The not-so-big Mac

ENTRY-LEVEL LAPTOP FROM APPLE NAILS THE BALANCE OF PRICE VERSUS FEATURES

- JUSTIN CONNOLLY Technology Editor

HELLO Neo... Apple wasn't quite finished with new product releases when it announced the iPhone 17e last week - it also revealed fresh updates to its two laptops and its displays... and introduced an entirely new computer.

The MacBook Neo is a small laptop that sits at the bottom of Apple's lineup. Yes, it is one of those unicorn moments - Apple now has a low-cost Mac laptop.

It cuts some corners to hit a starting price of £599, but early signs suggest they've cut the right corners, and the Neo is going to be very popular.

The first thing Apple has done to keep the price down is power the Neo with a chip originally designed for the iPhone. Its brains are not M series, but A series - the silicon is an A18 Pro chip seen in the iPhone 16 Pro released in late 2024.

The computer has a 13in display and is built, like the MacBook Air, from aluminium. The display’s resolution is not too shabby at 2,408 x 1,506.