MacBook Neo, AirPods Max 2, iPhone 17e, and everything else Apple announced this month

From the budget-friendly MacBook to the new iPhone, Apple announced a series of new products this month.

The tech giant kicked things off on March 2 with the new iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air. A day later, Apple announced the M5 MacBook Air, new MacBook Pro models, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, as well as the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR. On March 4, Apple announced a low-cost MacBook called the MacBook Neo that runs on the same chip as the iPad and iPhone.

After a week and a half, Apple dropped a surprising announcement: AirPods Max 2, the long-awaited successor to its flagship headphones launched in 2020.

If you haven’t had time to check out all the new products, we’ve rounded up all the announcements for you right here.

iPhone 17e

Apple has unveiled the latest version of its budget-friendly iPhone line, the iPhone 17e, which costs $599 and will be available on March 11.

The smartphone comes with the A19 chip found in the base iPhone 17. The base model comes with 256 GB of storage, which is twice the entry storage from the iPhone 16e.

One of the most notable changes from the previous budget iPhone is the addition of MagSafe and Qi2, which supports wireless charging up to 15 W. As for the camera, the iPhone 17e features the same 48-megapixel camera as the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone 17e also features C1X, Apple’s latest cellular modem, which is up to 2x faster than the C1 in the iPhone 16e, according to Apple. The tech giant says the C1X uses 30% less power than the modem in the iPhone 16 Pro, allowing for better battery life.

The smartphone is available in black, white, and a new soft pink color.

iPad Air M4

Apple announced the new iPad Air, powered by the M4 chip, which makes it 30% faster than the M3 iPad Air and 2.3x faster than the M1 version. The new device is still sold at the same price of $599 for the 11-inch model, and $799 for the 13-inch model. For academic customers, there is a $50 discount.

iPad Air is designed to be faster, thanks to an updated neural engine and more memory, making it better at using AI.

The iPad Air also has an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU, making it a decent choice for gaming or photo editing. It also comes with 12GB of integrated memory, a 50% increase from the previous model, and the memory bandwidth is now up to 120GB/s. Apple says these improvements enable users to implement AI models faster than in previous generations.

The device comes in four colors: blue, purple, starlight, and space gray. Storage options are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

Alongside the release of new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, Apple has introduced updated MacBook Pro models with the latest chipsets. Apple said these new chips are specifically designed to make its laptops better at handling intensive AI tasks. The new Pro laptops can handle AI tasks up to 4x faster than their M4 predecessors.

The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are up to 4x faster in LLM processing than the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x faster in AI image generation than the M1 Pro and M1 Max.

The MacBook Pro features up to 2x faster read/write performance than the last generation and will start at 1TB of storage space for the MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro, and 2TB for the MacBook Pro with the M5 Max. Laptops have an average of up to 24 hours of battery life, and with a 96 W USB-C adapter or more, users can charge the battery to 50% in 30 minutes. The laptops support Thunderbolt 5 and have a six-speaker audio system.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro chips start at $2,199 and $2,699, respectively, while models with M5 Max chips start at $3,599 and $3,899, and are available in black or silver.

M5 MacBook Air

Like the new MacBook Pro models, Apple’s new MacBook Air is designed to be better at handling AI tasks.

The new MacBook Air comes with 18 hours of battery life, which is a six-hour improvement over Apple’s 2020 Intel-based laptops, and features a 12 MP Center Stage camera for video calls, mic arrays, and a sound system that supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. It also has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a MagSafe charging port, and a standard 3.5 mm earphone jack.

The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099 and the 15-inch model starts at $1,299. They are found in blue sky, midnight, starlight, and silver. The Air now starts with 512GB of storage, doubling the base capacity of the previous model.

MacBook Neo

Apple has introduced a low-cost, entry-level laptop called the MacBook Neo, its answer to Google’s Chromebook. Starting at $599, the MacBook Neo is designed for students and users whose jobs don’t require intensive workflows like video editing or 3D rendering.

The 13-inch laptop comes in four colors: silver, blush, citrus, and indigo. The base model comes with 256GB of storage, while the $699 model comes with 512GB of storage, and Touch ID.

The laptop runs on the A18 Pro chip, which powers the iPhone 16 Pro models, rather than the more powerful, more expensive M5 chip used by the latest MacBook Air.

The MacBook Neo comes with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and dual microphones, as well as speakers on each side that support Spatial Audio. The battery can last 16 hours on a single charge, delivered through one of its two USB-C ports.

MacBook Neo features a five-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, which supports the same levels of gaming and on-device AI functions as the latest iPhone.

The laptop is also the most repairable MacBook in “fourteen years,” according to a teardown by the iFixit website.

AirPods Max 2

Apple’s new in-ear headphones, AirPods Max 2, cost $549, and include active noise cancellation, Apple’s proprietary H2 audio chip, support for live translation, better sound quality, and more. The headphones are available in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue.

Apple says the new headphones’ noise cancellation (ANC) is up to 1.5x more effective than before. And the Adaptive Audio feature allows the headphones to automatically adjust ANC and Brightness levels based on the user’s environment to improve the listening experience.

The company says that Transparency mode is now more natural, thanks to a new digital signal processing algorithm optimized for the H2 chip and the AirPods Max microphone array, so that users are always aware of their surroundings and the people around them.

The headphones also support Camera Remote Control, a feature that lets you trigger the iPhone or iPad camera shutter remotely, and a Loud Noise Reduction feature that helps protect users from loud ambient noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to.

Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

Apple introduced the new $1,599 Studio Display and the $3,299 Studio Display XDR. The 27-inch displays come with improved cameras and improved connectivity. Both have a 12 MP Center Stage camera, which Apple says delivers improved image quality, and supports Desk View, a feature that instantly shows your face and the top view of your desk.

The displays come with Thunderbolt 5 ports, so they can be connected to accessories and used to daisy-chain up to four displays (Thunderbolt 5 Pro cable comes included).

Studio Display’s 5K Retina display has more than 14 million pixels, 600 nits brightness, and supports the P3 wide-gamut color standard that covers a wider range of visible colors than standards like sRGB.

Studio Display XDR features a 5K Retina XDR display (5120 x 2880 resolution) with mini-LED backlighting and more than 2,000 local dimming points. It can go up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness and 2000 nits of HDR peak brightness, and has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. It also supports the Adobe RGB color standard.

M5 Pro and M5 Max chips

The new chips are built around Apple’s new Fusion Architecture, an advanced design that includes a powerful CPU, expandable GPU, Media Engine, integrated memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 power.

Both chips have an 18-core CPU, which marks an improvement from the 14-core configuration in the M4 Pro and 16-core in the M4 Max.

The CPU now includes six “super cores,” Apple’s term for high-performance cores, and 12 new cores. Overall, the CPU boosts performance by up to 30% in multitasking workloads.

The M5 Pro supports up to 64GB of integrated memory, up from 48GB on the M4 Pro, with a bandwidth of 307GB/s. The M5 Max continues to support up to 128GB of memory, and the bandwidth has increased to 614GB/s.

New accessories

Apple has introduced new spring colors for iPhone cases, Apple Watch bands, and Crossbody Strap. Apple’s standard iPhone 17 silicone case now comes in three new colors: Bright Guava, Vanilla, and Electric Lavender. Bright Guava and Vanilla are also available for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.

The Apple Watch Sport Band is now available in Bright Guava, Clementine, and Soft Pink, while the Sport Loop adds Bright Guava, Blue Mist, and Cantaloupe to its color lineup.

The Crossbody Strap is now available in Bright Guava and Soft Pink.