What the MacBook Neo is, and what it isn’t

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple launched its most affordable laptop ever yesterday, the MacBook Neo. It is a product that I believe has been in Apple’s pipeline for years and it is a significant product for a number of reasons. 

While the announcement was met with mostly positive reactions—thanks to its lower price of $599 ($499 for students and teachers) and bold colors (the Citrus shade is sure to be copied by competitors and appliance makers); a quick look at Reddit and Threads reveals some negative reactions. Critics argue that the MacBook Neo falls short, pointing to issues like only 8GB of unified memory, the lack of a backlit keyboard, and the absence of MagSafe. They''re not getting it.

At the core of early confusion is a misunderstanding of what this device is and who it is for. So, let’s break it down.

 

What is MacBook Neo?

As I said earlier, I think the idea of MacBook Neo has been in Apple’s mind for a long time now. Known for its premium products aimed at the luxury end of the market, Apple has been heading down market with more affordable, yet capable products for years. iPhone SE, iPad, Apple Watch SE—these are all great examples of great tech at good prices. 

The Mac Mini is maybe the one product that has consistently served as the gateway to the Apple ecosystem, and the M4 versions offer terrific compute for the dollar. 

One segment that hasn’t had an affordable SKU for a while has been laptops. MacBook Pros are premium and showcase the latest Apple Silicon and display features. MacBook Air is similarly capable but more catered to less demanding content creation and general use.

 

Back in the day, Apple had the iBook, first as colorful clamshell notebooks (the first devices to usher in WiFi via AirPort) and later, the more common white chiclet-style 12-inch iBooks.

The iBook was a transformative product for Apple, especially in the educational sector. I think the MacBook Neo is a reincarnation of the ethos that drove the iBook’s early success, those things were everywhere on campuses.

So, back to the idea that Apple’s been working on this for a long time.

What makes the MacBook Neo so significant is that it is the first Mac to run on an A18 Pro chip. That’s a one-year-old iPhone system-on-a-chip (SoC) running a modern PC operating system. 

Sure, companies like Qualcomm have interchangeably used smartphone chips for laptops, but no one has done this at this scale. Since Apple is a 'whole widget' company, owning hardware, software, ecosystem, and services—it can defy supply chain chokepoints while relying on its stockpile of existing or future A18 Pro chips. It’s a bigger deal than most people realize. 

• MacBook Neo is the new gateway to the Apple ecosystem and MacOS for weary Windows 10 orphans and Chromebook users seeking desktop-class apps and services.
• It’s an entirely new fork in the Apple product line, one that doesn’t have to feature the latest, greatest tech and innovations provided it works as promised.
• It's Apple's vehicle for adoption in emerging markets, where premium hardware costs premium money.
• It’s a showcase to competitors that year-old Apple Silicon can power desktop-class apps and services—and for Mac developers, an incentive to make apps work on a lower spec device.

My personal assessment is that MacBook Neo is a homerun product for Apple, one that was launched at just the right time given the anxiety over RAM and hardware prices skyrocketing. Now, we just have to wait to see how well this consumer portable performs in the real world.

What the MacBook Neo isn’t

I was really hoping for the return of the 12-inch MacBook from 2015. Ultra light, ultra-portable and with Apple Silicon, insanely powerful with all day battery life. Sure that tiny MacBook, which many called the MacBook nothing (not Air, not Pro) had a lot of compromises (one USB-C port, butterfly keyboard, Intel processor) but it was by far the most portable modern Mac.

Well, MacBook Neo isn’t a replacement for that (12-inch MacBook was a mid-range device that cost almost as much as a Pro). Still, at that $599 price point, it can really slot in to that segment for users for whom the Air and Pro are out of their budget.