Price: The Battle of the Entry-Level Laptops
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: The low pricing is the raison d’être for the MacBook Neo. It is immediately (and comfortably) Apple’s lowest-cost MacBook, sitting in true budget territory at its $599 starting price. (Apple also offers an upgraded model for $699, as well as a $499 model available for education buyers.)
A look down the MacBook Neo color lineup (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The 13-inch MacBook Air M5, meanwhile, starts at $1,099. This is up $100 from the M4-based MacBook Air. Even though $100 isn’t massive in the grand scheme of laptop pricing, the optics of crossing that $1,000 line put the Air that much further from true “budget” status. The M5 did receive some spec upticks for the extra money (more on that below), but the point stands.
With the MacBook Air vacating three-figure pricing, the MacBook Neo can step in as the clear budget option. This is wholly new territory for Apple; the MacBook can now credibly compete more with cheap Windows laptops and even Chromebooks than other MacBooks, a genuine attempt by Apple to court budget shoppers. Getting a laptop with classic MacBook build quality at that price sure looks appealing, and we applaud Apple for hitting such a low starting price.
While power users and professionals won’t give the MacBook Neo a second look, it exists for students and casual users. Consider this as much a Chromebook alternative as anything, especially with that $499 education model. A young user getting their first computer? Apple hopes they’ll turn into a MacBook Air (and maybe, eventually, MacBook Pro) user as they get older. That price is key to getting them in the door.
The classic MacBook Air lid on the fresh M5 model (Credit: Joe Osborne)
The MacBook Air still occupies a space separate from the MacBook Pro line; consider it the entry point for the traditional MacBook experience. Again, plenty of classic Mac owners won’t even consider the MacBook Neo, so the Air remains where the options really begin, even if the starting price is a bit higher than last year’s model.
Winner: MacBook Neo
Processors: Apple A18 Pro vs. Apple M5
The chief answer to how Apple achieved the lower price for the MacBook Neo lies in the processor selection. As was rumored in its leadup, the MacBook Neo runs on the existing Apple A18 Pro, previously a smartphone chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro. This is a big departure and proof that Apple has really succeeded in leveraging its own ecosystem, with this traditional iPhone chip working across its operating systems.
A rear look at the MacBook Neo in indigo (Credit: Brian Westover)
The MacBook Air, meanwhile, received a CPU upgrade with the M5 processor. This processor itself is not new; we reviewed the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M5 chip last year.
How do they measure up on paper? The A18 Pro has a six-core CPU (two performance cores and four efficiency cores), a five-core GPU, a 16-core neural engine, and 60GBps memory bandwidth. The M5 includes a 10-core CPU (four Super Cores and six efficiency cores), an eight-core GPU, a 16-core neural engine, 153GBps memory bandwidth, neural accelerators, and support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
The M5 MacBook Air in action (Credit: Joe Osborne)
Of course, we won’t know how the performance stacks up in practice until we test these systems, but the spec comparison speaks for itself. While we have a good idea of the M5 itself since we tested it in the MacBook Pro, we don’t know exactly how it will perform in the smaller MacBook Air, so even the better-known quantity of the two will have to be tested.
As for the Neo and its A18 Pro processor, we will see how it makes the jump from iPhone to the requirements of a laptop. (We estimated in a conjecture story late last year, based on iPhone chip performance; a laptop will obviously be a far more thermally forgiving environment.) Will we get roughly M1 MacBook Air performance, and is that enough these days? We’ll get back to you as soon as we can test a sample MacBook Neo. But it’s fair to say that the M5 will outperform the A18 Pro by a comfortable margin.
Winner: MacBook Air
Memory and Storage Options: Basic vs. Boosted
This is a simpler topic, and each laptop’s spec selection fits its respective intended users. The MacBook Neo base model includes 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. The upgraded $699 model bounces the SSD up to 512GB. (The extra $100 also gets you Touch ID support on the power button.)
An 8GB memory pool can be a bit pokey for some users, so we’ll have to see how that plays out in testing. Casual and classroom users should be just fine with this amount, though.
The M5 MacBook Air, meanwhile, sports 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD in its starter $1,099 model. That storage capacity is up from the 256GB in the $999 base-model 13-inch M4 version. That larger SSD is a key factor in the $100 price increase from last year.
While it’s unfortunate to see the Air’s $999 starting price go away, 256GB of storage seems much more suited to a budget model; we’d expect 512GB in almost any $1,000-plus machine nowadays. The MacBook Air has more memory and storage to throw at any workload, and we’d recommend it for most professional users over the MacBook Neo.
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Winner: MacBook Air
Design and Display Differences: Clash of the Color Schemes
The difference in mobile processors (A18 Pro versus M5) goes a long way toward explaining the $500 difference in starting prices between these two laptops. But there are also some design and feature differences at play. Generally speaking, Apple cut some of the usual premium MacBook inclusions from the MacBook Neo.
The fresh Neo in action (Credit: Brian Westover)
To start, the MacBook Neo is slightly smaller (but thicker) overall, measuring 0.5 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD), compared to the Air’s 0.44-by-12-by-8.5-inch dimensions. Both weigh 2.7 pounds. Part of the difference in footprint is that the Neo’s screen measures 13 inches on the diagonal, versus the 13.6-inch display on the MacBook Air.
This means different resolutions, too. The Neo’s screen is 2,408 by 1,506 pixels, while the Air’s panel has a slightly denser 2,560-by-1,664-pixel resolution. Both are LED-backlit displays with IPS technology rated at 500 nits of brightness, so the two do hit parity in some cases.
The array of MacBook Neo color options (Credit: Brian Westover)
Never mind all those pesky specs, though. Let’s focus on what’s really important: the chassis color options. Each of these machines comes in four colors, but after the traditional silver option, the aesthetics diverge quite a bit. The M5 MacBook Air comes in classy Sky Blue, Starlight, and Midnight variants, all of which carry a stylish, professional look to them. The MacBook Neo pivots to the fun and student-friendly, with Blush (pink), Citrus (yellow), and Indigo, in addition to the silver.
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Winner: Draw
Ports and Connectivity: Thunderbolt, or Straight USB-C?
The Neo-versus-Air question also poses some subtler design and feature differences. Ports are always a key factor in any good MacBook, and this, too, is a place where Apple cut back to get the Neo’s price down. I say “subtle” because you wouldn’t notice the difference just by counting ports: Both laptops have two USB Type-C ports and a headphone jack.
The Citrus MacBook Neo’s side profile (Credit: Brian Westover)
However, the Neo’s USB-C ports do not support Thunderbolt, a connection technology typically associated with Macs. Both of the MacBook Air’s ports support Thunderbolt 4, enabling up to 40Gbps of peak throughput. Thunderbolt 4 also supports charging and DisplayPort video output to two screens at 6K/60Hz (or 4K/144Hz) or to one display at 8K/60Hz (or 4K/240Hz). The MacBook Neo, in contrast, has one USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB-C port and one USB 2.0 USB-C port; these can push DisplayPort and can be used for charging, but the video-out support is limited to one external screen up to 4K at 60Hz.
The MacBook Air’s dual Thunderbolt/USB-C ports (Credit: Joe Osborne)
Speaking of charging, another beloved MacBook feature is missing from the Neo: no MagSafe connection! A rarity in the modern MacBook landscape, you’ll have to charge the Neo exclusively through its USB-C ports.
Winner: MacBook Air
Keyboard, Touchpad, and Wireless: Two Different Touches
The Neo drops the fancy haptic Force Touch trackpad for a simpler mechanical multi-touch trackpad. This is a downgrade for the beloved trackpad, but an understandable place to cut costs on the Neo. Also, note that the Neo’s keyboard lacks key backlighting. If you type deep into the night, be warned.
Every version of the new MacBook Air includes Touch ID for easy fingerprint-based logins. The base $599 MacBook Neo does not, but as mentioned earlier, it’s not entirely excluded from the line; if you upgrade to the $699 model with the 512GB SSD, you can get Touch ID on your Neo.
For audio, the MacBook Neo sports just two speakers, compared with the Air’s four-speaker setup. We haven’t had a chance to test-listen to either set yet, so how much of a difference that makes remains to be seen (or rather, heard).
The M5 Air’s keyboard and touchpad (Credit: Joe Osborne)
On the wireless front, the MacBook Neo includes Wi-Fi 6E, while the MacBook Air sports faster Wi-Fi 7. Both support Bluetooth 6. For hopping on the internet and taking video calls, the MacBook Neo includes a 1080p camera, but that camera lacks the same 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View support that the Air has.
Winner: MacBook Air
