Price: 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.)

(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 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 in the form of the Neo? Apple hopes they’ll become a MacBook Air (and maybe, eventually, a MacBook Pro) user as they get older. That price is key to getting them in the door.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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

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Performance: 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 the lead-up to its launch, 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.

The MacBook Air, meanwhile, received an in-line 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 Neo's 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 Air's M5 includes a 10-core CPU (four super cores and six efficiency cores), an eight- or 10-core GPU, a 16-core neural engine, 153GBps of memory bandwidth, neural accelerators, and support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

As you can see from these productivity and graphics benchmark results, the M5 is simply a more potent processor than the A18 Pro, which is unsurprising. However, the Neo proved it can hang with the M5 in some single-core workloads, not nearly as far off as it was in multi-core tasks. Likewise, the graphics story sees the M5's neural-accelerated GPU outstrip the A18 Pro's graphics cores, but the Neo pulled off some impressive gaming feats of its own. Beyond these tests, we managed 52 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 on the Neo with resolution upscaling and frame generation engaged.

While it can't possibly compare with the new M5 chip, the A18 Pro processor made the jump from iPhone to laptop seamlessly. The Neo outperformed every budget PC laptop we compared it with, and it was capable of some things those machines could only dream of. The Neo looks poised to be a force among budget laptops, but the midrange belongs to the Air. (Check out how we test laptops for more on what these numbers mean.)

Winner: MacBook Air

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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.

Winner: MacBook Air

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Design Differences: Color Clash

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.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

To start, the MacBook Neo is slightly smaller (but thicker) overall, measuring 0.5 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD), compared with 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 for the laptops' Liquid Retina displays, 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.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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 significantly. The M5 MacBook Air comes in classy Sky Blue, Starlight, and Midnight variants, all of which carry a stylish, professional look. The MacBook Neo pivots to the fun and student-friendly, with Blush (pink), Citrus (yellow), and Indigo, in addition to the silver.

Winner: Draw

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Battery Life and Display Testing: Closer Than You Might Think

The MacBook Neo comes surprisingly close to the MacBook Air in battery life, according to our testing, with the Air lasting just a bit more than two hours past the Neo's time in our video-playback battery rundown test. That says a lot for the Neo's longevity, which again outlasted the PC laptops we compared it with in our full review. The good news is you're not missing out on much battery life if all you can afford is the Neo.

When looking at our display testing results, we see a similar story unfold. Yes, the MacBook Air's Liquid Retina panel has advantages in broader color coverage overall, and in the True Tone ambient color adjustment feature. However, the Neo's version of that screen nearly matched the Air's on sRGB color representation in our gamut testing using a colorimeter, and both screens are essentially identical in brightness at both 50% and 100% settings. Based on the use cases respective to each, it's difficult to call an outright winner here, but the Air technically wins the raw math.

Winner: MacBook Air

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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 where Apple cut back to bring the Neo’s price down. I say "subtle" because you wouldn’t notice the difference by just counting ports: Both laptops have two USB Type-C ports and a headphone jack.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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

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Keyboard, Touchpad, and Wireless: Two Different Touches

The Neo drops the fancy haptic Force Touch trackpad for a simpler mechanical multitouch 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.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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. The Air naturally produces fuller sound than the Neo, but the latter is surprising in the audio department for its size and price.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

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 isn't the same 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View support that the Air has.

Winner: MacBook Air