MacRumors Show: Apple Announces MacBook Neo and More

In this week’s episode of the MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple’s busy week of announcements that saw the introduction of 10 new products.

The most important announcement of the week was the MacBook Neo, Apple’s new laptop starting at $599. The MacBook Neo is designed to compete with lower-cost Windows laptops and Chromebooks, while expanding the Mac lineup with a more affordable option.

Unlike all other Apple silicon Macs, the MacBook Neo is powered by the A18 Pro chip built for the iPhone 16 Pro, making it the first Mac to use an iPhone-class processor instead of an M-series chip.

The machine has a round, colorful design available in Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus finishes, with matching keyboards and backgrounds that give it a more playful look than Apple’s existing notebooks. At 2.7 pounds, it weighs the same as the MacBook Air.

It offers a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a uniform, iPad-style bezels rather than a notch, a Magic Keyboard, a mechanical trackpad, two USB-C ports, 8GB of memory, a headphone jack, a 1080p camera, two mics, two speakers with Spatial sound, and a battery life estimated at 16 hours.

Apple has also updated several existing devices with modest specification upgrades. The iPhone 17e keeps the same design and price as the iPhone 16e but adds an A19 chip, MagSafe support, a second-generation Apple C1X modem, and 256GB of basic storage.

The 11 and 13-inch iPad Air received an M4 chip, 12GB of RAM, support for Wi-Fi 7 with Apple’s N1 wireless chip, and the same C1X modem in mobile models. Meanwhile, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air has been upgraded with an M5 chip and a higher base storage capacity of 512GB, although the removal of the 256GB option has increased the starting price to $1,099.

At the high end of the Mac lineup, Apple has refreshed the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, introducing the “Fusion Architecture” that combines two 3nm dies together into a single processor. These models also get faster SSD speeds, higher storage capacity, and Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 with the N1 chip. Battery life has increased slightly across the board, while GPU cores now include Neural Accelerators aimed at improving AI workloads.

Apple has also expanded its display lineup with a new Studio Display XDR model, replacing the Pro Display XDR. The new model offers a 27-inch 5K mini-LED panel with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, HDR brightness up to 2,000 nits, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. The standard Studio Display was updated at the same time with two Thunderbolt 5 ports, improved speakers, and a camera that now supports Desk View, but retains its 60Hz panel and brightness 600-nit.

All of the newly announced devices are available for pre-order on Wednesday, March 4, with the rest of the lineup scheduled to launch and begin arriving to customers on Wednesday, March 11. The MacRumors Show has its own YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe to keep up with new episodes and clips.

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If you haven’t listened to a previous episode of the MacRumors Show, tune in to hear our discussion about what we expected from Apple’s announcements this week to see what we got right and wrong.

Subscribe to The MacRumors Show for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the hottest breaking news here. MacRumorsoften joined by interesting guests such as Kayci Lacob, Kevin Nether, John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, Justine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Marcus McKane, Lewis, Lewis, Ben Sull Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

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