Meet the MacBook Neo, Apple’s colourful reply to the Chromebook, beginning at $599

Apple on Wednesday unveiled a low-cost, entry-level laptop dubbed MacBook Neo, marking the first time the company has targeted a similar audience as Google did with its Chromebook.

Starting at $599, the MacBook Neo is aimed at students or users whose work doesn’t involve intensive workflows like video editing or 3D rendering. The 13-inch MacBook Neo comes in four colors: silver, blush, citrus, and indigo. The base model comes with 256GB of storage, and an upgrade to the $699 model gets you 512GB of storage, plus Touch ID.

Apple is seemingly able to offer the Neo at this price point because the laptop runs on the A18 Pro chip, which powers the iPhone 16 Pro models, rather than the more powerful, pricey M5 chip that the latest MacBook Air uses.

“Powered by A18 Pro, MacBook Neo can fly through everyday tasks, from browsing the web and streaming content, to editing photos, exploring creative hobbies, or using AI capabilities across apps,” Apple wrote in a press release. “In fact, it’s up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks like web browsing, and up to 3x faster when running on-device AI workloads like applying advanced effects to photos, compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5.”

The laptop comes with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and dual microphones, plus speakers that fire from each side of the laptop to support Spatial Audio. Apple says the laptop’s battery can last up to 16 hours on a single charge, which is delivered via one of two USB-C ports. The Neo also has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The MacBook Neo uses a 5-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, which can support similar levels of gameplay and on-device AI tasks as a recent iPhone. It’s fan-less, like the MacBook Air, and can operate silently.

As the ongoing RAM shortage makes Apple’s more advanced models like the MacBook Pro up to $400 more expensive than their predecessors, the MacBook Neo has the potential to appeal to users who don’t need so many technical perks… or, for those of us who simply cannot resist a pink MacBook.