Do you know why it is impossible to hate the Mac? It is because Apple doesn’t give you false promises. The marketing is on point. It involves selling value directly to a prospective customer who knows almost instantly what to do with it: buy or skip. Either way, it’s a sound decision for most people.
For the longest time, there was a premium attached to this “value” given that Apple had its eyes set on the most sought-after creators. The Mac was always a “pro” machine, not something you’d get for casual use. Even the MacBook Air which is theoretically a watered-down option may be an overkill for many people. That, and have you seen the price of the latest M5 model? It costs a whopping Rs 1,19,900. That is big money.
With the MacBook Neo, Apple is lowering its gaze to meet with casual users. You can get it for as low as Rs 59,900 with education discount and Rs 69,900 without it, which is more than reasonable for a brand-new MacBook in 2026.
The timing of this launch is unprecedented. When peers are jacking up prices of laptops driven largely by global memory shortage, Apple is doing the opposite. It has made an affordable laptop, its most affordable ever.
Since something like this has not happened before, you might think that this changes everything. From a market perspective, yes, the Neo is a wakeup call for competition. The world of consumer electronics may never be the same again. At Apple HQ, it is still business as usual though. The Neo is meant for a very specific type of customer. No over the top promises, no unrealistic expectations. Just facts. Clean and simple.
MacBook Neo design
The TG – short for target group – is students. The MacBook Neo looks like a MacBook Air that went to an art school, and a very expensive one no less. It is incredibly thin at 12.7mm and light at 1.23kg. Apple didn’t skimp on materials, keeping the premium all-aluminum build signature of all MacBooks intact. It fits right in. The finish is slightly more textured giving it a unique tactile feel.
The colour palette is the first giveaway that this is a lifestyle and education-focused laptop. Moving away from the serious (work) Space Gray, the Neo comes in Blush, Indigo, Silver, and Citrus. These colours even extend to the keys and system wallpaper, creating a cohesive, fun aesthetic that feels fresh compared to the Pro line.
This attention to detail extends to every nook and cranny of the chassis that screams “high-end” in both styling and substance. No loose ends. Just good craftsmanship through and through. Once you have touched and held the Neo, every other “budget” laptop would seem short-changed, such is the high bar the Neo sets for everybody.
The 13-inch Liquid Retina display is a major win at this price point. With 500 nits of brightness and a resolution of 2408 x 1506 — which is at par with the MacBook Air — the Neo humbles the dim, low-resolution panels found on almost every competing laptop. While it lacks ProMotion (it’s a standard 60Hz) and True Tone, the colours are vibrant and text is rendered crisp.
MacBook Neo hardware
The Neo is unusual in another way. It is not powered by Intel or AMD. It doesn’t even have any M-series chip which is now standard across all Mac models. Instead, it comes with the A18 Pro SoC (short for System on a Chip), an iPhone chip originally used in the iPhone 16 Pro, with one difference. The Neo uses a binned version of the A18 Pro with one less GPU core (5 versus 6), albeit with an identical 6-core CPU. This is paired with 8GB of “unified memory” which is marketing speak for when the CPU and GPU share a single, integrated RAM pool, so memory-intensive tasks could be faster.
The choice of hardware is intentionally provocative. “Wait, what?” would be an apt response, at least when you hear it for the first time. You’re free to say other things or say nothing at all. But here’s the thing: Apple using an iPhone chip inside a laptop could be the single-greatest power moves of all time. These decisions are never random. What might seem like a “jugaad”, in hindsight, is a flex about something we’ve known, and experienced, for years.
Apple gives its Silicon ample headroom and proves its mettle on the ground through long-term software support, which is 5-years at the very least though without spelling it out in so many words. You can think of the Neo as a benchmark to test how far its iPhone chips can go. The answer will blow your mind.
The 6-core A18 Pro chip (2 performance, 4 efficiency) performs remarkably well in short bursts. In single-core workloads, like opening a browser, scrolling through a PDF or Word or Doc or PowerPoint, or launching an app, the Neo beats the M1. Performance is comparable to the M2 and M3 in some cases. But more importantly, it sits just 6-7 per cent behind the M4. In other words, the Neo is arguably the fastest laptop you can buy at its price. It runs laps around rivals.
However, there is a catch. Because the Neo has a fan-less design and a smaller thermal overhead than something like the MacBook Air, there is an internal cap on sustained heavy work. You’re likely not going to hit it in day-to-day. But, say for instance, if you try to export a 4K video or run a complex coding environment like Claude Code for more than a few minutes, the performance can drop by as much as 80 percent to keep the chip from overheating.
To be fair, Apple didn’t promise a marathon runner. The Neo is a sprinter at best.
Speaking of which, there are a few more things you need to know. The Neo has a Magic Keyboard that feels great to type on, but it is not backlit. Working in a dark room is a challenge. Moreover, unlike the haptic Force Touch trackpads on other MacBooks, the Neo has a mechanical hinged trackpad that physically clicks down. The Neo also doesn’t have any Thunderbolt connectivity. You get two USB-C ports, but only one is USB 3 (10Gbps). The other is limited to USB 2 speeds (480Mbps). It can power one external 4K monitor. Finally, 8GB RAM may feel a bit tight in two or three years as software becomes more demanding — we’ll see.
One area where there is no compromise is endurance. Apple claims 16 hours of video streaming, and real-world testing proves it works mostly as advertised. Battery life, generally, is long and reliable, getting you through a full workday without any issue. Charging tops at 20W. Compliant charger is available in the box.
The Neo is also built for Apple Intelligence. The 16-core Neural Engine is significantly faster than the one in the M1, meaning features like AI writing tools and image cleanup run natively and smoothly.
The audio experience is surprisingly good relative to other budget machines. It features dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio support. For Zoom calls, you get a 1080p camera and a dual-mic array with voice isolation.
MacBook Neo, yay or nay?
Last but not the least, and most importantly, the Neo is a MacBook running full macOS, which is the latest macOS Tahoe (version 26) at the time of writing, not iOS or iPadOS. It works in the same way as every other Mac irrespective of the price. It boots up almost instantly the moment you open the lid. It has access to hundreds of thousands of popular apps, including some highly addictive AAA games like Control that work so surprisingly well that you’d be hard-pressed to know an iPhone chip is pulling off all this with such grace and efficiency.
Cut to the chase, the Neo has been a pleasant surprise on so many levels, it is making me look at Windows machines in a whole new light. I am judging them on what they can be and what they choose to be instead. Each day, every day. I must confess that I am a regular Mac user. I use the MacBook Pro as a daily driver. But as I use the Neo more and more, it makes me sad that a laptop like this, portable, powerful and accessible, did not exist during my childhood.
At the same time, it makes me hopeful and excited about kids today who have this great option. It also reminds me of that classic Eagles song, you know about that hotel where you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Once you enter the Apple ecosystem at this price point, you are probably checked in for life. Period.
The MacBook Neo is intentionally provocative. But it is also thoughtfully brilliant. Apple did change laptop game with it.
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