Apple has shipped the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop that slots below the MacBook Air and breaks from Apple's M-series chip strategy for the first time. Instead of an M5 or M-series processor, the Neo runs on the A18 Pro — the same chip inside the iPhone 16 Pro — making it the first production Mac to use an A-series silicon.

Why the iPhone Chip?

The A18 Pro was already one of the fastest mobile chips in the world, and repurposing it for a laptop lets Apple hit a price point the Mac lineup has never reached. At $599 — or $499 for education — it undercuts even the cheapest MacBook Air by $400 and targets the market dominated by Chromebooks and budget Windows PCs.

Apple claims the MacBook Neo is up to 50% faster for everyday web-browsing tasks and 3× faster for on-device AI workloads like photo processing, compared to a current Intel Core Ultra 5 laptop. It also delivers up to 16 hours of battery life on a 13-inch Liquid Retina display.

What You Give Up

The Neo ships with 8GB of unified memory (matching the base MacBook Air) and lacks the Neural Engine horsepower of the M5, so demanding AI pipelines and pro-level creative work remain the M-chip MacBook's territory. Ports are limited to two USB-C and a headphone jack — no MagSafe.

Available Now

The MacBook Neo went on sale March 11 in four colors — blush, indigo, silver, and citrus — and is now shipping worldwide. For millions of users who found Apple's Mac lineup too expensive, this is the on-ramp.