Apple unveils a lower-cost MacBook. Take a look at 'Neo.'

• Apple unveiled "Neo," a more affordable MacBook, on Wednesday.
• The lower-cost laptop sells for $500 less than the entry-level MacBook Air.
• Apple has also raised the prices of the new MacBook Air and Pro models.

Apple is trying something new: Selling a budget-friendly laptop.

The tech giant unveiled its new MacBook Neo on Wednesday at a special event in New York City.

It sells for $599, which gets you 256 gigabytes of storage, making it $500 cheaper than the new M5 MacBook Air, which starts at $1,099. The most expensive Apple laptop, the M5 Max MacBook Pro, starts at $3,599.

A MacBook priced under $1,000 positions Apple to compete with rival PC makers.

"Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create," said John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering.

The MacBook Neo features a 13-inch display, side-firing speakers, and is powered by the A18 Pro chip. It has up to 16 hours of battery life and comes in the colors indigo, blush, citrus, and silver.

"We're so excited to bring the magic of Mac to even more people around the world," CEO Tim Cook said in an X post.

The new computer has been the subject of whispers in the tech community since Bloomberg reported in 2025 that Apple was working on a laptop powered by an iPhone processor rather than an M-series chip like its other MacBooks.

The introduction of a lower-cost laptop comes amid a round of price increases for higher-end MacBooks announced just a day earlier. Consumer tech companies like Apple are dealing with a global memory shortage thanks to artificial intelligence's impact on the supply chain and increased demand for memory chips.

The new MacBook Neo is available for preorder starting Wednesday.