Apple Unveils MacBook Neo – Its New Colourful Affordable Laptop Range

Apple has announced MacBook Neo, a new laptop designed to bring Mac computing to a broader audience, starting at $899 in Australia.

Pre-orders opened immediately and units should arrive to customers from March 11. An education discounted price of $749 is also available.

MacBook Neo features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, Apple’s A18 Pro chip, up to 16 hours of battery life and comes in four colours: blush, indigo, silver and citrus.

“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. “Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create.”

Ternus noted the machine features a durable aluminium design in four colours, a Liquid Retina display, Apple silicon-powered performance, all-day battery life and macOS. “There is simply no other laptop like it,” he added.

Design and Build

MacBook Neo features an aluminium chassis with soft, rounded corners and weighs 1.23KG. The four colour options extend to the Magic Keyboard in lighter shades and are complemented by new wallpapers.

The 13-inch Liquid Retina display runs at a 2,408 x 1,506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for 1 billion colours. An anti-reflective coating is included. Apple claims the display is brighter and higher in resolution than most PC laptops in this price range.

The MacBook Neo model with Touch ID supports login authentication and authorisation of purchases via Apple Pay.

Performance

The A18 Pro chip sits at the heart of MacBook Neo, featuring a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. Apple claims the chip delivers up to 50 per cent faster performance for everyday tasks like web browsing compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5.

For AI workloads, the company claims up to 3x faster on-device performance for tasks like applying advanced photo effects, and up to 2x faster performance for photo editing. Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems alongside production Intel Core Ultra 5-based PC systems.

The Neural Engine supports on-device Apple Intelligence features, including the Clean Up tool in the Photos app and note summarisation in Bear. MacBook Neo is fanless, meaning it operates silently across all workloads.

Battery Life

Apple rates MacBook Neo at up to 16 hours of battery life. Battery testing was conducted using wireless web browsing across 25 popular websites while connected to Wi-Fi, with display brightness set to eight clicks from the bottom.

Camera and Audio

MacBook Neo includes a 1080p FaceTime HD camera with optimised image processing. Dual microphones with directional beamforming are designed to reduce background noise and isolate the user’s voice during video calls.

Dual side-firing speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos are included for music, movies and apps like GarageBand.

Connectivity

MacBook Neo features two USB-C ports on the left: USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB 2. External display connectivity is supported only via the left USB 3 port. Both ports support charging. On the right there’s a headphone jack and an SD card reader. Inside there’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 for wireless connectivity.

Software

MacBook Neo ships with macOS Tahoe, which includes built-in apps such as Safari, Photos, Messages and FaceTime. Apple Intelligence features including Writing Tools and Live Translation are integrated across the operating system.

Apple Intelligence is available in beta with support for English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese and Korean, though some features may not be available in all regions or languages.

iPhone users can access Continuity features including Handoff, Universal Clipboard and iPhone Mirroring, which allows users to view and interact with their iPhone directly on MacBook Neo.

Environmental Claims

Apple says MacBook Neo is its lowest-carbon MacBook to date. The device is built with 60 per cent recycled material – including 90 per cent recycled aluminium and 100 per cent recycled cobalt in the battery.

The enclosure uses a material-efficient forming process that Apple claims requires 50 per cent less aluminium than traditional machining methods. The device is manufactured using 45 per cent renewable electricity across the supply chain. Packaging is 100 per cent fibre-based.

Pricing and Availability

MacBook Neo is available to pre-order online and through the Apple Store app in 30 countries and regions, including Australia. Units begin arriving to customers on March 11, with the device also available through Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers from that date.

The base model with a 256GB hard drive starts at $899 ($749 for schools). A 512GB model costs $1,599.

Apple Trade In is available for customers looking to put credit toward a new purchase. AppleCare+ coverage is also on offer, including accidental damage protection, battery replacement and access to 24/7 support from Apple staff.

Prospects

With Microsoft alienating many customers by forcing its unpopular CoPilot AI features and OneDrive cloud storage on Windows users, it’s good timing for Apple to broaden its appeal. The worry is that the laptop may feel limited by its low memory and storage capacity in the modern market, but time will tell. There will also likely be the common Apple outcry over the expensive upgrade to a slightly larger hard drive. However, with the global memory crisis causing sky-rocketing prices across the entire personal computing space, the price increase is arguably more justifiable on this occasion.

Last Updated on March 5, 2026 by Nick Ross