Apple finished off its week of new product launches by revealing a brand new MacBook called the MacBook Neo. The new laptop is priced very competitively, starting at £599, undercutting the £999 MacBook Air considerably.

That’s also a price that should have most Windows 11 PC makers worried, Microsoft included, whose cheapest Surface Laptop is £899.

The MacBook Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and is available in bright colour options silver, indigo, blush and citrus, fun hues recalling the famous transparent iMac G3 from 1998, although Apple stopped short at making its latest laptop see-through (unfortunately).

It comes with 256GB storage for the base price, with a 512GB version available; both have 8GB RAM. Only the 512GB version has Touch ID, though both models have also and two USB-C ports, but no MagSafe charging port. Thankfully, the headphone jack remains, as does the 1080p webcam.

The Neo is made from aluminium and is powered by Apple’s A18 Pro chipset, the same one found in the iPhone 16 Pro. It marks the first time Apple has opted to power one of its Mac models with one of its A chips, which until now have only ever been used in iPhones and iPad.

But don’t worry, in case you were wondering: the MacBook Neo is definitely running iOS, not iPadOS. You can pre-order the MacBook Neo now, and it’ll go on full sale on March 11.

The use of that chip also means the Neo can run Apple Intelligence, unlike the cheapest £329 iPad. In fact, at £599, the Neo is priced exactly the same as the iPad Air, giving Apple buyers a slight dilemma – full laptop with keyboard, or iPad with its restrictions, but a much more powerful M4 processor.

The MacBook Neo is the spiritual successor to the 12-inch MacBook (2015-2019 RIP) that had one USB-C port and was razor thin, but in most of its iterations was woefully underpowered. That shouldn’t be an issue with the MacBook Neo, though we’ll have to wait and see what the review says when it comes to the performance of the A18 Pro processor.

Apple says the Neo can last for up to 16 hours on a single charge, which is two hours less than it claims the M5 MacBook Air, also announced this week, can manage. The Air now starts at £1,099, £100 more than before, so the introduction of the £599 Neo creates a gulf of £500 between the two, with the cheapest MacBook Pro starting at £1,699 – £600 more than the Air.

“We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.

“Built from the ground up to be more affordable for even more people, MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. It features a durable aluminum design in four beautiful colors; a brilliant Liquid Retina display; Apple silicon-powered performance; all-day battery life; a high-quality camera, mics, and speakers; a Magic Keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad; and the intuitive and powerful features of macOS. There is simply no other laptop like it.”