Apple’s big week of Mac, iPhone, and iPad introductions continued Wednesday with the launch of a brand-new $599 Apple laptop. The speculation that I think began with Ming-Chi Kuo last year was correct: the MacBook Neo is a 13-in. Mac laptop powered by an A18 Pro chip. It’s the very first Mac with a mobile processor, a graphic illustration, if needed, of the technological achievement of Apple Silicon. 

“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, in announcing the new hardware. “Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. There is simply no other laptop like it.”

It’s also the best laptop you can get for education, where it costs just $499.

The Mac is a perfect Windows upgrade

The company is openly targeting customers who want to shift from Windows to a better operating system with the hardware to match. A visit to the product pages on the Apple website offers a “Switch from PC to Mac” section where you’ll find help and answers to decide if the time is right to upgrade to Mac. 

“A watershed event,” said Asymco analyst Horace Dediu. “First Mac with a mobile processor and the end of the disruptive arc of mobile computing. From Motorola to Intel to Apple silicon M, now personal computing is an accessory to mobile computing. A sharp punctuation point.”

“We’re so excited to bring the magic of Mac to even more people around the world,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

What about the processor?

Why a mobile chip? In part, because the company wanted to target a larger chunk of the PC market in hopes of convincing Windows users, reluctant to move to Windows 11, to upgrade. But it’s also because the company can. Apple’s silicon design teams have done such a fantastic job of processor design that the M-series chips inside most Macs now sit so far ahead of the industry that Apple has quite literally created a fresh space in which it can compete.  

This really is a Mac that strikes at the heart of the core part of the Windows OEM market and should be a red flag warning to Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and everyone else in that part of the market. All should have seen this coming as they watched the evolution of Apple Silicon, which fundamentally enables the release.

Here’s some of the early reactions from across the industry:

• “Not an overstatement: smartest thing Apple has done in years,” MG Siegler.
• “MacBook Neo being $599 really is the nightmare scenario for Windows OEM’s,” Zac Bowden, Windows Central. 
• “Every kid is going to want this to replace their Chromebook at school,” Ernest Wong, Head of Research Baskin Wealth.
• “It’s easily the best value for students, hands down,” Creative Strategies, Max Weinbach.
• “I can’t believe they finally do an on-stage keynote and don’t stream,” Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac.

The decision to deploy a mobile chip inside these devices does not compromise performance for most users, as these systems are perfectly able to handle most everyday tasks. Apple claims the Neo is up to 50% faster for web browsing and can run on-device AI workloads 3x faster than the bestselling PC with the latest Intel Core Ultra 5 with 8GB RAM. 

The chip provides a 6-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, a 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, and no fan, making these systems silent to use. The mobile processor also means they’re energy efficient and are just half an inch thick with the lid closed. 

Apple

The Neo’s other specifications

Apple actually rolled out two versions of the new 2.7-pound Mac, one with and one, without, Touch ID. The $599 model has 256GB of storage and no Touch ID on the keyboard; the $699 model provides twice the storage (512GB) and Touch ID. 

• MacBook Neo is available in silver, indigo, blush, and citrus (or silver, blue, pink, and bright yellow as most people outside Apple will describe them). 
• You get a 13-in. 2,408×1,506-pixel resolution Liquid Retina display with support for a billion colors and one external monitor. The anti-reflective display is brighter with a higher resolution than most PC laptops in this price range, Apple says.
• The Neo delivers 16-hour battery life, two USB-C ports (one of which supports USB 3), Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6, a headphone jack, and stereo speakers. 
• There’s a Magic Keyboard and large Multi-Touch trackpad.
• And the systems include a 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics, and macOS 26 Tahoe installed. The latter means they support Apple Intelligence and everything else you can expect from any Mac. 

One thing you won’t find is a range of build-to-order options for these systems; these are very much sold on the basis that one size fits all and you can’t pour additional memory into them. (Apple would likely argue that if you want more memory, a higher-end model such as MacBook Air or MacBook Pro might be more appropriate.

One more thing

As the world’s first Apple laptop in this price range, it’s reasonable to think these systems will be popular — so what are the environmental consequences? The company says these systems are its lowest-carbon notebooks and are built to use 60% recycled content, including 90% recycled aluminium and 100% recycled cobalt in the battery. And the MacBook Neo is manufactured with 45% renewable electricity, such as wind and solar, across the supply chain. 

The new MacBook Neo is available to pre-order now and will be in Apple stores beginning March 11. I think Apple will sell millions, particularly as this, along with the iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air Apple introduced this week, means you can now take a position somewhere in the Apple ecosystem for just $599. The upcoming iPad upgrade should widen that reach even more.

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