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New Delhi: MacBook Neo has become the cheapest laptop Apple has ever launched and costs $599 in the US and 70,000 in India or 60,000 on a student discount. This price puts it in a competitive price category dominated by Windows machines, which begs the big question; what has Apple traded off to reach this competitive price and am users still going to buy?
The most remarkable choice made by Apple when the MacBook Neo is the most unusual, though it is powered by the A18 Pro, which is used in the iPhone 16 Pro. It is the first iPhone chip that is used in a Mac.
This would appear to be downgrading on the surface. However, the figures tell an even more subtle tale. The A18 Pro is faster than the M1, M2, and even M3 in the single-core performance of Geekbench. It also outperforms the rival Windows chips such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. In normal daily activities such as web browsing, Google Docs or Sheets, photo editing or operating the operating system, the high single-core score is converted into a fast, quick experience.
Things, however, come behind in terms of multi-core performance. Activities requiring parallel processing, most video exports, compile codes, converting batch files, etc., will be slower on the MacBook Neo than on the M-series MacBooks and most Windows models in the same price range. It is one of the obvious and recognized limitations.
Memory
The unified memory that is offered on the MacBook Neo is only 8GB. That ceiling is starting to squeeze in 2026, with 16GB being routinely available on Windows laptops at the same price. To add to the problem, Apple does not provide a way of upgrading the model the only option they have on this model is 8GB. The users with higher memory requirements will be forced to increase to higher priced MacBook. 8GB is the size that can be managed with by students and light users, nonetheless this should go into the consideration.
Design
MacBook Neo is the latest addition to the family of Apple laptop products, the thinnest among the existing products, but still a little bit plumper than the MacBook Air but leaves a lot to be desired compared to the MacBook Pro. It is easy to carry, with its rounded sides, and use during a long time and the single finger lid-opening feature is as painless to operate as ever.
The port front is minimal: there are two USB-C ports (one of them is USB 3, with video output, and the other is USB 2, which can be charged and used to transfer data slower), and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The connectivity options are not as many as they would be on Windows laptops at the same price.
The keyboard is the Apple trusted Magic Keyboard – spaced well, easy to type and one can use it as long as one has used Mac computer in the past. The only noticeable exception is that of keyboard backlighting which is missing in this model and rendered it not as useful when operating in dark conditions. It also has a trackpad that is mechanical instead of Force Touch, and otherwise does a good job, outperforming most of the physical trackpads on the Windows laptops in this category.
Display
The 13-inch LCD screen is color-calibrated to the standard high level at Apple, and it goes up to 500 nits in brightness, which is significantly higher than most Windows laptops at this price range, which tend to only get up to 300-400 nits. Its bezels are thicker, and it does not have True Tone but the quality of the display is good enough to be used in everyday life.
The side-firing speakers have a fairly wide range of soundstage, and can deal with dialogue and vocal-heavy material. There is also a lesser bass response and, therefore, the music audience might desire to connect it with external speakers or headphones.
Battery
Apple boasts of 16 hours of video playback and 11 hours of continuous browsing on the internet with the 36.5Wh battery, which is less than the MacBook Air, which is loaded with a larger battery. In practice, you should expect between 8 and 9 hours roughly depending on workload. A disadvantage worth mentioning: charging is up to 20W, which is not fast according to the standards of the modern era.
macOS Experience
MacOS will have to be adjusted to by long-term users of the windows. However, other functions such as SpotlightSearch, which performs calculations, fast lookups, and even app-launching without the need of any third-party tools can actually be of useful use and are more than what the Windows has to offer. iPhone continuity (iPhones since the iPhone 13) is another value-added feature that can be very meaningful to existing Apple customers.
There exist actual constraints, however. On macOS, sideloading and apps cannot be easily done and this can be annoying to the students who are accustomed to using such software that cannot be found in the official channels. Gaming support is very low on Mac and thus is not a gaming machine. On the one hand, however, Apple Intelligence capabilities are not aggressively driven by this device, which makes the experience a bit more pristine and less packed with AI implementations than Windows 11.
Should You Buy It?
MacBook Neo is a nice laptop at 70,000. It is an indeed convincing one at 60,000 with a student discount. It performs best with students, general entry-level professionals, and all those that need a reliable daily driver to browse, work with documents and communicate. MacBooks offer a good reputation with regard to durability a well-maintained MacBook has a comfortable lifespan of five years or more, and it is difficult to say the same with Windows laptops at comparable prices.
In case the MacBook Air M2 is priced similarly, it will be the better option to use-reduced trade-offs, higher multi-core processing power, and larger battery. However, when the alternatives between MacBook Neo and an equivalent windows laptop are made, the former is not bad despite the drawbacks, mostly thanks to the reliability, software ecosystem, and long-term value that Apple machines provide.
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