Apple Announces $599 'MacBook Neo' With A18 Pro Chip

[martin2345uk]

Serious Q..
How's Tahoe running on 8GB for folks?

Honestly it's completely fine on my 8GB M1 Air.

 

[Rychiar]

But I use Touch ID for passkeys on a dozen different webpages. Its a big step backwards security wise. I'd have to add a Yubikey or something chewing up one of the USB-C ports.

I would love apples biometrics IF they NEVER required the user to enter the password.. but it's just not how it works. I find Touch ID on Macs to be clumsy and not useful enough. I think I could type my passcode faster than it takes to deliberate stop and scan my finger on that key sometimes too

 

[Populus]

After reading all the specs, this is a hard pass for me. Just 8GB of RAM in 2026! And it weighs the same as the MacBook Air at 1,23 Kg! It’s not even lighter! And I’m quite sure the LCD screen will have less quality than that on the MacBook Air.

They aren’t even providing an option to upgrade the RAM. This is indeed a “recycling” product, typical of Tim Cook era. Maybe they have too many A18 chips sitting on their fabs and they wanted to use them for a low cost product that, while it’s nice (I’d dare to even say it’s beautiful), it doesn’t even have MagSafe.

 

[Permanent Sigh]

Laughing at all the people here decrying the ram and lack of features.

It’s a chromebook alternative, for kids who are doing school work, not for you.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Not if they do any gaming… 8GB is likely not going to cut it.

I have a couple gaming teenagers. They use consoles and only use their computers for school work and youtube.

In short, just get a Switch.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Honestly it's completely fine on my 8GB M1 Air.

I think I’d rather have an M1 air and run Sequoia than this machine.
lol.

 

[WilliApple]

They could have ditched the headphone jack for 16 GB of Ram lol

 

[lapstags]

499 with education pricing means they will be 499 at retailers not bad

 

[antiprotest]

Instant buy at that price. What’s the base ram is what I want to know. It’s adorable! But can it replace my beloved m1 air?

Edit: 8gb only and no MagSafe? Never mind.

Also no backlit keyboard for those who care. I do somewhat. Also the weight is about the same as Macbook Air. I had hoped it would be lighter. Yes, base RAM is low for today. But it's Apple charging you only $600.

I think this will at least be a great alternative to a Chromebook. Many Chromebooks are cheaper, but at the Neo price, I think people should consider paying a little more and get this instead.

Overall I think it's good as a basic laptop or second laptop.

 

[Speechless]

That "Hello, MacBook Neo" video was freaking cool and STUNNING. Love the name, love the price. Hopefully it brings more people into MacOS.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

All of the people who said this thing would be AppStore only and run iPadOS, where are they now? We are all wondering.

 

[anshuvorty]

The SSD swap thing works like magic.
I've used my 8GB M1 Mac Mini with dozens of Chrome tabs, Logic and After Effects open at once and other random apps. Rarely had any issue. Most users will be fine with 8GB.

This is basically a Macbook Air M1 remake.
Is it too expensive then? Maybe, considering how much more you get with the Air.
But it's still a new Mac laptop, with its full software and support cycle ahead, for a very low price.

I had the M1 MacBook Air with 8 GB and constantly ran into the "out of memory" error on macOS.

The 8 GB is a known limitation and this will be only be used for simple computing purposes...possibly at the most - having around 10 Chrome tabs open?!??!

 

[Prabas]

You guys are talking like 8GB RAM is unusable. It's a casual laptop for browsing, music, movies, chatting, etc. Sure, you'll probably sit at 7GB RAM usage with some swap used, but you won't even know it unless you have Activity Monitor open. I am speaking from my experience. This is a laptop for light use.

 

[satchmo]

Been running my M2 Air with 8 Gb for two years. Never had a problem with that, or needed more.

Typing on my M1 Mac mini for almost 5 years on 8gb and 256gb storage.

Adobe Creative Suite to 20 tabs open in browser, and playing Apple music and it works.

That said, I'd prefer if they had 12gb or 16gb option.

 

[WilliApple]

Now hear me out, my parents have a Chromebook and a mid range Windows 10 laptop from 2015 with an HDD still, I think this will be the perfect upgrade for them

 

[JPack]

Apple keeps pushing Apple Intelligence - so why is this only with 8GB of RAM? Get the kids hooked on the Apple AI now and that's your future MBA and MBP buyers (or telling their parents to upgrade to that!)

Virtual swap memory.

People way too concerned about RAM when in reality 99% of Mac users, especially these ones, don’t even know about Activity Monitor.

 

[turbineseaplane]

After reading all the specs, this is a hard pass for me. Just 8GB of RAM in 2026! And it weighs the same as the MacBook Air at 1,23 Kg! It’s not even lighter! And I’m quite sure the LCD screen will have less quality than that on the MacBook Air.

They aren’t even providing an option to upgrade the RAM. This is indeed a “recycling” product, typical of Tim Cook era. Maybe they have too many A18 chips sitting on their fabs and they wanted to use them for a low cost product that, while it’s nice (I’d dare to even say it’s beautiful), it doesn’t even have MagSafe.

From moment one when I saw they were using iPhone chips I realized this is where they are going to use ones they don’t use in actual iPhones or that didn’t pass QC.

 

[anshuvorty]

That "Hello, MacBook Neo" video was freaking cool and STUNNING. Love the name, love the price. Hopefully it brings more people into MacOS.

Apple once again hit it out of the park (no pun intended) on those gorgeous VFX...geez...Apple's production team.....world class....

 

[CWallace]

8 GB of RAM and not even lighter than a MacBook Air. Who in its right mind will buy this ? You better search for a second-hand M4 or M3 MBA.

The people who will buy this don't need the performance of an M3 or M4 MacBook Air and probably wouldn't know where to look for one, anyway. They will cross shop this in the Apple Store with the MacBook Air, see that it does exactly what they need, and happily walk out with it, pocketing the hundreds of dollars difference in price.

A great question since I will wager now that they sold more iPhone minis than they will sell of these.

Book it.

I'd happily take your wager. I could use some extra spending cash this summer. 😉

 

[Veinticinco]

A teenage girl’s must-buy, especially in pink or citrus. I quite like the latter myself.

Pricing strategy is sound but 8GB with Apple Intelligence, this will have the lifecycle of a damsonfly.

Lack of MagSafe and lightweight wedge form factor are big downsides.

That said, as the parent of a teenage boy who is eyeing up my Space Grey M1 MBA to replace an iPad, the indigo Neo might make the shortlist as an experiment.

 

[podycust]

Apple... Apple... Apple.. 8GB even for entry level model is pushing it... at least give an option to upgrade ram..

Tho on second thought I guess the A18 Pro is only designed for 8GB ram

 

[lemoncrsh]

The Mac Neo Film is really cool and original. Well done

 

[Darajavahus]

lame, hoped it would be like the last just MacBook, but now with usable power and more ram...

 

[Populus]

Honestly it's completely fine on my 8GB M1 Air.

We’ll see how future operating systems behave on 8GB of RAM… because if this laptop has been released now, this means it will receive support for at least 5 more years. That means macOS 31 will still have to support 8GB machines? C’mon Apple, I thought 8GB of RAM was on the way to be phased out on the Mac line…

 

[ZebraDude]

just ordered citrus. $499.00