As Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary this month it has launched arguably one of its most important new products, a budget laptop that should have Windows laptop makers worried.
The newest MacBook, called Neo, reflects everything Apple has achieved ― and made so sexy ― with consumer electronics. The ease-of-use, reliability, efficiency and sheer good looks are imbued in this new entry-level laptop, which opens up the Apple ecosystem to a whole new potential market.
While the iPhone accounts for two thirds of Apple’s revenue and a disproportionate amount of profit, it still makes great computers. Until now, very expensive computers. Apple is, after all, the original maker of personal computers, started by arguably the two most famous college dropouts, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
As much as the iPhone has made Apple into a $3.6-trillion company ― and made it the first to shoot past $1-trillion, $2-trillion and $3-trillion ― its root in computers has created a marvellous ecosystem.
My iPhone talks to my Apple Watch, which effortlessly communicates with my laptop and iPad. The whole ecosystem just works. It has its annoyances, but it’s superior, I think, to all the other tech ecosystems. As I have been writing for years, I prefer Apple’s privacy and governance ethos over Google’s – in no small part because Apple makes its money from selling me hardware, not data mining to sell my information to someone else.
I’ve always felt safer storing my credit card details with Apple too, knowing it will never let anyone else have them so it alone can rack up the bills. It works.
Now, with Apple TV+, Apple Music, Podcasts and its own Photos, Maps and Notes apps, the ecosystem is all-encompassing. Non-Mac users won’t have heard of Keynote, Pages and Sheets – Apple’s alternatives to PowerPoint, Word and Excel – but they’re more than adequate. I only use Keynote for my talks, as do many in the creative industries.
Microsoft’s ecosystem works just as smoothly on Apple’s devices as its own, including the granddaddy of all-in-one workspaces, Outlook.
The MacBook Neo is a major departure for Apple, which has traditionally only made higher-end computers for a loyal fanbase. The MacBook Air is the lighter model, while the MacBook Pro is for video editing and other high-spec-requiring industries such as photography and videography. Apple even makes the industry-leading Final Cut Pro that many video professionals swear by.
Not to forget that there’s the consumer editing suite of iMovie and Garage Band (which will also teach you how to play musical instruments) and its own browser, Safari. I’ve happily used Apple’s Mail, Calendar and Contacts apps because they integrate so well together.
There has been a buzz about the newly released MacBook Neo, which sells for R12,000 ― nearly half of the MacBook Air M5 (R22,000) and a quarter of the Pro M5 (R44,300).
Apple has been making its own chips for years, as the M designation shows, but has now made its iPhone silicon powerful enough to run a laptop. This is precisely what it has done with the A18 Pro processor, which is used in my iPhone 16 Pro.
To call it a budget computer is only accurate in the Apple sense of the word. Windows budget laptops sell from R3,000 and truly meet the definition. This Neo is slicker, faster and has ample storage but, most crucially, is a toehold into the lower rungs of the laptop world. Actually, the middle rungs of this technology ladder.
It has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (double that costs R2,000 more and adds a fingerprint reader). It has the same 13-inch sized screen as the Air and weighs 1.23kg.
Interestingly, given how long its battery life is (16 hours for video streaming, 11 hours for “wireless web”) it only has a 20W USB-C charger. This is less than the Air and iPhone’s 30W capacity, but shows how cleverly Apple has used its smarts from mobile phones to boost the battery on this new laptop. (Tech trick: if you want your laptop’s battery to last longer, dim its screen ― that’s the biggest user of power.)
Proper work
Smartphones are certainly the most ubiquitous mobile computers and have truly opened up the wonders of the internet to billions of people. But there are just some things you need a laptop for and proper work is one of them.
My MacBook Air M4 is the best laptop I have ever owned. This was preceded by the equally impressive M3 Air. This year Apple released the Air M5 with double the RAM and storage just a year later. I can’t stop myself from upgrading. Conversely, I am not incentivised to move beyond my iPhone 16 Pro, which I think is “peak hardware” with its excellent camera button and USB-C charging.
Meanwhile, Apple has been cross-pollinating its operating systems (OS) for years ― as have Microsoft and Google ― to look the same and let apps run on multiple Oses. That means iPhone apps have been able to run on iOS and be adapted for macOS and iPadOS and the various processors that power those platforms. The Neo has a ready-made catalogue of apps at launch, not something to be underestimated.
The 3-billion iPhones Apple has sold since 2007 have brought in about $2.3-trillion in revenue, says Counterpoint Research. That is a tidy sum by any standard, but Apple loves its computers. A bunch of happy new Neo Apple neophytes will surely attest to that in the coming months.
• Shapshak is editor-in-chief of Stuff.co.za.
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