Affordable laptops have a bad reputation for suddenly slowing down after about 6 months, no matter what the spec sheet initially promised. Sadly, the so-called Windows tax means more is spent on the software than on the components inside the laptop.

The market is crying out for an affordable laptop option that just works and doesn't bring any frustration or drama into your life. This is the market the MacBook Neo is aimed at.

Bizarrely, Apple is now selling the MacBook Neo for $599, while the new AirPods Max 2 cost $549, meaning a pair of headphones are 92% the price of a laptop. This statistic says everything about Apple's strategy.

Make no mistake, the MacBook Neo is a Trojan horse priced aggressively to pull people into the ecosystem. At the same time, the headphones stay expensive because their job is to make everything else look like a better value.

Why I bought the MacBook Neo despite thinking it was a terrible idea

As a tech writer and podcaster, I'm currently on back-to-back overseas trips to big tech conferences. The problem is my 16" MacBook Pro from 2019 is reaching the end of the road. Even with a replaced battery, I'm lucky to get more than 3 hours of battery life.

My aging laptop is also on the heavy side when I carry it on my back for 10 hours a day, walking from keynotes to showfloors and back. I wanted a new laptop, just for travel, that is light to carry and will last the duration of those killer 10-hour flights and lengthy keynotes without a power socket in sight.

The MacBook Neo seemed to tick all the boxes for everything I was looking for. But a quick look at the spec sheet made me dismiss it outright. Surely, the iPhone A18 chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage are woefully inadequate for the digital demands of 2026 and beyond.

After over a decade of writing about technology, my gut and everything I believed told me this machine would not live up to the hype. But YouTubers and self-proclaimed influencers around the world continued to heap praise on the Neo.

After great deliberation and a fair amount of FOMO, I convinced myself that it would be an ok choice for the travel laptop I had been looking for. The low spec ramped up my fears, stepping outside of Apple's walled gardens and installing applications riddled with memory leaks that would activate the infamous spinning beachball.

With my expectations in check, I was extremely cautious about what I would install on my new travel laptop. Buying a 256GB MacBook Neo conjured up flashbacks of Elaine Benes in the Seinfeld "spongeworthy" episode. I carefully decided what deserved my precious space because once that storage is gone, everything becomes a headache, unless I want to add a USB-C hub and a microSD and hub as backup.

I'm comfortable closely managing my storage, but parents who buy this for their kids could quickly find themselves becoming IT support, having to tidy it up regularly. But in a world where most of our lives are in email, Google Docs, and Zoom, maybe I was overthinking things.

My first outing was a double header in Vegas to cover the Adobe Summit and Google Cloud Next tech conferences. Throwing caution to the wind, I hit the road with just a couple of Rode Wireless PROs and a MacBook Neo in my kitbag.

From 35,000 feet to the Vegas Strip: testing the MacBook Neo on the road

A 10-hour flight to Vegas felt like the perfect time to test the MacBook Neo in the wild. One missing feature from the base model that I didn't miss was Touch ID, because my Apple Watch could take over and perform the same task.

I must admit, I missed the backlit keyboard more than I thought I would when the plane went into night mode. Thankfully, my memories of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing were enough to guide me to the right keys in semi-darkness.

As I ran the NEO through its paces at 35,000 feet, I flicked between catching up with emails, writing an article, editing large audio files in Audacity, and watching YouTube videos without ever seeing the spinning beachball. Best of all, the battery lasted the entire flight, so I was much more productive than usual.

The following day, before hitting the show floor, I had an early-morning remote interview with the legendary Werner Vogels from Amazon in my hotel room. I installed Zoom, and the call went perfectly with smooth video throughout the interview.

So far, so good. But now it was time to leave the room and spend 8 hours at the conference. While watching the keynotes, I used the Neo to record and transcribe everything announced on stage. All while listening and editing the remote interview I had recorded earlier with one AirPod. I was also able to use the web version of Descript without any issues.

After the keynotes closed, it was time to prepare for a round of in-person podcast interviews. Between sessions, I was transferring 500MB audio files and editing them in Audacity. By 3 p.m., I had edited 4 interviews without once having to look for a power outlet.

The more confident I became in what the Neo could handle, the more I began installing my most frequently used apps, like Slack, Signal, and WhatsApp. The iPhone mirroring feature also comes in handy for accessing everything from my iPhone on my laptop. Whatever productivity task I threw at it, the Neo MacBook handled it perfectly.

Understanding what the MacBook Neo was actually built for

A quick search on YouTube will reveal many engagement-bait videos with titles like "How to crash a MacBook Neo," but the only fail in an example of opening 88 tabs on a laptop powered by a phone chip is the person using the internet all wrong in the age of AI.

Rather than trying to crash the Neo playing Cyberpunk, I focused on what the Neo does best. Anyone looking for a gaming laptop and editing high-res photos and videos shouldn't be looking at the Neo.

My biggest lesson after using my new MacBook Neo for 5 days on the road was that, when you remove leaky apps and bloated operating systems from the mix, 8GB of RAM stretches far further than we’ve been led to believe.

Does this mean I’ll never buy a high-performance machine again? Of course not, and this is the point of the Neo. We naturally turn to the device that best fits our needs at the time. The phone keeps us connected, the family iPad might come in handy for relaxing, and a MacBook Air or Pro will be needed if you have any intensive 4K video editing or gaming needs.

However, if you need a small, affordable laptop where you can access email, Google Docs, Teams, Zoom, Slack, and other messaging apps in any location with a long battery life, without the frustration that often comes with other laptops in this price range, then the MacBook Neo will under promise and over deliver.

One more thing....

One thing that hasn't changed in tech is that anything you buy will be replaced by something better in a few months. So before you rush out and buy one, there is something you should know.

The MacBook Neo is famously powered by the "binned" Apple A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro. But the release has become so popular that Apple is running low on the old chips. This could fast-track the release of the already heavily rumored Neo 2, which is expected to feature the A19 Pro Chip, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of Storage.

With rumors suggesting the Neo 2 could drop early next year, you might be wondering when the best time to buy a MacBook Neo is. Assuming it's a good fit for what you are looking for, it's probably the moment you actually need it, not when the rumor mill tells you to, but be mindful of that 256GB of storage.

In many ways, the MacBook Neo forced me to question my own assumptions about what a "proper" laptop should look like in 2026. I went in expecting compromise, frustration, and the occasional spinning beachball. Instead, I found a machine that quietly handled exactly what I needed it to do, without the need to hunt for power sockets after a full day on the show floor.

Ironically, the laptop I nearly dismissed for being underpowered ended up reminding me that most of us probably buy far more machine than we actually need. For travel, productivity, and getting real work done, the MacBook Neo proved that sometimes less really is enough, and despite all my reservations, I'm genuinely glad I took the chance on it.

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