Apple MacBook Neo

The MacBook Neo is Apple's first true budget laptop in over a decade, and at $699 ($599 with education pricing) it anchors the bottom of the Mac lineup, below the Pro and the Air. It launched at $599 in March 2026, but Apple raised every configuration by $100 in June amid the global memory-chip shortage. The clever move is the chip. Instead of an M-series part, Apple used the A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro — a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine — and for the Neo's audience that's plenty: browsing, documents, streaming, email, and light photo work all feel snappy. Apple says it's about 50% faster at web browsing and up to 3x faster on on-device AI than a typical Intel Core Ultra 5 Windows laptop. The rest is a genuine MacBook: a 13-inch Liquid Retina display (2408x1506, 500 nits), the Magic Keyboard, side-firing speakers with spatial audio, a 1080p webcam, up to 16 hours of video battery, and full macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, all in a 2.7-pound recycled-aluminum body. The compromises are what keep it at $699: memory is fixed at 8GB with no upgrade path, the base model drops Touch ID and the keyboard backlight, the trackpad loses Force Touch haptics, one of the two USB-C ports is slow USB 2, the display is 60Hz, and it drives only a single external monitor. For students and switchers who want macOS without Air pricing, it's a strong value — but anyone who multitasks heavily will feel the 8GB ceiling.