Apple’s John Ternus kicked off the company’s in-person experience in New York just moments before the MacBook Neo was unveiled. And it delivered — then exceeded expectations. The long-rumored low-cost MacBook arrives at just $599, or $499 with Apple’s education discount, while still packing many of the features you’d expect from a Mac.
Ternus made Apple’s thinking clear before the reveal: “Let’s just be honest — life is better when you’re using a Mac.”
I’ve been on the platform for years, and there’s some truth to that statement. The Mac has seen a renaissance since the shift to Apple Silicon, though it’s almost always been positioned as a higher-end option. Never the cheapest, never the most affordable — but consistently a polished, all-in-one solution.
For years, the entry point was the MacBook Air at $999. Earlier this week, Apple refreshed that laptop with the M5 chip, nudging the starting price to $1,099 — though it did double the base storage.
The MacBook Neo changes that equation. This is finally a truly affordable Mac — one that can go toe-to-toe with Windows PCs in the same price range and even compete with Chromebooks that cost less, the same, or sometimes more. It’s arguably the perfect entry point into the Mac lineup, and a clear step toward Apple’s goal of getting Macs into more people’s hands.
And this isn’t an iPhone 5c–style compromise. If anything, the MacBook Neo feels like the clearest expression yet of Apple’s value proposition. It still features an aluminum build — just like the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro — delivering a sturdy design that weighs just 2.7 pounds. You also still get practical connectivity with two USB-C ports and a headphone jack.
Under the hood, the Neo runs on Apple’s A18 Pro chip — and yes, you might be thinking that’s an iPhone chip. You’d be right: it debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s more than capable of running macOS. In some ways, it even improves on the M1 thanks to newer silicon and Apple’s more recent core architecture, and it also enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Yes, you can effectively game on a $599 Apple laptop.
The Neo ships with 8GB of RAM, which feels pretty intentional on Apple’s part as it positions the laptop squarely for everyday use. In some demos, I saw it easily handle 15+ tabs in Safari alongside Mail, Messages, Pixelmator Pro, the Microsoft Office suite, and Canva all open at once. If you’re chasing heavier creative workloads, the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro will still be better suited, but even so, the MacBook Neo will likely be more than capable for many people.
And that includes folks who might not have considered a Mac previously, as well as those stretching their budgets to jump up to an Air or Pro. Apple Silicon already gave the MacBook Air — and the Pro — a kind of chrome-wheeled fuel injection, and now the Neo becomes the new entry point. Not a cheap, underpowered solution, but more like an iPhone SE, an iPhone 17E, or an entry-level iPad — the one built for most people.
It’s also the one that will likely catch the most eyes. The MacBook Neo comes in four colors: Citrus, Blush, Indigo, and Silver. They’re all stunning in person, and I can’t help but think back to college when people constantly asked why Apple didn’t embrace fun colors for its laptops. Well, Apple’s finally answered that.
Blush feels reminiscent of the rose-gold iPhone 6s and is chic in the best way. Citrus is a mix of bright green and yellow, while Indigo reminds me of the perfect pair of jeans. More of this, please, Apple.
For now, though, the MacBook Neo signals something bigger. Apple is finally taking the low-cost computing arena seriously, and that will likely turn out to be a major win for everyday consumers — whether they’re already deep in the Apple ecosystem or joining it for the first time.
Apple has always made great Macs — but the MacBook Neo might finally make one that almost everyone can afford.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
