The MacBook Neo might be Apple’s most disruptive Mac since the M1 Macs in 2020. For $599, it delivers a true Mac experience and is probably the best affordable laptop you can get — and it’s already coasting atop Amazon’s PC sales charts . MacBook Neo exists to be a lower-cost machine for domestic, college, or work use. It’s built to handle everyday tasks such as web surfing, email, and word processing, all of which it does well. It is still a Mac, so it can handle more advanced tasks, such as working in iMovie, GarageBand, or even Final Cut Pro. But it will be a little slower than more powerful Macs, and some especially advanced tasks might be beyond its capabilities. (You probably won’t use a Neo for 3D modeling or database analysis, for example; if you want better Macs, Apple sells them too, albeit at higher prices.) We can’t be purists about this, though. It is, after all, important to recognize that in the real world many people do complex computing tasks on low-spec equipment because they must. That’s why it matters that you can use a MacBook Neo to run advanced apps, too. It’s also important to recognize that $599 is a big chunk of the money that people can’t necessarily scrape together at any time, so even though the price is right, it matters that the product delivers an experience as good as any other Mac. It does. The MacBook Neo in a nutshell: Price : $599/$699 Who is it for : Students, families, daily use Successes: Great value, decent performance, it’s a Mac Compromises: Limited RAM, mixed USB-C ports, 60GBps memory bandwidth Big success in a little box If you’ve always wanted to work with a Mac, but couldn’t justify the expense, need a Mac that doesn’t cost too much for your kids, wants something just to take on vacation, or have a limited budget, the Neo is a pretty good machine that can do almost everything you want. If you want a Mac for more complex, creative tasks — or for anything that regularly needs high-end computational power — this is likely not the system for you. Remember, Apple managed to reach this low price by equipping the Neo with the same A18 Pro chip (6-core CPU, 5-core GPU) used in the iPhone 16 Pro. The systems include just 8GB RAM of non-upgradeable RAM and either a 256GB or 512GB SSD drive. (I tested the pricier 512GB model which also has a TouchID sensor and goes for $699.) Easy setup and use mean you’ll quickly forget what life was like without it. This Mac points directly at the heart of the mid-range markets that sustain the PC industry at present — and delivers more power and computational ability at prices they don’t seem able to match. Out of the box The MacBook Neo is available in silver, blush, indigo, and citrus; I’ve worked with a silver model (provided by Apple for testing). Encased in recycled aluminium, there’s something about this model that reminds me of older MacBook Pros, which makes it a true tech story of how computing once beyond people’s reach is steadily becoming widely available. I was immediately taken by a small detail in the internal packaging where the tag you had to pull to open everything up was emblazoned with the word, “Hello.” This was a nice welcome gesture to any new owner, while also hardening back to the first ever Macintosh to make an Apple watcher’s eyes smile. Inside the box you’ll find the Mac, a USB-C cable and, in some markets, a power brick. Open it up, and the display springs to life, and after a few moments you’ll be set up with your new Mac system and ready to go. Everything is simple and thought out for you, and you shouldn’t encounter friction as you begin your MacBook Neo journey; it uses the same first start- routine Apple has perfected over years of Mac development. I was ready to go inside five minutes, and while it takes a little more time to repopulate all your apps and files, if you use iCloud you can pretty much get started with tasks immediately. Performance benchmarks The big question most people have concerns the processor. That A18 Pro chip driving the Neo isn’t as powerful as the M-series variants inside other Macs, but it delivers plenty of horsepower. The following five benchmarks show where things stand: M5 Mac: Single-core, 4,227, Multi-core, 17,802, (10 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores). M4 Mac: Single-core, 3,830, Multi-core, 14,541, (8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores). MacBook Neo: Single-core, 3, 608 Multi-core, 9,346, (6 CPU cores, 5 GPU cores). M3 Mac: Single-core, 3,135, Multi-core, 12,042, (8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores). M1 Mac: Single-core, 2,386, Multi-core, 10,307, (8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores). A17 Pro: Single-core, 2,885, Multi-core, 7,224. In short: faster than M1 in single-core, slower than M1 in multi-core. What the numbers mean It’s important to understand the difference between single- and multi-core tasks to figure out what the n umbers mean. In the simplest terms, single-core performance supports tasks like writing emails, editing documents, surfing the internet; multi-core is, well, it’s everything else, from data modelling to editing images in Pixelmator or iMovie. Those multi-core tasks also like to have multiple cores to work on (the hints in the name), so you’ll obviously have a better experience when conducting those complex tasks on high-end Macs. Multi-core tasks also like having plenty of RAM, which is limited in this Mac. But don’t let memory or processor limitations fool you, as they don’t mean you can’t run those tasks, it’s just all going to be a little slower. That’s particularly true as memory bandwidth is just 60GBps, which means moving files, folders, or opening up large images will take much longer than you expect from an M5 MacBook Air. Real-world use Don’t make the mistake of seeing the processor as a huge compromise on what your Mac can do. The team behind popular professional free database tool, DuckDB , recently purchased a MacBook Neo and tested it against a rented, high-end, $490 per month Amazon cloud machine; they found the Apple laptop to be quite capable of crunching corporate-style data almost as swiftly as the Amazon system. I get vibes that tell me Apple could have introduced the MacBook Neo in 2025, powering it up with the A17 Pro chip. On paper, at least, a Mac powered by that processor would have achieved similar performance benchmarks to the M1 MacBook Pro. Apple didn’t do that, introducing instead a much better model with much better specs. I happily messed around in creative apps on the Neo and it’s quite capable. If this is the only Mac you have, you’ll still be able to do creative work — and kids, students, and many consumers will have all they need in this machine. What about the keyboard? The Mac has a perfectly good full-size keyboard with keys color-matched to the body of the Mac. If you’ve been using the keyboard on another Mac, your character finger memory will be exactly the same, though you might notice you need to apply a tiny bit more pressure in use. Apple did make one compromise. The company is well-known for its backlit Magic Keyboards, but it looks like it decided to sacrifice this feature to hit that $599 price — the Neo’s keyboard is not backlit. The silver lining is that this Mac is perhaps the most repairable laptop Apple has made in a generation, according to iFixIt . What about the display and battery life? At 13 inches, this is the smallest display you’ll find in a current Mac. It’s also among the best displays you’ll find in any laptop or Chromebook in this price range. This is a Liquid Retina display with a 2,408-x-1,506-pixel resolution. It’s a good, bright display, offering up to 500 nits of brightness (brighter than the display used in the M1 MacBook Air), though you don’t get the True Tone and P3 wide color support you find on Apple’s other notebooks. To be fair, this probably isn’t a problem to those of us who just need a Mac for everyday tasks, though if you use your machine intensively your long-term vision health will want you to invest in that better display. Take a look and you’ll notice a thin strip of rubber running along the underside of the display, This is a Mac you’ll use. With 16 hours of battery life, that’s enough to get you through a long flight, a day at school or college, or a day working remotely from the coffee shop. That’s good enough, of course – it’s literally the same battery life we used to expect from Intel-based Macs. But if battery life is a dealbreaker for you then a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro will give you more of what you need, at higher cost. What about cameras and audio? I imagine quite a lot of MacBook Neo customers will want a system they can use for videoconferencing. There is a slight compromise here, in that Apple has equipped the system with a 1080p HD camera. That’s better than the 720p camera used in M1 MacBook Air, but lacks the 12MP Center Stage camera you’ll find in the current MacBook Air. Personally, I see that as a small cost to pay, unless you really want people to be able to read the titles on your precious book collection ostentatiously situated on the shelf behind you during your Zoom chats. The other thing you might want to do is watch movies or listen to music. The Neo isn’t intended to deliver the state of the art, amazing audio experience you’ll get in a pro Mac, but it does manage to give you a decent dual-speaker sound experience with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. These speakers are fine, but their position on either side of the front side of the system means audio might get muffled if you happen to place the Neo on a soft surface, such as a rug on your lap. That’s certainly no deal breaker, however. The systems are compatible with AirPods, Bluetooth speakers, and include a 3.5mm headphone jack. Everything else The Neo weighs in at 2.7 pounds. That’s precisely the same weight as the 13-inch MacBook Air, while also being slightly lighter than the M1 MacBook Air. It’s also a little thicker than the MacBook Air, though the one way other people will be able to tell which Mac you are using will be the clearly visible screws on the underside of the system. There are other compromises I expect Apple made both to hit its target price and to make sure there are still good reasons to purchase its better-featured pro Macs (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro). These include installed memory, the speed of that memory, and the display, along with the fact the Neo only supports Wi-Fi 6E and oddly supports two different forms of USB-C on the two ports, USB-C 3 and USB-C 2. The first port is the faster and more performant version, offering up to 5Gbps data speeds and fast-charging, while the second provides 480Mbps. It isn’t particularly clear which port is which, and I suspect we’ll see lots of people who might be using dongles to handle peripheral devices such as displays or storage media complain that things stop working. At least, we will until they figure out that the faster port is closes to the hinge, which is also the port you should use to drive displays. You can use either USB-C slot to charge your device, but in general the most used port will be the faster one. While I understand it in terms of reducing build costs, I don’t like this decision; it seems likely to add friction to to the user experience, particularly among first-time Mac users or people who don’t really care about tech and just want stuff to work. Buying advice I really like this Mac, but that’s not unusual since I like most Macs. What I like about this one, however, revolves around price and the fact that what you end up with is a good machine that will do most everything you need it to do pretty well. There are compromises which mean that while a Neo could well be part of your workflow, more demanding or users will certainly want higher-end Macs, if only for the faster memory swap speed (essential when using macOS Tahoe). The low built-in memory and the fact you can’t upgrade it will certainly inhibit some purchases, but are unlikely to impact everyday computing tasks. For students, families, and first-timers, the MacBook Neo delivers solid performance at a great price. This is not the Mac for professionals, nor is it the Mac for aspirational types seeking tech bro gadget status (though I think many aspirational users will buy it because this is still one of Apple’s most disruptive products for a while). Watch the prices Apple and the rest of the PC industry faces unpredictable supply, demand, and component price increases due to the war in the Middle East. If things continue to unravel, it is likely those pressures will drive PC makers (including Apple) to raise prices. If that happens — and it may not — Apple could be forced to reluctantly (having finally found a way to make a Mac at this price point) to increase the cost. With that in mind, if the MacBook Neo sounds like the low-cost Apple notebook you’ve been waiting for, you might want to get one sooner rather than later, in case the price climbs. Which one should you get? I always say you should get the best Mac you can afford, but when purchasing one of these, I’d choose the $699 model I tested for the additional storage and TouchID support. Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe. Also, now on Mastodon .