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Macbook Neo / Apple

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The MacBook Neo is the cheapest laptop Apple has ever made, and the way it reaches £599 is the interesting part. Every other Mac runs M-series silicon; the Neo instead uses the A18 Pro, the same chip as the iPhone 16 Pro, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone processor. That choice buys genuine efficiency: a fanless, silent 13-inch aluminium machine with a Liquid Retina display and around sixteen hours of battery. It is offered in four colours, silver, indigo, blush and citrus, with Touch ID reserved for the £699 model. The Neo is honest about being entry-level. It is not pretending to be a small Pro; it is a capable, quiet machine for everyday computing at a price the Mac line has never previously occupied.

Design intent

Using the A18 Pro instead of an M-series chip is a deliberate cost decision that also delivers a fully fanless laptop, since the phone-class processor runs cool enough to need no active cooling.
The line-up is kept deliberately simple, two storage options and a single memory configuration, which holds the entry price down rather than offering choices most of its buyers would not use.

Trade-offs

Memory is fixed at 8GB with no upgrade path. Anyone running several demanding apps at once will meet that ceiling within the machine's usable life.
Connectivity is limited and lacks the Thunderbolt speeds of pricier Macs; fast external storage or high-end display setups are reasons to step up to the MacBook Air.