen quality.
The Apple MacBook Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a 2,480 x 1,506-pixel resolution, which is similar to the $999 Air (2,560 x 1,664 pixels resolution on its 13.6-inch panel). As a result, on-screen media looks equally sharp. The color reproduction isn’t on the same level as the Air, but it is more than enough for the web-based use.
The new $599 Apple laptop has a brighter screen than its competitors. It is rated for 500 nits brightness, which is, again, the same as the Air but not the norm for $600 laptops. Most devices in this price bracket have dimmer screens, ranging from 250 nits to 400 nits. If you’re planning to use the Neo in bright environments, its screen will be more legible than any other $600 laptop.
So, what’s missing? Apple cut corners to reach that price, but it wasn’t in design, durability, or screen quality. To an extent, it cut the right corners. The color-matched keys aren’t backlit, there’s no Touch ID on the base variant for biometric authentication, and you get an iPhone processor instead of an M-series chip. I missed just one of these on my unit (base model with 256GB of storage).
Starting with the processor, the MacBook Neo is powered by the same A18 Pro chip as the iPhone 16 Pro. This is the first time an iPhone chip is appearing in a MacBook. Apple has paired it with a fanless design and 8GB of RAM (which can’t be upgraded).
In raw benchmarks, its strength lies in the single-core CPU and GPU performance. And single-core CPU performance is responsible for everyday use like app loading speeds, word processing, and basic productivity. In those areas, the Neo was as responsive as my Air. It isn’t made for full-fledged video editing or running demanding creative software, but anyone who wants a laptop for aforementioned tasks will be satisfied by the performance.
I used my MacBook Neo for two weeks for work, and it lasted close to an entire day with a dozen Chrome tabs and Slack running in the background (sometimes alongside Apple Music). Apple says the Neo is rated to last up to 16 hours (vs. 18 hours for the M5 MacBook Air), which is in the same league as recent Snapdragon X series laptops.
The only compromise I dislike is the absence of a Touch ID sensor on the $599 model. You can get it for $100 more, which also doubles the storage to 512GB. However, biometric authentication should be available across all models. It isn’t an optional feature in today’s world. I don’t use Touch ID just to get past my lock screen. I use it for Passkeys, filling passwords for my various online accounts, and making purchases. The experience isn’t the same on a laptop that forces me to type in a password for everything.
Other things that you miss out on (versus the Air) include the lack of Thunderbolt 4 ports for fast data transfer and no support for Center Stage or Desk View on the 1080p webcam. Apple also repositioned the speakers to the sides of the MacBook Neo. They are loud enough for the price and better than most rivals, though they don’t sound as full as the Air.
As for the absence of backlit keys, you’ll only notice it if you’re working through the night with ambient lighting turned off. On most occasions, the display’s light was enough to see the keys, especially when I was working in a browser or on documents with a white background.
Overall, the keyboard offers a satisfying typing experience. It is paired with a mechanical trackpad (vs. the Force Touch trackpad on every other MacBook). Again, I thought it’d be an issue because other laptops with mechanical trackpads don’t offer a consistent click response across the entire surface. By contrast, the Neo’s trackpad is more premium where a click on the top edge feels no different than a click on the bottom corners.
As Apple turns 50, the MacBook Neo marks an unprecedented era of affordability for the Mac. The Apple laptop is no longer limited to its core audience of creatives and professionals. It is now accessible to high school and college students, small business owners, people whose job isn’t related to creative, scientific or AI fields and those who want a cheap, portable laptop for casual use around the house. They don’t need to drop $1,000 to get a MacBook anymore.
