The new MacBook Neo, priced at R11,999 in South Africa, is set to revolutionise the ultrabook market with its premium aluminium design, A18 Pro chip, and AI capabilities, offering unbeatable value compared to competitors like Chromebooks and Lenovo. Picture: Apple
Image: Apple
It’s official: the new MacBook Neo will be sold for R11,999 in South Africa, making it comfortably Apple’s cheapest ever laptop.
That price is terrible news for Chromebooks, Asus, Lenovo, and the other big brands that sell entry-level laptops in South Africa. For reference, when I bought my first MacBook Pro in 2010, that cost R10,500, and with inflation, that works out to between R21,000 and R23,000. I had predicted incorrectly that they would sell the Neo for just under R15,000 which would have still been good value, but at this price it’s simply unbelievable..
The fact of the matter is that the Neo, which was launched on Wednesday, will offer the best all-round package for a laptop at that same price. The Neo is also the same price as the new iPad Air M4, also released this week, which doesn’t come with a keyboard or the superior Mac operating system and has just an 11" screen unless you pay more.
Any other laptop under the R15,000 mark in South Africa will be made of plastic, have a cheap trackpad, and not offer the performance that the Neo will. Add in the 13” liquid retina display, Apple trackpad, which is the best on the market, Magic Keyboard, and side-firing speakers, and it’s an unbeatable all-round package. It's just no contest now.
The biggest draw of the Neo is the aluminium design, which will set it apart from its competitors. Of course, the aluminium casing is standard on MacBook, and because the Neo has this, it simply feels more premium.
The storage of 256GB and unified memory of 8GB may sound modest, but in combination with Apple’s A18 Pro chip, it will still be a powerhouse at this price.
In fact, this laptop is more powerful than the iconic M1 Air, which ushered in the Apple Silicon era in 2020. Until 2023, when I upgraded to the M1 Pro, I was still using the M1 Air for all my daily office tasks, including regular 1080p video editing.
While the Neo won’t handle regular video editing these days, that’s not who this laptop is for. It’s aimed at students and the vast majority of users for web browsing, online meetings, and general office work.
It can even still use AI apps like ChatGPT. That’s a huge chunk of the market, well over 95% according to reports. You can pre-order the Neo from the iStore today, with shipping starting on March 11.