Hands-on: Apple’s new MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e and other new products

MacBook Neo
iPhone 17e
M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro
M5 MacBook Air
Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR
M4 iPad Air

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. this week unveiled a slate of new products, including the $599 MacBook Neo — its first true low-end laptop — and the iPhone 17e. The company also announced updated versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Studio Display and iPad Air.

Notably, Apple raised pricing on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in response to the industrywide memory crunch, making upgrade decisions somewhat tougher. To soften the impact, the company increased base storage capacities across the lineup.

Ahead of the devices going on sale next week, the iPhone maker hosted select members of the press at hands-on events in New York, London and Shanghai. Below are our first impressions of some of the new offerings.

Apple Product Launch Event In New York

MacBook Neo

On the surface, the MacBook Neo maintains Apple’s signature design, featuring nearly the same premium recycled aluminum found on higher-end Macs, along with a full keyboard and trackpad. The first noticeable physical change is the mostly vibrant color selection: citrus (a bright yellow), silver, indigo and blush (a soft pink).

The 13-inch screen is also slightly but still noticeably smaller than the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch display. But both models weigh the same at 2.7 pounds, making the Neo easy to carry or slip into a bag.

Its display also offers the same amount of brightness as the MacBook Air. This was particularly apparent during a dimly lit hands-on demonstration area at the event. Meanwhile, the Neo’s keyboard offers a light touch and feedback that is consistent with Apple’s existing models. It is, however, the first Mac model to have colorized matching keys — a subtle but appealing design touch.

The Neo is also the first Apple laptop to use a smartphone processor, running on an iPhone A18 Pro chip. During the hands-on event, the Neo easily handled tasks like web browsing, switching between pages and editing documents.

Apple Product Launch Event In New York

iPhone 17e

In terms of design and in-hand feel, the iPhone 17e is identical to its predecessor, the 16e. Most upgrades are internal, with the phone now powered by Apple’s A19 chip for speedier daily performance along with the company’s in-house C1X cellular modem. Apart from a new “soft pink” color option, the most obvious indicator that you’re holding a 17e is the antireflective coating on its display — the same that Apple introduced across the broader iPhone 17 lineup last September.

The other obvious tell is the inclusion of MagSafe. Unlike the iPhone 16e, the new handset supports the vast ecosystem of accessories that can magnetically attach to the back of the phone.

Apple iPhone 17e

M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro

There’s nothing new about Apple’s latest MacBook Pros from the outside: These are likely to be the last refresh of the company’s premium laptop line before a significantly redesigned version makes its debut later this year with a punchy OLED touch screen in tow.

But for the time being, these are Apple’s most powerful and capable portable Macs to date. To help offset a higher entry price for both models, the base configurations now come with more storage: one terabyte for the M5 Pro model and two terabytes for the Max. That storage is also faster than before.

Also new to the latest-generation MacBook Pros is Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip, which brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 to the machines.

During Wednesday’s event, both machines showed fast performance, breezing through Apple’s demo workloads, which consisted of music production apps, video editing and some artificial intelligence tasks. To that end, the company says its latest-generation MacBook Pros deliver as much as four times the performance of the previous edition when it comes to AI-related work.

But looking at these laptops and typing on them is still largely the same experience as before, even if the silicon inside is a major upgrade. That’s hardly a bad thing: The Mini LED displays remain crisp and punchy, while the speakers are still some of the best you’ll find on any laptop.

Still, the expectation of a more meaningful redesign later this year may have some of Apple’s savvier users holding off before making a buying decision.

Apple Product Launch Event In New York

M5 MacBook Air

The “same on the outside” theme continues with the new M5 MacBook Air. It comes in the same colors — including the sky blue option that debuted last year. As with the MacBooks, it now comes with more starting storage (512GB in the case of the Air) and also includes the N1 wireless chip to support the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards.

It’s easy to overlook the Air next to the sheer horsepower of the latest MacBook Pros or the flashy colors of the MacBook Neo, but this laptop still represents a middle ground offering plenty of power for photo editing on the go, light gaming and more — and still in a very lightweight design.

And, as with the rest of its new machines, Apple is touting the M5 Air’s ability to chew through even the most taxing AI processes — if that matters to you.

Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

While some Apple fans might have hoped that the regular Studio Display would be updated with a brighter, more fluid screen, those improvements are instead reserved for the all-new Studio Display XDR, which starts at $3,299. It comes in the same 27-inch size as the Studio Display, despite replacing the larger, 32-inch Pro Display XDR.

But compared with Apple’s $1,599 standard monitor, the enhancements are immediately apparent — and I badly want one of these on my desk at home.

Apple Product Launch Event In New York

The introduction of Mini LED technology allows for much more precise backlighting with 2,304 local dimming zones. As a result, the Studio Display XDR offers noticeably improved contrast and darker blacks. And the screen’s smoother 120-hertz maximum refresh rate, familiar to those who already using a recent MacBook Pro, allows for fluid scrolling and makes macOS feel all the more responsive.

The XDR display also offers greater charging power at up to 140 watts, which is enough to fast-charge Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The enhancements to the regular Studio Display are more modest. It’s been updated to support more robust Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, an upgrade from Thunderbolt 3 on the original. It can also charge a connected laptop at up to 96 watts. The built-in webcam now lets you showcase items on your desk, and the speakers produce deeper bass.

M4 iPad Air

It’s hard to tell the new iPad Air apart from its predecessor. That’s because it features the same bright Liquid Retina display, the same thin profile (0.24 inches), and the same size and pricing: The 11-inch model is $599, and the 13-inch option is $799. The colors are also unchanged from last year’s models: blue, purple, starlight and space gray.

The biggest upgrade is the M4 chip, which Apple claims is as much as 2.3 times faster than the M1 iPad Air. It may not be as powerful as the M5 found on the Pro line, but it’s enough to get what you’ll need from a tablet.

During a brief test, the new iPad Air loaded apps quickly and easily handled multitasking. The device also touts the C1X modem, N1 wireless chip and support for Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

(Updates with impressions of the new iPad Air in the last three paragraphs.)