Apple’s new MacBook Neo can even come in cheerful colors like this “citrus” yellow. Under the hood, it’s a full MacBook: a 13-inch Liquid Retina screen, aluminum body, and Apple’s own silicon. But the big news is the price. At $599 (just $499 for students) it’s the cheapest MacBook ever made. Apple bills it as a “breakthrough” price, bringing the Mac experience to more people. And yet, for a budget machine, reviewers say it can be surprisingly quick at everyday tasks. In other words, this Neo is exactly what it sounds like – a friendly, entry-level MacBook that doesn’t feel like a toy.
What is the MacBook Neo?
The MacBook Neo is essentially Apple’s new entry-level laptop (announced March 2026) aimed at students and first-time Mac buyers. It uses Apple’s A18 Pro chip – a 6‑core CPU (and 5‑core GPU) originally built for the iPhone 16 Pro. On board is 8 GB of unified RAM and your choice of 256 GB or 512 GB SSD storage. The 13‑inch Liquid Retina display runs at 2408×1506 pixels, and Apple claims up to 16 hours of video playback. It even has a 1080p FaceTime camera and stereo speakers. The build is familiar MacBook: an aluminum chassis (2.7 lbs) in a slim design. One fun twist: it comes in four colours – Blush (soft pink), Indigo (blue), Silver, and Citrus (yellow) – with color-matched keyboards. Apple calls it “the most colorful MacBook yet”.
In short, it’s a full MacBook for just $599, powered by an iPhone chip. That lets Apple undercut most Windows laptops without losing the Mac feeling. The key is that it’s built for basic use. It has the usual Mac apps (Safari, Mail, etc.) and runs macOS 26 smoothly. Setup is like any other MacBook: turn it on, sign in with Apple ID, and you’re in. So if you just need a simple laptop for school, work or streaming, it’s ready to go.
How does the MacBook Neo perform?
You’d expect a cheap laptop to be slow – but the Neo surprises. In single-task jobs, the A18 Pro inside is really fast. Apple claims the Neo is “up to 50% faster for everyday tasks” than a typical $600 Windows laptop. Independent benchmarks bear this out. NotebookCheck measured its CPU in Geekbench/Cinebench and found it beats every current Intel and AMD mobile chip in single-core speed. It even edges past Apple’s own M3 processor in that test. In practical terms, that means web pages load in a snap, text editing is instant, and simple apps pop open quickly. The Verge found the Neo outperformed the old M1 MacBook Air on light tasks. So you can expect everyday use – browsing, email, video calls, streaming – to feel smooth.
That said, the Neo isn’t a beast. Its 8 GB RAM and a base SSD limit heavy workloads. In tests where many apps ran together, it showed its budget nature. The Verge’s review mentioned that opening dozens of Chrome tabs (with Slack, video, music running) eventually made the Neo crawl. Similarly, large photo edits (hundreds of RAW images in Lightroom) became painfully slow. Gizmodo’s reviewer noted the Neo is “far less capable of running intensive tasks than any of Apple’s M-series chips or any moderately powered Intel/AMD processor. It’s merely the right kind of performance for anybody who wants to browse the internet or stream video.”. In short, it excels at the “light stuff” it’s designed for, but it will struggle if you ask it to do heavy-duty work.
For graphics, the A18 Pro’s 5-core GPU is fine for casual gaming or media. Reviewers played light games (like Oceanhorn 3) without hiccups. It even handles simple photo and video editing at modest resolutions. But don’t expect real gaming or 4K editing.
What’s missing or scaled back?
To hit that low price, Apple made some compromises. First, memory is fixed at 8 GB (and not upgradeable). That’s fine for one or two apps, but tight for multitasking. There’s no 16 GB option at all – something other MacBooks offer. If you load many browser tabs or run virtual machines, you’ll feel the limit.
Some hardware features are also pared down. Notably, there is no keyboard backlight. If you work at night, the keys will be hard to see. In fact, Verge listed “no backlit keyboard” as one of Neo’s few bad points. The trackpad is a traditional clicking pad (not the newer force-touch type), but Verge said it still feels very good – maybe the best mechanical trackpad on a budget machine.
The ports are minimal. The Neo has two USB‑C ports (one on each side). One port is USB‑C 3 (fast 10 Gb/s speeds, also handles video out and charging) and the other is a slower USB‑C 2 (only up to 480 Mb/s). You’ll need adaptors if you want HDMI or USB‑A. Notably, there’s no MagSafe power connector, so charging is done through one of those USB‑C ports. The advantage: a headphone jack is still here (yay!), but overall you get fewer slots than an Air or Pro.
Apple also cut back on charging power. The included charger is only 20 W, which tops up the battery slowly. Verge’s spec sheet noted the slow 20 W charging as a drawback.
And, as we saw in battery tests, the Neo’s battery itself is smaller than on other Macs. It’s only a 36.5 Wh cell (by contrast, a MacBook Air M4 or M5 has ~53.8 Wh). Early reviews found battery life much lower than Apple’s claim. Dave2D measured roughly 7h48 of web browsing before the Neo died – not even close to the Air’s ~11h under similar tests. In plain terms: don’t expect 16 hours of video, and you’ll likely charge once or twice a day. This short battery seems like a direct cost-cutting move.
One more thing: the base $599 model comes with no Touch ID (fingerprint sensor). The power button is plain, so you must type your password to log in. If you want Touch ID (and double the storage), you must pay $699. Reviewers say that upgrade is worthwhile if you can swing it – a fingerprint scanner is pretty handy. But even the $699 model still only has 8 GB RAM.
In summary, what’s missing? Backlit keys, extra RAM, fast USB ports, a bigger battery, and the convenience of Touch ID (on the base model). Apple also decided to color-match the keys to the case for style, but some say the lettering can look a bit faded on the lighter colors. None of these are deal-breakers for casual use, but they are places where the Neo “feels” cheaper than pricier Macs.
Who should buy the MacBook Neo?
If you just need a Mac for basics, the Neo is hard to beat on value. It’s great for students, families, or anyone on a budget who wants a MacBook form-factor. Gizmodo put it well: it’s “built for Apple users who just can’t spend the money on anything more expensive”. For checking email, writing papers, Zoom classes, and streaming movies, the Neo is more than capable. It even has good speakers and a nice display (better than most cheap Windows laptops).
On the other hand, if your work is demanding – say professional video editing, large spreadsheets, or heavy programming – you’ll run into limits. With only 8 GB of RAM, power users will wish for more headroom. And if you live on the go, the shorter battery means you’ll carry a charger. In that sense, the Neo isn’t a “Pro” machine. It’s Apple’s entry ticket to Mac life, not its top-tier laptop.
Bottom line: Apple did deliver the cheapest MacBook, and in many ways it over-delivers for the price. For around £499–599, you get a real Mac experience – aluminum build, Retina display, smooth macOS – that trounces other laptops in this range. As Engadget put it, it’s “the best $599 laptop we’ve ever seen” and a great way to get people into macOS.
But is it the “finest performance” MacBook? Not really, except relative to its price class. It can’t match the speed or features of a MacBook Air with an M5 chip, or the endurance of a MacBook Pro. Think of the Neo as “Apple’s cheapest MacBook with surprisingly good speed for the tasks it targets.” It’s really good at being an affordable Mac, but it trades off some power, memory and battery to hit that $599 point.
In the end, if you must have a cheap MacBook, the Neo is a surprisingly strong contender. It’s a competent machine for everyday life, and it will probably start up Adobe Photoshop or a coding app without too much fuss. Just know what you’re getting: a colorful, well-built budget Mac that can do almost anything light you throw at it, but with a few scaled-back specs. If you use it as intended – for browsing, writing and streaming – you’ll be happy. But if you need a workhorse for heavy lifting, the Neo isn’t that, and that’s okay. It’s the cheapest MacBook, and at that price it’s impressively capable, but it remains a budget model with the trade-offs you’d expec
