Apple has just introduced its most affordable laptop, the MacBook Neo, priced at $599 in the US. The new laptop comes in indigo, blush, silver, and citrus color options, while rocking the same fundamental design language as the latest generation MacBook Air.
What’s inside the MacBook Neo?
It features a 13-inch display with a 2408 x 1506 pixels resolution and 500 nits of peak brightness. Notably, there is no notch at the top, and the bezels are also thicker. Apple is offering the laptop in two storage variants – 256GB and 512GB – while the RAM is locked at 8GB capacity.
The keyboard is not backlit
The chipset in question is the A18 Pro, which offers a 6‑core CPU (2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) and a 5-core graphics engine. Apple is touting 16 hours of battery life on this one, thanks to a 36.5‑watt‑hour lithium‑ion battery fitted inside the chassis.
The port situation is no different. You only get two on the left, viz. a USB 3 (USB-C) with up to 10Gb/s output and a slower USB 2 (USB-C) port that peaks at 480Mb/s. There’s also a 3.5m headphone jack on the right edge.
The caveats
The low-cost of MacBook Neo means plenty of sacrifices. It can drive only a single 4K external display, and that too at 60Hz. Additionally, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor is locked to the pricier 512GB storage version. Notably, the weight of the Neo and Air models is identical, even though the Neo is narrower and slimmer.
No ambient light sensor, either
The memory bandwidth is also much lower compared to the MacBook Air (60GB/s vs 153GB/s), while the Liquid Retina display misses out on the True Tone technology and only supports the sRGB color gamut, instead of the wider P3 color gamut.
Wireless connectivity is also limited to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 standards. Over at the front, you get a 1080p FaceTime camera, while audio output is handled by a pair of side-firing speakers. The MacBook Neo is now up for pre-orders in the US priced at $599, while the 512GB variant will set you back by $699 in the US market.