MacBook Neo: is Apple’s cheapest Mac worth it for UK buyers?

MacBook Neo is Apple’s cheapest route into a new Mac, starting at £599 for the 256GB model, with education pricing from £499.

For the money, the hardware is more interesting than the price might suggest: a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, aluminium enclosure, A18 Pro chip and four finishes — silver, blush, citrus and indigo. Apple rates battery life at up to 16 hours, and the fanless design means it runs silently.

The compromises are fairly obvious. The base model has 8GB of unified memory, two USB-C ports rather than Thunderbolt, and support for one external display. Those limits matter more if you keep lots of demanding apps open or expect to use the machine for heavier creative work.

For web browsing, writing, streaming, study and ordinary office work, however, the Neo has a clear purpose. At £599 it is a substantially cheaper way into a new Mac than a MacBook Air.

If your needs are straightforward, the Neo makes sense. If you expect to edit large video projects, compile demanding software or want more headroom for the next few years, spending more on a MacBook Air is easier to justify.

Discuss it: would you buy the £599 Neo or spend more on a MacBook Air? Join the UKMac community.