MacBook Neo: 10 key aspects you should know about Apple’s low-cost laptop

Apple on Wednesday (March 4) launched the MacBook Neo, the company's newest member of the MacBook family.

While MacBook Air is aimed at regular users for home and the office, the MacBook Pro models are targeted towards professionals, creative artists (for editing), and STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) researchers, who run heavy workloads like data modelling and simulators. The new MacBook Neo is intended for school and college-going students with tight budgets.

.Apple announces all-new MacBook Pro with M5 Pro, M5 Max silicons. The branding 'Neo' seems very apt literally, as it means 'new' and sounds cool too, for a fresh entry-level laptop.

. As noted earlier, it is a low-cost laptop with prices starting at 69,900. That said. Apple has not compromised on build quality. It features a sturdy aluminium enclosure.

It comes with a matte finish and rounded corners to offer a good grip for the fingers to hold the laptop firmly while moving around the college or at home.

. It is available in vibrant colour options -- citrus (lemon yellow), blush (light pink), indigo (dark blue) and silver (greyish white), which are sure find good traction among students.

. It sports a 13-inch LED-backlit Liquid Retina display (2408x1506p) with IPS technology, 500 nits peak brightness, supports one billion colours, sRGB colour and pixel density of 219 ppi (pixels per inch).

. For communication, it features a full HD 1080p FaceTime HD camera, which promises to provide a clear and crisp appearance on video calls. Also, it houses two side-firing speakers to deliver immersive sound, and dual microphones, which can isolate and enhance the user's voice for crystal clarity during calls.

. It comes with a mechanical keyboard featuring 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys, including 12 full-height function keys. Also, it features a multi-touch trackpad for precise cursor control and support for gestures. Unlike the MacBook Air or the Pro models, the Neo version doesn't come with a back-lit keyboard.

. The company has incorporated TouchID, and like any Apple product, MacBook Neo features state-of-the-art user privacy controls across apps and the system. However, the TouchID is available only on the 512GB storage variant.

. As far as the connectivity is concerned, it features two USB-C ports ( one USB 2.0: with up to 480MBps and one USB 3.0: with up to 10 Gbps) and a 3.55mm headphone jack in addition to Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax).

. The interesting thing about the MacBook Neo is its chipset. Unlike other variants such as MacBook Air and Pro, which come with Apple M silicon, the Neo is powered by Apple A18 Pro chipset same as the iPhone 16 Pro series.

The A18 Pro features a 6‑core CPU with two performance cores and four efficiency cores. It also comes paired with a 5‑core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. It supports 60GB/s memory bandwidth and Hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which promises immerssive gaming experience.

MacBook Neo comes packed with all the right configurations to be able to run all productivity tools and also generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI)-based apps and Apple Intelligence features.

It also features Media Engine to smooth video playback on the MacBook Neo. It supports Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW, Video decode engine, Video encode engine, ProRes encode and decode engine, and AV1 decode.

. With full control over the software and hardware, Apple has ensured the MacBook Neo is well optimised to work seamlessly with iPhones, iPads and other MacBooks, such as hassle-free AirDrop file transfer.

Also, thanks to macOS Tahoe, it supports the Handoff feature, which allows users to start a task on MacBook Neo and continue it on iPhone, while Universal Clipboard allows users to copy and paste content between devices.

With iPhone Mirroring, users can view and interact with their iPhone directly on MacBook Neo, and users switching to Mac for the first time can use iPhone to conveniently and securely transfer settings, files, photos, passwords, and more.

. It houses a 36.5‑watt‑hour lithium‑ion cell. With a full charge, it can deliver 16 hours of battery life. The company offers a 20W USB-C power adapter and a USB-C Charge Cable (1.5 m).

. It features 60 per cent recycled content (in terms of weight)— the highest percentage of any Apple product. This includes 90 per cent recycled aluminium overall and 100 per cent recycled cobalt in the battery. The enclosure is manufactured with a material-efficient forming process that uses 50 per cent less aluminium compared to traditional machining methods. MacBook Neo is manufactured with 45 per cent renewable electricity, like wind and solar, across the supply chain. Additionally, the paper packaging is 100 per cent fibre-based and can be easily recycled.

. It is available in two variants, 8GB RAM + 256GB and 8GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 69,900 and Rs 79,900, respectively.

In India, it is available for pre-order on Apple's official website and authorised retail outlets and is scheduled to hit stores next week on March 11.

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