So far, the MacBook Pro and Air releases were pretty much what I expected.

The new monitors are laughable on pricing

The new MacBook Neo is very interesting though

Apple has introduced the new MacBook Neo

- 13” LCD display
- A18 Pro chip
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB/512GB storage
- 16 hours of battery life
- Colors: silver, indigo, blush, and citrus
- Starts at $599 ($499 for students)

Order today. Available on March 11 pic.twitter.com/SlxiXCUvwk

— Apple Hub (@theapplehub) March 4, 2026

Biggest gotcha's I see are, Touch ID only on the 512GB model, and only 8GB of RAM on either model. But education pricing starts at $499, regular people at $599. That's a hell of an option for kids these days.

On a side note, I was really hoping they would have a "student" and a professional version of this though. The is pretty much the exact same size and weight as the MacBook Air 13". I used to love the last generation of the 12" MacBooks. I used it as my travel laptop and kept the beefier one at home at my last job. That thing was 2 pounds flat and about the size of the smaller iPad Pro when closed, and it did everything I needed when I was on the road. Travel these days, I rarely get to spread out except for at the hotel, and space on airplanes seems smaller (I'm probably getting bigger) so I only use my iPad to work on a plane instead of my laptop. I would have grabbed one of these for me if it was a little lighter and had 16GB of RAM, but oh well.

Head Ninja In Charge said:

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$600 MacBook. Baseline features. Great pricepoint. Perfect for younger users as a get-****-done machine. This is going to sell like crazy.

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Especially if you can offload a lot of work to AI. A basic spec like this is all you need.

My wife's laptop is about to hit end of life and this new Macbook may bet the fix for her. Will be keeping an eye on how it is received.

Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

Honestly, 8GB isn't bad for a computer to do your bills on that doesn't run Windows 11. Apple is in a good position during this memory crisis because Macs have memory swap that will eat into SSD at high demand. It's bad for the SSD, but for the target consumer they won't reach that point.

The only downside to these Macs for Apple is cannibalizing the MacBook Air, however I think Apple sees this as a iPad vs the iPad Air. iPad Air is still the best selling tablet.

Pman17 said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

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It's comparable to the M1 chip. When Apple first announced Apple Silicon, they released Dev Kit Mac minis that ran on iPhone chips because the M1 chips weren't ready. They blew Intel out of the water back then.

iPhone chips are more than capable to run macOS, slap a heat sink on it or vapor chamber and you got yourself desktop class performance.

8GB of ram on a Mac is different than 8GB of RAM on a Windows PC. macOS is more efficient due to its vertical integration with the hardware. If you maximize the RAM, it'll just do a memory swap to the SSD. Bad for the SSD, but if you were to see the damage later on, that's like 8 years or more.

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Interesting. I know little about Macs. All I can say is that 8GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not remotely enough.

Quote:

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With all of that said, the A18 Pro is actually a baby M4. An M4 mini, if you will. The same chip, but with two fewer CPU cores and three fewer GPU cores.

Realistically, if Apple had rebranded the A18 Pro as an M4 mini, everyone would be happy. Or if they had called it a M1 Plus, that would be fine too and cut down on the drama.

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https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/03/05/by-any-other-name-a18-pro-is-just-as-good-a-mac-chip-as-m4-for-most

https://appleinsider.com/inside/macbook-neo/vs/macbook-neo-vs-m1-macbook-air-you-decide---m4-lite-or-m1-plus

YouBet said:

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Pman17 said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

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It's comparable to the M1 chip. When Apple first announced Apple Silicon, they released Dev Kit Mac minis that ran on iPhone chips because the M1 chips weren't ready. They blew Intel out of the water back then.

iPhone chips are more than capable to run macOS, slap a heat sink on it or vapor chamber and you got yourself desktop class performance.

8GB of ram on a Mac is different than 8GB of RAM on a Windows PC. macOS is more efficient due to its vertical integration with the hardware. If you maximize the RAM, it'll just do a memory swap to the SSD. Bad for the SSD, but if you were to see the damage later on, that's like 8 years or more.

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Interesting. I know little about Macs. All I can say is that 8GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not remotely enough.

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On macOS, it's more than enough for just general day to day usage.

YouBet said:

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Pman17 said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

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It's comparable to the M1 chip. When Apple first announced Apple Silicon, they released Dev Kit Mac minis that ran on iPhone chips because the M1 chips weren't ready. They blew Intel out of the water back then.

iPhone chips are more than capable to run macOS, slap a heat sink on it or vapor chamber and you got yourself desktop class performance.

8GB of ram on a Mac is different than 8GB of RAM on a Windows PC. macOS is more efficient due to its vertical integration with the hardware. If you maximize the RAM, it'll just do a memory swap to the SSD. Bad for the SSD, but if you were to see the damage later on, that's like 8 years or more.

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Interesting. I know little about Macs. All I can say is that 8GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not remotely enough.

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It isn't on a Mac, either. It may be different and/or better than on a Windows machine, but it still isn't sufficient. Those saying it is fine aren't doing much and/or aren't keeping multiple apps open or more than about 6 tabs open simultaneously. I have serious memory issues with my Mac M1 and am looking to get at least 36 (or whatever that round number is it comes with) with the next one. Granted, I use (far) more resources than average, but my 2011 MBP ran slow with 8g and then showed a remarkable improvement with 16. I used that machine like those suggesting 8g is fine are asserting this Neo would be used -- few apps open and only 1-4 tabs on any browser.

You're right, I've been having memory issues too on my M1 and I have 32GB, but I am a power user. I've got more than 4 apps running and hundreds of applications installed.

Overall, I think 8GB is still good for entry level and as an Apple fan, this forces Apple to raise the base RAM for the Air and Pros.

This is my list of who would benefit from the Neo.

• Kids in Grade School: It's cheap for parents to buy and it has FindMy.
• Adults that own a small business: a hair salon that needs a computer for managing banking, taxes, Meta accounts, or their PoS system. (if you've never used Meta for ads and business, it's a complete nightmare!)
• Elderly in retirement: that just need something to pay the bills that'll last 8 years.

I would not recommend using Chrome on this thing.

IrishAg said:

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YouBet said:

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Pman17 said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

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It's comparable to the M1 chip. When Apple first announced Apple Silicon, they released Dev Kit Mac minis that ran on iPhone chips because the M1 chips weren't ready. They blew Intel out of the water back then.

iPhone chips are more than capable to run macOS, slap a heat sink on it or vapor chamber and you got yourself desktop class performance.

8GB of ram on a Mac is different than 8GB of RAM on a Windows PC. macOS is more efficient due to its vertical integration with the hardware. If you maximize the RAM, it'll just do a memory swap to the SSD. Bad for the SSD, but if you were to see the damage later on, that's like 8 years or more.

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Interesting. I know little about Macs. All I can say is that 8GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not remotely enough.

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On macOS, it's more than enough for just general day to day usage.

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I don't know that it's OS as much as the new chips being much more efficiently designed.

fig96 said:

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IrishAg said:

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YouBet said:

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Pman17 said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Any thoughts on if the iPhone processor can handle the basic MacBook workloads? It's the same chip that's in my iPhone, which probably outperforms my M1 MacBook Air, but is it "good enough" considering it is being compared to a processor actually designed for a laptop/desktop? Have iphone/iPad processors gotten to the point that they are actually comparable? Or will that be a more limiting factor than the 8gb ram?

---

It's comparable to the M1 chip. When Apple first announced Apple Silicon, they released Dev Kit Mac minis that ran on iPhone chips because the M1 chips weren't ready. They blew Intel out of the water back then.

iPhone chips are more than capable to run macOS, slap a heat sink on it or vapor chamber and you got yourself desktop class performance.

8GB of ram on a Mac is different than 8GB of RAM on a Windows PC. macOS is more efficient due to its vertical integration with the hardware. If you maximize the RAM, it'll just do a memory swap to the SSD. Bad for the SSD, but if you were to see the damage later on, that's like 8 years or more.

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Interesting. I know little about Macs. All I can say is that 8GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not remotely enough.

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On macOS, it's more than enough for just general day to day usage.

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I don't know that it's OS as much as the new chips being much more efficiently designed.

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I just meant on a MacBook in general if you're doing general web browsing and light weight work, 8GB is enough. In all honesty up until few years ago 8GB was more than enough for medium weight work in macOS. So the OS and the chip combination have been the reason, except they've bloated the OS over time and it's more resource heavy now for the "bling"

Gotcha.

Personally, as more of a power user (product designer) I've found the newer chips to be far more efficient than the older ones. I'm on a recently purchased M4 Air with 24gb and it flies.

fig96 said:

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Gotcha.

Personally, as more of a power user (product designer) I've found the newer chips to be far more efficient than the older ones. I'm on a recently purchased M4 Air with 24gb and it flies.

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Oh, no arguments here. I love the m series products. I have a MacBook Pro from work, an iPad Pro, and a m4 mini. They are all insanely power efficient and run great. Just think macOS has become a bit more bloated (both feel and visuals) after the efficiencies of the new chips came about and wish they would go back to the more streamlined OS style.

7:30 in video, rating system for Neo use cases:

Mkbhd did a nice breakdown, I like his scoring for this one. It's actually probably one of the better scoring systems for a laptop I've seen

Battery and screen replacement are improved over some recent Macbooks:

Seeing all the public reactions to the Neo makes me think Apple is in a really good position right now to disrupt the PC market while everyone else is chasing the ai money.

There's a lot of people buying their first Mac. This could be like an iPhone moment for Mac like when the iPhone 3G released at a subsidized price of $199.

One Reddit user I saw brought up a good point. The chips inside these are binned iPhone 16 chips. That's a 8GB ram phone. The iPhone 17 is 12GB or RAM so we'll see a 12 GB 2027 Neo next year.

Picked up a Neo 512GB earlier today. Started out with 85% SoC just before 4pm and now (just before 10pm) at 36% SoC with mixed use of listening to music, web surfing, updating to Tahoe 26.3.2, installing some apps, watching some Youtube videos, and basic setup.

They were right about the speakers during the reviews, just do not sound as good as most MacBook or iPad speakers. Fortunately the audio jack is there to plug in quality headphones.

Haven't really pushed it so far, so it has not felt hot in the lap. Easier and more comfortable to use in the lap compared to an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard that is top heavy and constantly wants to fall

Pman17 said:

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Seeing all the public reactions to the Neo makes me think Apple is in a really good position right now to disrupt the PC market while everyone else is chasing the ai money.

There's a lot of people buying their first Mac. This could be like an iPhone moment for Mac like when the iPhone 3G released at a subsidized price of $199.

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While the 8gb sucks, it is definitely going to force other manufacturers to respond, which is great. Anything that will put an boot in MS ass and promote more competition is certainly welcome, especially is MS can see the laptop trend start heading in the same direction as the console market.

Count me as a first time Mac buyer at some point soon.

They need to hurry up and release a new Apple TV 4K though.

I really like my iPad/Magic Keyboard set up, but it's definitely not as balanced as a laptop unless you're on a flat surface. But i also use it primarily for video and more tablet type functionality.

I use my laptop only when traveling to remote into the office, surf the web, and occasionally watch a movie or show. Coincidentally my Dell XPS's battery has gone kaput after 5 years and I need something new. I've never used Mac OS, but I am intrigued enough by the Neo to give it a shot. Mine arrives tomorrow.

El_duderino said:

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Count me as a first time Mac buyer at some point soon.

They need to hurry up and release a new Apple TV 4K though.

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After, what they did today with the AirPods Max 2. It's a possibility this week.

fig96 said:

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I really like my iPad/Magic Keyboard set up, but it's definitely not as balanced as a laptop unless you're on a flat surface. But i also use it primarily for video and more tablet type functionality.

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I hadn't thought about this balance issue but it's a good point. If they were putting a touchscreen on this then I would likely immediately buy this and ditch my iPad. Granted, I'm sure they didn't do that so as not to immediately undercut and cannibalize iPad.

Kind of makes you wonder if this will become their version of MS Surface.

I'm really curious about this as far as their overall direction, it's been interesting to see iPadOS integrate some desktop type and multitasking type features and they have in past spots pushed it as being a computer and not a tablet. I actually owned a Surface for a bit, beautiful screen but it was a crappy tablet because it was just running Windows and not well optimized for the experience. I use my iPad constantly for video, household budget and finance stuff, and email, and it's great with or without the Magic Keyboard.

I recently picked up a MBA after being on a Mini for a while, needed to be able to move from the office to kitchen table while working on projects. And it's funny how often I'll start to move to touch my screen to scroll or select something till I process that whoops, this isn't the iPad. The touchscreen isn't something I need, but there's a lot of little convenience factors about having it.

There's been rumors of a touchscreen Macbook of some kind for a while, but like you mentioned I'm really curious what that would do to iPad sales. I'll probably always have both, though maybe a cheaper iPad, as that second screen for watching classes or training while I'm doing things is super useful.

Yeah, at the end of the day though, the iPad is unusable for anything beyond scrolling, video stuff, and entertainment. I can't use it for any level of office app whatsoever. It's just pointless and doesn't work....sometimes at all.

I've actually become frustrated of late using my iPad because I would actually like to use it for at least some low level office app tasks but it's not built for it. I end up closing it and just going to my desktop to complete the task. I don't even like conducting online transactions on it if I don't have to because it's become somewhat unreliable for me. I'm not sure if that's just a vendor's mobile experience not being built out well or if it's the iPads fault but my anecdotal experience shows me that is somehow getting worse out there. I can't explain that but it's frustrating.

Thus, I love the "idea" of the MS Surface but never owned one based on reviews. There still just isn't a good hybrid device that does both things well. I had a highly rated LG Carbon X1 laptop for work with a touchscreen which worked fine for office app stuff, but I rarely used the touchscreen unless I was scrolling TexAgs (on the rare occasion) because MS OS is not built for touch screen anyway. Thus, it was a mostly pointless feature.

If Apple made an iPad with actual basic laptop functionality (so like the MS Surface but with Apple's user experience), I would be all over that at this price point.

Edit: Truthfully, I hate using laptops for anything period. RE is too small and makes everything frustrating. I will default use my desktop for everything if I have a choice. I would just like to be able to use my iPad for some basic editing now and then with office apps without rage quitting my iPad.