MacBook Neo: the price is no longer an excuse to stay with Windows

BarcelonaSince I've been doing this, when someone asks me which computer to buy, I recommend a Mac: for the operating system and because it ages better and therefore takes longer to replace. And the answer is always the same: "Thanks, but they are too expensive." And they were right... until now. The MacBook Neo costs 699 euros, and for the first time a Mac can compete in price with Windows PCs.

To put it in context, Macs generated 33.7 billion dollars in 2025, 8.1% of Apple's total, and about 90% of units sold were MacBook laptops. It's a significant business but far from the weight of the iPhone, and Apple has set out to expand it with the Neo. It went on sale a couple of months ago and demand was so high that Apple limited purchases to two devices per person. Tim Cook, in the quarterly earnings presentation, said it had been the best launch in Mac history in terms of new customers.

A Mac with an iPhone chip

For years, all Apple devices have shared the same processor architecture, ARM. But there were differentiated variants for computers (the M's), for mobiles and tablets (the A's), for watches (the S's), and for headphones (the H's). With the MacBook Neo, Apple takes a further step: it has put in the processor from the iPhone 16 Pro, the A18 Pro, with six CPU cores, five GPU cores, and a 16-core neural engine, manufactured on a 3-nanometer process. It is the first Mac with a smartphone chip. The reason is industrial: Apple gets the A18 Pro manufactured on a phone scale. Units that do not pass quality control for iPhones, where the GPU has six cores, are repurposed for the Neo, with one less graphics processor core. This is called production economy.

In everyday tasks, the numbers add up. The Neo is 47% faster than the 2020 MacBook Air M1 and outperforms everything in the same price range on Windows. Microsoft's Surface Laptop with a Snapdragon X Plus chip falls behind, and laptops with Intel Lunar Lake chips even further. However, when the work gets long, the limitations emerge: without a fan, the A18 Pro reaches its thermal limit in a few minutes of sustained effort, and performance drops to 36%. It is not the right machine for editing videos or compiling code. Instead, it works perfectly for what most people do most of the time: web browsing, documents, and video conferencing.

However, the hardware is only part of it. What defines the experience of using a Mac is macOS: a mature, coherent operating system well integrated with the hardware. The fluidity of the interface, memory management, the app ecosystem, and integration with the iPhone and iPad are arguments that don't show up in performance tests but carry a lot of weight in day-to-day work. A Windows laptop may outperform the Neo in some synthetic tests and cost less; it rarely offers a comparable user experience.

The compromises

Apple sells two versions of the Neo: 256 GB for 699 euros and 512 GB for 799, in four colors: silver, cloud pink, citrus, and indigo. The keys, without backlighting, match the color of the casing. The absence of lighting, for the first time in 15 years, is noticeable when working in dimly lit places. Both models come with 8 GB of unified RAM, not expandable. It is a limit to keep in mind if you want to run an AI model locally, an increasingly recommended option: with 8 GB, only the least demanding models can be run. The difference that can decide the purchase is twofold: the 799 euro model doubles the storage capacity and adds the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Without it, the Neo requires you to type the password every time you unlock the screen.

While the Neo represents Apple's entry into the affordable market, Google makes the opposite move. A few days ago The battery, 36.5 Wh, lasts 13 and a half hours of browsing, 13% less than the 15 and a half hours of the Air M5. The difference could be much greater considering that the Neo's battery has 32% less capacity; the efficiency of the A18 Pro chip compensates for a good part of the deficit, but the final result is just acceptable for a basic laptop. And like the rest of MacBooks, the Neo does not have a touchscreen: Apple continues to reserve it for iPad tablets and resists adopting it on laptops, unlike most Windows brands.

There is another difference that does not appear on the specification sheets but is important for intensive use: the Neo's memory has a bandwidth of 60 GB per second, compared to the Air M5's 153. In office work and browsing, it is not noticeable; in video editing, image processing, or tasks that move large volumes of data, the difference becomes evident.

To compare: the MacBook Air M5, until now Apple's least expensive laptop, starts at 1,199 euros and features the M5 chip with ten CPU cores and 16 GB of RAM. In multiprocessing performance, it doubles the Neo: 17,276 points versus 8,920 in the Geekbench 6 test; in 4K video conversion with HandBrake, it takes four and a half minutes where the Neo takes almost double. Furthermore, the Air M5 has an illuminated keyboard, Touch ID, Force Touch, four speakers, a 12-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi 7, two Thunderbolt ports, MagSafe, a P3 display with True Tone, and support for two monitors. If you don't need any of this, you'll save 500 euros with the Neo.

Google looks up, Apple looks down

While the Neo represents Apple's entry into the affordable market, Google is making the opposite move. A few days ago, they announced the Googlebook, a new category that will not replace Chromebooks (which remain alive for the educational market) but will surpass them in aspirations and price. They are targeting buyers willing to pay what a MacBook Air costs but who prefer Google's ecosystem.

Moving away from ChromeOS, which depends on cloud connection and the Chrome browser, Googlebooks will run on Aluminium OS, based on Android 17, which executes Android applications natively directly on the laptop screen. The first confirmed brands, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, with chips from Intel, Qualcomm, and MediaTek, do not expect to reach stores until the fall, with no prices or specifications. For now, therefore, we cannot compare them with the MacBook Neo.

Analyst Gene Munster estimates that the MacBook Neo could add about $2 billion annually to Apple's revenue by capturing students and Windows users who have so far stayed out of the Mac ecosystem due to price. Now, budget is no longer an excuse.