Apple announces MacBook Neo
It's all coming true.
Just as rumored, Apple dropped their newest entry into the budget market today: MacBook Neo. This new MacBook drops a lot of the features of the MacBook Air, but with the added benefit of a $599 price tag (which only increases to $699 for 512GB of storage). It seems as though the value proposition is strong, but a lot has been taken out.
First off, the design looks incredible. It really does remind me of the OG iMac G3 in the bold colors. The design is certainly not thin, but definitely not MacBook Pro thick. The same can be said about the bezels. The notch is finally removed, but for thicker bezels that go all the way around. This design is a little bit more user friendly, especially for kids, who will be using this often as their first real computer. The rest of the display is fine - 13.0 inches (not 13.6 like on the MacBook Air), sRGB, not P3, no True Tone, and 500 nits. Not too bad for compromises, but not incredible either.
As for performance, it uses an A18 Pro chip that is also found in the iPhone 16 Pro. It is a wicked fast chip on the iPhone, and the same can hopefully be said for the MacBook. It performs comparatively to the MacBook Air M1, which is still very usable to this day. While it is not directly analogous and certainly gives up more performance, even at slightly slower speeds to the M1, it still looks usable and not too sluggish.
The ports are also a bit weird. The A18 Pro does not contain a Thunderbolt controller, so its two ports are USB 3 10Gb and USB 2 (480Mbps). While this is expected, it is still disappointing to see. The MacBook Neo also does not contain MagSafe, using the USB-C ports for charging. The speakers this time are also side-firing, as opposed to upward firing, which could dampen audio quality.
The keyboard will opefully be just as tactile and good as the MacBook Air, but it is not backlit, which is quite annoying in a world of sub-$300 laptops that do have backlit keyboards. Also, while the top end 512GB model does contain Touch ID, the base model 256GB version only contains a Lock Key. The trackpad is also nothing to write home about, especially considering that it is not a Force Touch trackpad like the ones that have been on every Mac since 2018, but instead, a diving board trackpad. This is so frustrating given that Apple has such great trackpads and this just feels like a weird place to cheap out on.
Either way, the new value proposition for the MacBook Neo seems to be a good one, with Apple finally capturing the budget segment like they have been trying to, somewhat, for a very long time. It's definitely not a bad laptop for the price and it will almost certainly be found in schools and homes everywhere. We will have to wait and see what Apple does soon.
