Apple has introduced the MacBook Neo, its most affordable MacBook to date, designed to make the macOS ecosystem more accessible to students and everyday users. Positioned below the MacBook Air lineup, the new laptop combines Apple’s premium design language with efficient performance and long battery life at a significantly lower starting price.
The MacBook Neo is powered by Apple’s A18 Pro chip, the same processor used in the iPhone 16 Pro series. This marks the first time a modern MacBook uses an iPhone-class chip instead of Apple’s M-series processors. Despite this shift, the A18 Pro delivers strong performance for everyday tasks such as browsing, document editing, video streaming and lightweight creative work, while maintaining excellent power efficiency.
The laptop features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 2408 × 1506 and brightness up to 500 nits, delivering sharp visuals and vibrant colours for work and entertainment. It is housed in a lightweight aluminium chassis weighing approximately 1.23kg, making it highly portable for students and professionals on the move.
Other hardware highlights include a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, dual speakers with support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, a Magic Keyboard paired with a large multi-touch trackpad, and two USB-C ports alongside a 3.5mm headphone jack. Connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6.
Under the hood, the A18 Pro chip features a 6-core CPU, a 5-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine designed to accelerate AI workloads and Apple Intelligence features within macOS. The laptop is configured with 8GB of unified memory and offers either 256GB or 512GB of SSD storage. The higher storage configuration also includes Touch ID for secure authentication and Apple Pay support.
Battery life is rated at up to 16 hours of video playback, allowing users to comfortably get through a full day of productivity or study on a single charge.
In Malaysia, the MacBook Neo is available in the following configurations:
8GB RAM + 256GB SSD – RM2,499
8GB RAM + 512GB SSD – RM2,899
Education pricing starts from RM2,099, making the MacBook Neo one of the most affordable Mac laptops ever offered in the Malaysian market.
Available in four colours — Silver, Blush, Citrus and Indigo — the MacBook Neo is expected to appeal to first-time Mac users looking for an affordable entry into the Apple ecosystem while still enjoying the company’s build quality, ecosystem integration and long-term software support.
