Apple MacBook Neo vs MacBook Air: Which Apple MacBook should you buy

Apple now has two very different answers to the question “which MacBook should I buy?” The MacBook Neo starts at Rs 69,900 and runs on the A18 Pro—the same chip inside the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Air M5 starts at Rs 1,19,900 and uses Apple’s M5 chip, built for the Mac. Both are fanless and both run macOS Tahoe with Apple Intelligence support. That’s where a lot of the similarities end. Now, the Rs 50,000 price gap is the headline, but the tradeoffs go deeper than just the processor. Here’s a detailed comparison of both to help you decide.

On the outside, the two laptops look like close cousins. Both use aluminium unibody builds and the Neo and 13-inch Air weigh exactly the same at 1. 23 kg. The 15-inch Air steps up to 1. 51 kg. The Neo is marginally smaller than the 13-inch Air—29. 75 x 20. 64 cm vs 30. 41 x 21. 5 cm—but the Air is thinner at 1. 13 cm against the Neo’s 1. 27 cm. The difference is barely perceptible in hand.

Where they diverge noticeably is the keyboard and trackpad. The Neo ships with a standard Magic Keyboard—no backlighting, and Touch ID only if you pay Rs 10,000 extra for the 512GB model. Both Air models get a backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID as standard.

The trackpad difference is also real: the Neo uses a mechanical Multi-Touch trackpad, while the Air has Apple’s Force Touch haptic trackpad, which supports pressure-sensitive input.

On colours, the Neo goes fun and expressive—Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver. The Air stays in more subdued territory: Sky Blue, Starlight, Midnight, and Silver. The Neo also skips the display notch, though it compensates with thicker bezels around the screen.

The Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display at 2408 x 1506 pixels (219 ppi). The 13-inch Air’s panel runs at 2560 x 1664 (224 ppi), and the 15-inch Air goes further at 2880 x 1864 on its 15. 3-inch screen—both at 224 ppi. All three hit 500 nits of brightness and support 1 billion colours, but both Air models add P3 wide colour and True Tone—the latter automatically adjusts white balance based on ambient light. The Neo uses standard sRGB.

For everyday use—browsing, streaming, document work—all three screens are comfortable to look at. The gap becomes more relevant if you’re editing photos or doing colour-sensitive work, where the Air’s P3 coverage gives it a meaningful advantage.

The Neo has a dual-speaker system. The 13-inch Air has four speakers, and the 15-inch version steps up to six speakers with force-cancelling woofers. Both Air models get a three-mic array vs the Neo’s two-mic setup.

Camera-wise, all three do 1080p video. But both Air models carry a 12MP sensor with Center Stage—which pans and zooms to keep you centred during calls—along with Desk View support. The Neo has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera that handles the basics without any of that.

This is the biggest technical divide between the two lineups. The A18 Pro in the Neo has a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 60 GB/s memory bandwidth. The M5 in both Air models runs a 10-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU, and 153 GB/s memory bandwidth—more than double. Early Geekbench comparisons using analogous chips put M5 single-core scores roughly 20% ahead of the A18 Pro, and multi-core scores nearly double.

The Neo’s memory situation is also fixed: 8GB unified memory across both configurations, with no upgrade path. Both Air models start at 16GB and go up to 32GB. For light, everyday use, 8GB on macOS handles itself reasonably well. But if you run multiple heavy apps simultaneously, or do any video editing or AI workloads, that ceiling will show up.

The Neo has two USB-C ports—one USB 3 running at 10 Gbps, one USB 2 at 480 Mbps—plus a 3. 5mm headphone jack. It supports one external display at up to 4K/60Hz. No MagSafe here, so one of those USB-C ports will be occupied when charging.

Both Air models have two Thunderbolt 4 ports running at 40 Gbps each, a MagSafe 3 port for dedicated charging, and a headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support. They can drive two external displays simultaneously—up to 6K/60Hz—and support fast charging with a 70W adapter.

Wi-Fi is also a step apart: the Neo has Wi-Fi 6E, the Air has Wi-Fi 7. All three support Bluetooth 6.

Apple rates the Neo at up to 16 hours of video streaming and 11 hours of wireless web. Both Air models edge ahead at 18 hours streaming and 15 hours web, with the 15-inch packing a larger 66. 5Wh battery vs the 13-inch Air’s 53. 8Wh. The Neo runs on a 36. 5Wh cell. All three should comfortably last a full day. The Neo ships with a 20W adapter; the 13-inch Air comes with a 30W or 35W adapter depending on configuration, and the 15-inch Air includes a 35W adapter. Both Air models support fast-charging up to 70W.

The MacBook Neo comes in two configurations: Rs 69,900 for the base 256GB model without Touch ID, and Rs 79,900 for the 512GB model that also adds Touch ID to the keyboard. Those are the only two options—memory and chip are not configurable. Students get it at Rs 59,900 through Apple’s education pricing.

The MacBook Air M5 13-inch starts at Rs 1,19,900 with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, going up to Rs 1,59,900 for the top 24GB/1TB configuration at launch. The 15-inch Air starts at Rs 1,44,900 with the same base specs. Both Air models can be further configured with up to 32GB RAM and 4TB storage at additional cost.