Apple has entered the low- to mid-priced and education laptop market long dominated by Chromebooks by launching a budget MacBook.
Apple said on the 4th (local time) it will release the MacBook Neo, optimized for everyday tasks such as web browsing, video playback and photo editing. By offering a separate education discount price, the move is seen as a strategy squarely targeting demand from students and schools. Apple is moving to expand its share in classrooms.
MacBook Neo is equipped with the A18 Pro chip, first used in the 2024 iPhone 16 Pro. Apple said the product delivers up to 50% faster performance compared with PCs based on the Intel Core Ultra 5 chip. It also features a 16-core Neural Engine to run on-device artificial intelligence (AI) functions such as Apple Intelligence.
The 13-inch display has an anti-reflective coating, and peak brightness is 500 nits. Battery life is up to 16 hours on a full charge. The body is aluminum, and it comes in four colors: silver; blush (light pink); citrus (lemon); and indigo (navy).
The price starts at 990,000 won ($599) for the 256GB base storage model. With the education discount, students can pay 850,000 won ($499), 140,000 won less. Compared with the cheapest MacBook currently on sale, the 13-inch MacBook Air (1.79 million won, $1,099), it is about half the price, but in the education market led by Chromebooks in the $200–$300 range, it is still considered expensive. The key question is whether Apple can compete on value for money by touting performance and AI features.
In 2024, Apple sought to target the lower-priced segment by offering the M1 chip MacBook Air for $699 exclusively at Walmart in the United States. That model reportedly sold out just before the MacBook Neo launch. Preorders for MacBook Neo begin today, with the official release on the 11th.