You can be overwhelmed, you can be underwhelmed, but you cannot be just “whelmed”. This is exactly what happened with the newest, cheapest entry-level Mac: the MacBook Neo.
While every other budget laptop gets something wrong by making too many compromises, a true budget laptop should be about delivering value, not just cutting corners.
And that is just what MacBook Neo does. At just $599, with an A18 Pro mobile chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 13-inch metal build, and fun colours, a win is locked in from the start.
Let's unpack why the MacBook Neo will be a huge deal.
What’s inside
In 2026, with memory and storage prices out of our solar system, it is hard to find a good deal in tech. And yet, Apple just came out and blew every other manufacturer out of the water.
It’s Apple’s eloquent way of saying, "We will take it from here."
Inside, Neo is powered by the A18 Pro chip, the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro. But this is a binned version of the chip featuring a five-core GPU instead of six.
However, if you compare it to M1 devices like the original M1 Apple silicon, this is very similar in multi-core performance, but noticeably faster at single core.
And single-threaded performance is the stuff that regular laptop tasks lean on. So, I really think this will be a great performer for most average users.
I am genuinely curious to see how the A18 Pro is going to perform with macOS.
The RAM being capped at just 8GB is going to be the limiting factor for a lot of people in the long run.
Sure, before Apple Intelligence, 8GB was the norm, but I do not think we live in the past.
I would bet that with the next update, Apple will bump the Neo to 12GB or 16GB. Which means if you buy this 8GB version today, you are basically buying a laptop that is already on borrowed time.
However, the one thing I must praise is that I saw almost no AI marketing in that whole launch.
If you think about the laptop industry, I cannot name a single recent laptop that has not leaned super aggressively into “AI Maxxing” people’s lives. A button just to call up an AI! Absolutely ridiculous.
Then the display. I thought Apple might cut corners here, but they did not.
You still have a 60Hz 13-inch IPS liquid retina display with sharp 2408 by 1506 resolution and support for 1 billion punchy colours. This is still just as bright as the Air, maxing out at 500 nits of brightness.
Certainly, you miss out True Tone and P3 wide colour, but frankly, I do not think that many people will mourn the loss of True Tone at this price. And there is a 1080p webcam hidden right in the top bezel.
That's right—the notch is gone on the cheapest MacBook ever made.
You still get the classic full-size Magic Keyboard with either a lock button or Touch ID.
Oddly enough, the keyboard lacks backlighting, which is a standard feature at this price on other laptops.
Interestingly, you have to spend an extra $100 for the 512GB model just to get Touch ID.
They all have a whitish keyboard that is kind of tinted to match the colour of the laptop.
The trackpad is actually not a haptic trackpad like the rest of the MacBooks. It's a real moving, clicking old-school trackpad.
Ports are on the left, and you get two USB Type-C ports. They are not Thunderbolt, but you can connect a 4K 60Hz external display to one of them.
The other is slower, but you can use either of them to charge the Neo. There is a headphone jack on the left as well, alongside side-firing stereo speakers. And it comes in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and citrus. I wish more companies would make colours like these.
Now, I think the battery life will be interesting. It is an iPhone chip sipping power from a laptop-sized 36.5Wh battery, which seems like a great combo.
Apple is quoting 16 hours of battery life through this fanless design, compared to 18 on a MacBook Air.
It comes with a 20W charger and drops the MagSafe entirely, meaning charging will eat up one of your two USB-C ports.
Neo vs Air
Up until now, the cheapest laptop in the Mac Universe was the MacBook Air, which just got a price jump to $1,100 with the M5 chip.
Despite the budget price, the Neo doesn't feel cheap. Actually, quite the opposite.
Laptops in this price range are almost always plastic, but surprisingly, it features a premium all-aluminium body, just like its siblings.
From the outside, Neo is almost the exact same size as the MacBook Air, matching the Air's 1.23kg weight and overall footprint, though it is slightly thicker.
However, Apple deliberately omitted several quality-of-life features to justify the Air’s $500 premium.
While the Air comes with 16GB RAM, 512GB of storage and a 53.8Wh battery as standard, the Neo just cuts those specs in half.
It also lacks 153 GB/s memory bandwidth, the 12-megapixel Centre Stage camera, and spatial audio speakers that come standard on the M5 Air.
But again, it is really hard to criticize because, at this price point, everything else is so much worse.
It also undercuts the tablet alternative. A base iPad ($329) plus Apple's keyboard accessory ($250) puts you at nearly $600 for just 128GB of storage and an older A16 chip. But Neo offers a full Mac experience for the exact same money.
So, you might think, maybe I should move up to the ladder.
Neo vs Windows laptops
After Neo, budget Windows laptops are almost laughable right now.
Let me give you an idea: go to any website of your liking and try to find a new Windows laptop you can buy under Tk75,000 with all the features the Neo offers.
I would bet any money you will not find something that has the entire package. In this price bracket, you might find laptops that can beat it in one or two categories, but you will not find them all in one place.
In classic Apple fashion, the pitch is simple: would you rather have a budget plastic laptop from the Windows side or one from Apple? Well, the Apple one works seamlessly with the iPhone you already have.
Redefining market
We have reached a point where Apple is unequivocally the value king in tech.
If you look back at the golden age of the MacBook, which was like 2012 to 2015, the MacBook was very rarely picked because it was the best value.
They were fantastic laptops, but they were never cheaper than what you could buy in Windows land.
But today, the price point is so good and just so powerful at swaying a purchase decision that I think Apple is the only company in the world that can pull this off.
Only Apple has access to such an inexpensive but also highly capable chip like the A18 Pro.
More importantly, only Apple has control over the stack, the hardware and the software that runs the system.
They have the ability to just squeeze every last drop of usefulness out of that chip.
If you took two, like a chip company and an OS company and made them do anything like this, it would never come out the same way.
Final thoughts
All put together, this is a distinctly less agile machine when it comes to longevity. If you are going to buy a MacBook Neo for gaming or heavy multitasking, you have got bigger problems.
The Neo is for those who are trying to spend as little as possible right now. Clearly, the Neo exists to cut back on specs to minimize that price gap, passing those savings to the buyer.
I do think the MacBook Neo makes a ton of sense for day-one value, and if people are going strictly based on immediate necessity, they would never touch the MacBook Air again.
But given the 8GB RAM conundrum, I think, if you desperately need a laptop today, it’s the best Tk75,000 you can spend.
But if your current machine can survive another year, wait for the inevitable RAM bump.
Finally, I am super excited to see how the Windows industry responds to being thoroughly outplayed.
The writer is a contributor and a tech enthusiast
