The Apple MacBook Neo, not to be confused with a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, marks the return of a truly affordable laptop to Apple Inc.’s portfolio.
At $599, or ₹69,900, onwards, the Apple Macbook Neo is very relevant for some markets, including India—the attempt is to compete with the troika of mid-range Windows 11 laptops, Google Chromebooks as well as some Android tablets with a keyboard slapped on. The approach straddles a blend of Apple’s iPad and iPhone elements too, including a foundation provided by the A18 Pro chip that also powers the iPhone 16 Pro series.
Apple MacBook Neo: The specifications
The MacBook Neo, with a 13-inch screen, is available in two variants (differentiated between 256GB and 512GB storage), priced at ₹69,900 and ₹79,900 respectively. The A18 Pro chip is configured with a 6‑core CPU including 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 5‑core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence. The suite, along with the Siri voice assistant, is expected to receive significant updates in the coming weeks.
“We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “There is simply no other laptop like it.”
There is an element of historical significance underlining the 2026 return of the MacBook Neo albeit with a modern naming scheme, as it takes forward a legacy of the original polycarbonate MacBook that was sold between 2006 and 2012, and the 12-inch MacBook with the Retina display, that was in the market from 2015 to 2019. The MacBook Neo also has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with 2408 x 1506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and support for 1 billion colours, Apple confirms.
The company also claims up to 16 hours battery life with the MacBook Neo, though true to Apple’s style, capacity details haven’t been specified. It’ll ship with a 20-watt USB-C adapter. Focus remains on portability with a fanless design, tipping just 1.22kg on the scales, despite the aluminium chassis. There are two USB-C ports, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, while wireless connectivity is ticked off with Wi-Fi 6E.
By utilising the A18 Pro silicon, on the 3-nanometer architecture, Apple has repurposed a chip that was otherwise advancing towards being filed as a previous generation spec. Performance will be significantly different from an iPhone, considering the larger chassis it resides in, with an elaborate active and passive cooling architecture in support. Apple’s attempt to offer a more stable and performance oriented experience at price points where Windows laptops tend to offer certain compromises, and Chromebooks as well as Android tablets have platform limitations, may resonate with potential buyers.
Apple has Intel in its sights, noting that apps including Messages, WhatsApp, Canva, Excel, Safari, and other everyday tasks, will be up to 50% faster “than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5”. “And for more demanding activities, it’s up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing.”
There is also the element of colours, something that’s been a regular feature with the iPad and iPhone lines, and further helps with the personalisation aspect. At this time, the MacBook Neo rolls out with the option of Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo.
The MacBook’s launch is likely to bookend a slew of announcements by Apple this week, including the iPhone 17e, a refreshed iPad Air, new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips that arrive with the new MacBook Pro range, updates to the Studio Display and Studio Display XDR, as well as the MacBook Air refresh that arrives with the M5 chip.
In fact, the recalibrate pricing of the new MacBook Air with M5, at ₹1,19,900 onwards and higher than the ₹99,900 launch price of last year’s M4 chip powered edition, opens a wider window for the new MacBook to slot in to.
