Apple announced the M6 14-inch MacBook Pro this morning, and I see the Mac laptop lineup is confusing to a lot of you. Here’s my quick guide, with an AI take on each. MacBook Neo ($699): a phone chip (A18 Pro) in a great entry-level laptop for couch surfing. For AI you get the built-in Apple Intelligence stuff like transcription, translation and proofreading, and cloud models. Only 8GB of memory, so no third-party on-device models on this one. MacBook Air with M5 ($1,299, up to 32GB): enough for something like to sift your email, run projects and track your calendar. Not enough for good content generation, so it won’t write your emails, fill out your spreadsheet or write code effectively. The catch: no fan, so push a local model hard and it throttles. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 ($1,999): the entry-level Pro, and it has a fan. At Apple we saw two core buyers. Students going into computer science (“Mom, the Air is for English majors”) whose parents don’t want to spend a lot. And companies, because if you hand a programmer an Air, they say “I’m a pro.” CIOs told me they loved putting a base Pro on a developer’s desk for a lot less than the M5 Pro and Max models. Its 32GB runs utility models, basic content work, light coding assistants and simple image gen. Apple isn’t lying when it says on-device AI, but it’s limited. Think of it as about what fits on a single 24GB 3090. M5 Pro (up to 64GB) and M5 Max (up to 128GB): if you’re serious about AI, I recommend the M5 Max with 128GB, nano-texture, upgraded processor and 4TB for $7,849. It’s an amazing portable machine that runs real coding and content models, light image gen, and even light video gen if you let it run in batches. As I said last week, put it in your cart TODAY, in case Apple pulls pricing shenanigans when the rumored M5 Pro/Max touchscreen MacBook Pros arrive tomorrow. Rumors say the current models stay, hopefully at the same price, but you never know. I’m not a fan of a thinner touchscreen Mac. Unless it goes to something crazy like 256GB memory, the 128GB M5 Max MacBook Pro stays my pick for serious portable AI.