Low-priced Mac is here! Apple (AAPL.US) announces Neo starting at $499, with the first use of A18 Pro targeting Windows and Chromebook

Apple (AAPL.US) has launched the MacBook Neo priced at $599, marking the company’s most significant entry into the budget laptop market to date, aiming to compete with Windows PCs and Chromebooks among budget-conscious consumers.

This new device’s price is $400 lower than any previous generation of Apple’s laptops, clearly below the current price of $1,099 for the MacBook Air. The MacBook Neo comes in various colors, including citrus, silver, indigo, and light pink, as Apple hopes to attract students and a broader consumer base.

The MacBook Neo features a 13.0-inch display, making it one of Apple’s smallest laptops, while the MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch screen. Notably, this product is the first to use the A18 Pro chip, which is typically used in iPhone processors, marking Apple’s first application of smartphone chips in its Mac product line.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, stated that the MacBook Neo was “built from the ground up with the goal of allowing more users to experience a Mac at a lower price.”

The base model offers 256GB of storage for $599; a $699 upgraded version doubles the storage and adds Touch ID for login and payment verification. Educational users can also enjoy a $100 discount, bringing the entry price down to $499. Apple announced that this product is available for pre-order starting Wednesday, with shipments and in-store sales beginning on March 11.

In terms of performance, the MacBook Neo is equipped with 8GB of RAM, a 6-core CPU, and a 5-core GPU, comparable to the configuration of the iPhone 16 Pro set to be released in 2024. The device boasts a battery life of around 16 hours, slightly less than the latest MacBook Air with the M5 chip, which lasts 18 hours. The display brightness can reach up to 500 nits, and it weighs 2.7 pounds, the same as the 13-inch Air.

Despite being positioned as an entry-level product, the MacBook Neo still features an aluminum body, a full keyboard, and a trackpad, and supports WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 6, and a 1080P FaceTime camera. The device offers two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, and comes with a 20-watt charger.

Apple stated that the MacBook Neo’s performance is sufficient for everyday tasks such as web browsing, document processing, photo editing, and video conferencing. Although it uses an iPhone chip, the device runs the same macOS operating system as other Mac computers and is compatible with both Mac and iPhone apps.

Compared to low-end Chromebooks and Windows PCs priced between $200 and $600 in the market, the MacBook Neo is still slightly higher in price, but Apple emphasizes that its design, configuration, and overall experience are distinctly more premium, claiming that the device can achieve speeds in artificial intelligence computations that are three times faster than some competing PCs.

Apple hopes to attract new users to its ecosystem with this more competitively priced Mac, thereby boosting sales of products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Previously, Apple’s Mac business performed poorly during the holiday quarter, with sales dropping 6.7% year-on-year to $8.39 billion, falling short of analysts’ expectations of over $9 billion.

The launch of the MacBook Neo is also part of Apple’s recent flurry of product updates. On Monday, the company introduced the iPhone 17e and the iPad Air equipped with the M4 chip, while on Tuesday it released updated versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Studio Display monitor. Additionally, Apple plans to launch touchscreen Mac products later this year to further expand its computer product line.