MacBook Neo makes me want an iPhone Neo

In the past I’ve wondered whether Apple is even able, let alone willing, to make and sell a genuinely cheap product. In the flurry of announcements last week, notably the launch of the MacBook Neo and iPhone 17e, I feel like I got my answer. It’s absolutely able, but more often than not, Apple simply isn’t willing.

Let me begin by saying that I haven’t tried either product yet, and my opinion may change once I’ve got them into the testing labs. This isn’t a review. But on the most fundamental level, based on the top-level spec and design decisions alone, these two new products seem enormously, frustratingly contradictory. The one looks like a great value, with astute compromises made in sensible areas in order to achieve a low price tag. And the other refuses to dip properly into the budget realm, while stacking up a laundry list of limitations seemingly designed to nudge the customer into spending more on a better model.

I wonder if you can tell which is which.

Let’s begin, since the products were revealed in this order, with the iPhone 17e, Apple’s follow-up to last year’s unloved and lopsided iPhone 16e, which I spent a great deal of time with. The 16e replaced the popular iPhone SE as the cheapest entry in the company’s phone lineup, but was noticeably less cheap—a mid-market $599 compared to the SE’s budget $429. Despite this, the 16e was beset with small irritations, from the binned processor chip, screen notch, and single camera lens to the lack of MagSafe and, adding insult to injury, the choice of just two boring colors.

The more naively optimistic of Apple’s fans may have thought the 17e would correct these issues, but it was never very likely. Things started somewhat promisingly, with the expected news that the 17e has a faster A19 processor and MagSafe, but the processor is still a binned version with fewer cores, while the 17e’s MagSafe is an older type that doesn’t get access to the latest charging speeds. It’s limited to 15W, whereas the iPhone 17 gets 25W, and even the iPhone 16 gets 22W.

The largely antiquated camera setup hasn’t been meaningfully addressed, and although we get the pleasure of a third color option, it’s the feeblest and most washed-out pink I’ve seen since the iPhone 16. Whether or not you like that color in general, Soft Pink is unlikely to be your new favorite finish. I will concede that getting twice the storage as standard at no extra cost is a big improvement and much appreciated, but I simply can’t see that making up for the rest of the bad news. Or bad non-news, perhaps that should be.

Now let’s turn to the MacBook Neo. This too is $599, but a $599 laptop is a very different proposition from a $599 smartphone. Right away, we can assign this to the budget segment. Chuck in the education discount and the Neo becomes a genuine budget option for students and schools, and a brilliant way to lead youngsters into the Apple ecosystem.

Of course, the Neo, like the 17e, cuts corners in order to keep the price down. But on paper, they’re the right corners. They’re sensible choices driven by customer-centric thinking. And they don’t stop it from being a highly usable product with a premium feel and a solid, balanced spec list.

Decisions made during the development of the iPhone 16e, and carried over into the 17e, were influenced by the need to make sure it supported Apple Intelligence. So we got a faster processor than we needed, and more RAM than we needed, and swinging cuts everywhere else.

The Neo, by contrast, focuses on what the customer needs and can afford, and trims everything else. My colleague Felipe Esposito ranks those cuts according to their importance, and for many readers, the ones near the top of the list (Touch ID, RAM, Thunderbolt, Neural Accelerators) mean it won’t be the correct choice, as is perfectly understandable for any given entry in Apple’s range. But for the specific market it’s catering to, the Neo makes perfect sense. By contrast, I couldn’t work out who the iPhone 16e was for, and I don’t feel a lot more optimistic about the 17e.

What would it look like if we applied that same philosophy to the iPhone? An “iPhone Neo” would likely prioritize the camera, the battery life, and the design, since those are the things most people care about, and make sacrifices in the processor and screen size. Slimness would be a very low consideration. And AI capabilities would be non-existent. It would be almost the opposite of the iPhone 17e. And it would be great.

You may have heard the phrase “Apple tax” being bandied about in tech circles, but the term has never really been accurate. Samsung and Huawei make $1,000 phones, too. The difference is that, unlike those other companies, Apple doesn’t attempt to sell into every market, and has never had a lot of interest in the bargain basement. The company absolutely can make a budget product when it wants to, as we can see. It’s just that most of the time, it chooses not to.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

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Podcast of the week

Are you experienced? Last week, Apple released the new iPhone 17e, M4 iPad Pro, new MacBooks, and more, and held its Apple Experience event. We cover it all on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

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