I was eagerly awaiting the new product releases for 2026 from Apple this year. There’s been a lot of rumors swirling, especially about a low cost MacBook running an A series chip and… wow… Apple did not disappoint. Not in product. Not in PRICE. Yesssssss you heard that right. In a world where a lot of PC manufacturers are getting trounced by memory and storage shortages, Apple managed this quite well and while we saw a bit of price increases in the lineup, I think it was managed quite well.

Let’s talk about these.

Macbook Neo

It’s been awhile since Apple had a iBook/Macbook offering for consumers. For those who remember, the 12 inch MacBook released over 12 years ago and after that product line was removed our only MacBook line up consisted of the Air and Pro models.

Then the Neo comes strutting along and bam! $500 dollars for education pricing, Aluminum, body, USB-C, 1080P webcam, Touch ID, AND FUN COLORS! I really like the color options for the laptop and reminds me of the color focused “clamshell” iBook G3 series laptops from 1999. The Neo is perfect for those who need something to surf the web, marketplace, eBay, check emails, basic productivity. There’s plenty of people out there for that market. This is also a wonderful option for schools to compete with Chromebooks. It does depend on your school budget and Google Workspace coming with those for free are still a hang up for some schools, but it certainly makes it more palatable. Highlights for the Neo:

• 13-inch Liquid Retina display
• Powered by A18 Pro chip
• 8GB unified memory
• 256GB / 512GB storage
• Two USB-C ports
• Starting price: $599
  

Some folks have been quick to point out that the Neo won’t work or potentially support at all the Studio Display XDR, or even the Studio Display. Listen, I get it, but that pairing isn’t going to be common place especially when the monitor costs 2x or 5x the price of the Neo. So don’t expect those to be paired together.

MacBook Air and MacBook Pros with M5

MacBook Air

MacBook Air, arguably the most popular MacBook for consumers received a new M5 Chip along with some other received some other notable upgrades. It is still rocking Thunderbolt 4 so its compatibility with the new Studio Display XDR will be interesting to see if it fully supports the XDR Display at 120HZ or if it’s capped at 60Hz. That scenario is going to be in the super minority for most people. The only thing I would liked to see on the MacBook Air would have been an introduction of Nano Texture as a display option. For what is arguably the world’s most popular thin and light laptop, screen reflection is a pain if you cannot control the lighting where you’re working. Otherwise, I think the MacBook Air is pretty much perfect still and one of the easiest laptop recommendations around.

Highlights from the March announcements are short as its mostly a spec bump, but its a welcome one.

• M5 Chip
• Now configurable with up to 4TB of storage
  

MacBook Pro (M5 Pro and M5 Max)

Let’s face it, the M series architecture is the standard for that balance of power and performance. When it comes to M series chipsets, except for maybe the Ultra series, you’re really deciding which form factor you want and you get comparable power between Desktop and Laptops. This is a great thing since it allows people to choose the form factor that works knowing you won’t take much of a hit on the performance side if any at all.

This year, Apple has changed much of the interior architecture of the MacBook Pro systems and they are not just new chips. They have newer architecture, more memory bandwidth, and of course support for WiFi 7E and Bluetooth 6 thanks to the N1 chip.

Pricing is a little higher this year which, given the current economy and impacts to storage and memory, I’m not surprised. So if you’re looking at the Pro models, expect to pay more depending on the configuration this year.

Highlights for the MacBook Pro this year:

• Focus on AI/ML Acceleration
• N1 Chip for Bluetooth and WiFi 7 support
• No more 512GB Option for Storage
• M5 Pro Base now offers 24GB of Ram and 1TB as standard
• Price Increase between 9%-12% depending on the configuration
  

Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

The Apple Display Lineup did see some changes this year that will make many of those creative professionals very happy.

The base Studio Display this year received some modest updates to its hardware such as a new camera with DeskView, new speakers, and a new iPhone chip. While Apple hasn’t officially called out the new iPhone chips in the Studio Display lineup, firmware reviews seem to point to the A19 (Studio Display) and A19Pro (Studio Display XDR). The Studio Display from 2022 used the A13 Bionic chip.

The Studio Display XDR is the star of the show. It replaces its big brother the Pro Display XDR. It received the biggest overhaul like MiniLED with Local Dimming, 120Hz Refresh rate, 140 watt charging, speakers and now an included stand. I think there may be some who have issues with the screen size reduction from 32 inches to 27 inches, but my guess is a display of that size would of pushed the price back into Pro Display XDR territory. The included stand is also Tilt and height adjustable as well as an optional nano texture coating for an additional $300.

Pricing stayed the same for the Studio Display at $1599 while the Studio Display XDR comes in at $3299.

Other Products Released

While the MacBook and Display lineups were the star of the show, Apple provided some additional product releases like the iPhone 17e and iPad Air. The 17e is notable since it addressed all the perceived shortcomings of the 16e like wireless charging with Magsafe, much higher starting storage, and the 48MP camera.

One last change was that the Mac Studio 256Gb memory option is now the highest memory config available. Apple pulled the 512Gb memory option.

Wrap Up

Overall the MacBook Neo and the Studio Displays were the star of the product launches this past week. It was welcome to see how Apple managed the mounting costs of memory and storage in the age of AI. In my opinion, I think they’ve handled it quite well compared to the market. What will be interesting to see is what happens to the Mac Studio and Mac Pro lineups now that M5 is here. Time will tell but in my opinion, we won’t see anything until WWDC or even in November as there are rumored OLED MacBooks and M6 chips coming. That is of course speculation but I’m curious to see where the lineup takes us this year.

All the newly released products are available for Pre Order with deliveries starting this week on 03/11.