Apple has announced a budget-friendly MacBook today, the MacBook Neo, which starts at $799 CAD.
Designed to give the user the premium Apple experience at a more affordable price, the MacBook Neo is built with everything needed included. The Neo is built with the standard aluminum frame as per usual with Apple’s recent tech, but the Neo also gets new colour ways with blush, indigo, silver, and a new citrus colour, all being available. The display is nothing to scoff at, either, especially for such a low price, with the 13-inch Liquid Retina display being able to show 1 billion colours. Apple has really pulled through with this one, as many potential buyers may have been turned off after seeing the price points of the usual MacBooks.
“We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” said Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus. “Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. It features a durable aluminum design in four beautiful colours; a brilliant Liquid Retina display; Apple silicon-powered performance; all-day battery life; a high-quality camera, mics, and speakers; a Magic Keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad; and the intuitive and powerful features of macOS. There is simply no other laptop like it.”
Basically, everything you would expect out of a MacBook is in the Neo, Beautiful screen, all-day battery, 1080p camera, but something that does stand out is the A18 Pro chip. This is the chip that was used in the iPhone 16 series of phones and is now a headliner in the Neo. Apple says that this chip makes everyday activities like searching the web 50% faster than other PC’s shipping with Intel Core Ultra 5, “…it’s up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks like web browsing, and up to 3x faster when running on-device AI workloads like applying advanced effects to photos, compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5.”
This also means that photo editing and more intensive activities akin to it are various percentages faster than other PC’s aswell. And as a bonus, the Neo is also entirely fanless, which makes it completely silent.
The Neo was also designed with the environment in mind. For the build itself, it’s made out of 90 percent recycled aluminum, and 100 percent of its battery is made from recycled Cobalt. It is also made with a new build process that uses 50 percent less aluminum than in the past. The packaging itself is even made out of fibre-based material, which can be easily recycled.
The MacBook Neo is now available for pre-order from the Apple website or in-store in 30 countries, including Canada. Pre-orders will start arriving at stores and homes starting Wednesday, March 11th.
