The new MacBook Neo is genuinely interesting. Apple finally made a Mac that feels aimed at the huge group of people who do not need “Pro” anything: students, families, coffee-shop writers, and maybe even the old 12-inch MacBook crowd. A $599 aluminum Mac with a 13-inch display and fanless A18 Pro is a very Apple way of attacking the low end: not cheap-looking, just strategically constrained.
What throws me is the name. Apple’s naming system is usually pretty legible: iPad, Air, Pro, Max, Ultra, maybe SE, and now even 17e. The regular 11-inch iPad sells to basically the same mainstream audience and uses the same kind of bright, approachable color strategy, yet Apple just calls it iPad. “Neo” sounds more like a concept-car trim or a side brand than a permanent Mac tier. It does not immediately tell you where this machine sits relative to the Air, and that is usually the one thing Apple naming is very good at.
If Apple wanted a budget signifier, it had cleaner options. It just revived that language with iPhone 17e, and Apple has used it on Macs before with the eMac. My guess is that “MacBook e” simply looked awkward, so “Neo” became the escape hatch, maybe with a little help from Apple already using Neo Tricot in the store. But that is exactly why the name feels odd: the product feels coherent, while the branding feels like a workaround.