Apple already can’t keep up with MacBook Neo demand, and the low-cost notebook just launched on Wednesday. Sales momentum will keep growing throughout the year, according to an industry analyst.
The laptop’s success will likely be buoyed by reviews that prove the MacBook Neo offers speedy performance, despite its entry-level specifications.
Apple’s MacBook Neo is shaping up to be a long-term hit
The MacBook Neo is Apple’s first laptop aimed at budget-conscious buyers. The $599 price ($499 for college students) attracted loads of attention from consumers — and inspired fear in makers of low-cost Windows laptops.
The only thing that might have spiked the success of the computer is performance. That’s because Apple built the MacBook Neo around an A18 Pro, a processor that first appeared in an iPhone, and put in only 8GB of RAM. Naysayers predicted those specs would make the notebook sluggish, especially when multitasking.
Benchmark tests showed that those fears were unfounded, and reviews praise the speed of the MacBook Neo.
“Applications open fast, animations are fluid, and lighter games perform surprisingly well,” said Wired.
“A dozen tabs in Chrome or Safari stayed responsive as I jumped around Drafts, Slack, Todoist, Photos and Messages while Music blasted Charli XCX’s 365 in the background,” wrote CNN.
Early sales success
The MacBook Neo hit store shelves on Wednesday, and it’s off to a strong start.
The device comes in four color options, and anyone choosing blush or citrus when buying online from the U.S. Apple Store has to wait until March 20 for their order to arrive — Apple already sold all of its early supply.
For $100 more, buyers can upgrade to 512GB of storage and a keyboard with a Touch ID sensor. That version is completely sold out at the U.S. online Apple Store — the earliest delivery is March 16, and some colors are out of stock until late March.
MacBook Neo can look forward to ongoing demand
Strong early demand for MacBook Neo won’t fizzle over time, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities. Quite the opposite.
“Neo shipment momentum should grow steadily quarter by quarter for two reasons: 1) Back-to-School and year-end holiday demand, and 2) Competitors’ lower-cost memory inventory accumulated last year is likely to be depleted by mid-1H26. As a result, more laptop models may start raising prices from 2Q26 to reflect higher memory costs, making it harder to compete with Neo,” Kuo wrote on Wednesday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The MacBook Neo is Apple’s entry-level laptop. It has Apple’s signature all-day battery life and ease of use. It can swim through web browsing, document editing and other basic work tasks.
But if you want higher specs than its 8 GB memory or the maximum 512 GB storage, the MacBook Air may be a better choice.
- 16-hour battery life
- Bright, fun colors
- Thin and light design
- No MagSafe
- USB 3 and USB 2 ports
- No support for high-resolution displays
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
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