Apple’s March Announcements: MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, and More

Apple kicked off a week of product announcements on March 2nd, unveiling a new iPhone, a refreshed MacBook Air, a new MacBook Pro, updated displays, and the chips powering these devices. Pre-orders for most products began on March 4th, with official availability starting on March 11th.

iPhone 17e

The iPhone 17e features Apple’s latest-generation A19 chip, the same processor found in the flagship iPhone 17 lineup. It also incorporates a next-generation C1X cellular modem, offering roughly twice the speed of the modem in the iPhone 16e. The 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display now includes Ceramic Shield 2, providing three times the scratch resistance of the previous generation. NBC News

The camera system has been upgraded with a 48MP Fusion lens, capable of functioning like two cameras in one, offering an optical-quality 2x telephoto crop alongside the standard wide angle. Portrait mode has been improved with a smarter image pipeline that automatically detects people, dogs, and cats, saving depth data for post-capture bokeh effects. A key addition is the inclusion of MagSafe, Apple’s magnetic wireless charging ecosystem, supporting up to 15W, an upgrade from the 7.5W limit on the iPhone 16e. Baseline storage has doubled to 256GB, maintaining the $599 starting price. The iPhone 17e is available in black, white, and a new soft pink color. NBC News

MacBook Air with M5

Apple has refreshed the MacBook Air with its M5 chip, delivering up to four times faster performance for AI tasks compared to the M4 MacBook Air, and up to 9.5 times faster than the M1 model. The chip features a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, each with a Neural Accelerator. Apple Newsroom

Storage has been meaningfully upgraded, with the new MacBook Air starting at 512GB – double the previous standard – and configurable up to 4TB for the first time. Apple claims the new SSD also delivers read/write speeds that are twice as fast as those in the M4 MacBook Air. The new Apple N1 wireless chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for improved connectivity. Battery life remains at up to 18 hours on a charge. The design – a fanless aluminum chassis in 13- and 15-inch options – remains unchanged, available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver. Apple Newsroom

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 starts at $1,099 (or $999 for education), while the 15-inch model starts at $1,299 ($1,199 for education). Apple Newsroom

MacBook Neo

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, a new entry-level laptop starting at $599 (or $499 for students and educators), marking the company’s most affordable Mac ever. The 13-inch machine runs on Apple’s A18 Pro chip, paired with 8GB of unified memory. It features a Liquid Retina display and up to 16 hours of battery life, available in blush, indigo, silver, and citrus. NBC News, PCMag

Tradeoffs include an additional cost of $100 for Touch ID, a smaller battery compared to the MacBook Air, and limited RAM to 8GB, which cannot be upgraded. PCMag

MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, delivering up to four times the AI performance of the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to eight times the AI performance of M1-era models. Both chips utilize a new “Fusion Architecture” combining two dies into a single system-on-a-chip. NBC News

The M5 Pro is geared towards professionals in data modeling, sound design, and coding, featuring an up to 18-core CPU and an up to 20-core GPU, supporting up to 64GB of unified memory. The M5 Max doubles down with an up to 40-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory, improving token-generation speeds for Large Language Models (LLMs). Storage starts at 1TB for the M5 Pro models and 2TB for the M5 Max, with SSD speeds reaching up to 14.5GB/s read/write. The MacBook Pro also includes the N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and features three Thunderbolt 5 ports, with up to 24 hours of battery life. NBC News

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199, and the 16-inch version at $2,699. M5 Max configurations start at $3,599 for the 14-inch model and $3,899 for the 16-inch model. All models are available in space black and silver.

iPad Air M4

Apple refreshed the iPad Air lineup with the M4 chip, featuring 12GB of unified memory – a 50 percent increase over the previous generation. Available in 11- and 13-inch sizes, the tablet delivers up to 30 percent faster performance than the M3 model and more than twice the speed of the M1 version. PCMag

Both the N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and the C1X cellular modem debut in the iPad Air, with Apple claiming the latter reduces modem power consumption by roughly 30 percent compared to the M3 model. Pricing remains at $599 for the 11-inch Wi-Fi model and $799 for the 13-inch.

Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

Apple announced updates to its external display lineup, introducing a new Studio Display and the Studio Display XDR. The Studio Display gets Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and a new 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View. The Studio Display XDR replaces the Pro Display XDR, featuring a 27-inch 5K Retina canvas with a mini-LED backlight system, up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness, and support for the Adobe RGB color gamut. Engadget

The new Studio Display starts at $1,599, while the Studio Display XDR starts at $3,299 – $2,700 less than the original Pro Display XDR.