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MacBook Neo Pre-Orders at Best Buy Include Free $25 Gift Card

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Earlier today we began tracking the first pre-order offers on the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and now the MacBook Neo has joined in at Best Buy. If you pre-order the new low-cost MacBook Neo at Best Buy, you'll get a free $25 Best Buy gift card after purchase.

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Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

In order to get the deal, you need to pre-order any MacBook Neo model at Best Buy with a valid e-mail address. The e-gift card will be sent out after you receive the MacBook Neo, or after you pick it up in a Best Buy store.



Apple announced the MacBook Neo today, and it's now the cheapest MacBook in the lineup starting at $599 and powered by the A18 Pro chip. Apple says it is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5, up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads, and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.



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Interested in hearing more about the best deals you can find in 2026? Sign up for our Deals Newsletter and we'll keep you updated so you don't miss the biggest deals of the season!






Article Link: MacBook Neo Pre-Orders at Best Buy Include Free $25 Gift Card
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/04/macbook-neo-pre-orders-gift-card/
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The discounts have begun. By Black Friday these will be available for $449. Opens Apple to an entire market they never had before. It's like if BMW made a new vehicle for $25,000 in this decade.

Yes there was a Mac mini, but that's $600 without a keyboard/mouse/display and isn't mobile. This is the ultimate gift for someone who doesn't need Air/Pro level equipment.

This Mac has to beat the $500 POS Windows plastic trash sitting on a shelf next to it at Walmart or Costco or Target, not a $1100 MacBook Air or a $2200 MacBook Pro. And it will.
 
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Mewix said:
You know the power of the machine will be a huge problem when we are compering ourselves with intel core ultra 5.
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For the uninitiated —- errr, why? That’s what it will be competing against in the market, and I see Core Ultra 5 devices in about that price range too.
 
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Blackstick said:
The discounts have begun. By Black Friday these will be available for $449. Opens Apple to an entire market they never had before. It's like if BMW made a new vehicle for $25,000 in this decade.

Yes there was a Mac mini, but that's $600 without a keyboard/mouse/display. This is the ultimate gift for someone who doesn't need Air/Pro level equipment.

This Mac has to beat the $500 POS Windows plastic trash sitting on a shelf next to it at Walmart or Costco or Target, not a $1100 MacBook Air or a $2200 MacBook Pro. And it will.
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It’s $499 now for anyone who logs into Apple’s Edu Store. From an Apple point of view that’s a compelling price.

I do wish, though, that they’d at least put 12GB of RAM into it. 8GB is too limiting in 2026.

I just led a friend through the process of buying Lenovo’s Ryzen 340 AI laptop (IdeaPad 5 Pro) with 16” 2.8K 120Hz OLED, Nvidia 5050, 16GB, 512GB, aluminum case, camera, etc etc., for around $525 or so plus tax. It’s marked down to $750 right now from Lenovo.com, and she’ll take the extra 5 minutes to get a 30% off Lenovo.com coupon from CapitalOneShopping. This takes work, and most people won’t do this. But one does get a machine that's about as fast as an M5 or so, faster on GPU.

My point is not that the Apple laptop is too expensive; for an Apple laptop I think $499 is right where it should be. But I don’t think it’s a bargain or anything like that; it’s competitive with lower end PC offerings, and, of course, destroyed performance-wise/price-wise by anyone willing to put in the legwork to work a deal on the PC side.

Priceless to avoid Windows. 🙂
 
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foo2 said:
It’s $499 now for anyone who logs into Apple’s Edu Store. From an Apple point of view that’s a compelling price.

I do wish, though, that they’d at least put 12GB of RAM into it. 8GB is too limiting in 2026.
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When they run out of A18 chips, the A19 will come along with 12gb... it'll just be in late 2027.With the RAM crunch, I see why.
 
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foo2 said:
It’s $499 now for anyone who logs into Apple’s Edu Store. From an Apple point of view that’s a compelling price.

I do wish, though, that they’d at least put 12GB of RAM into it. 8GB is too limiting in 2026.
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Yeah, and why nerf it with max 512GB?
 
Would be interested in the comparison of memory usage between a M4/5 Macbook Air with Firefox and two tabs open and the Neo with the same version open and same two tabs.
I feel like iot should have had 12 GB RAM to start as well, but maybe there is some memory magic it will do?
 
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Blackstick said:
The discounts have begun. By Black Friday these will be available for $449. Opens Apple to an entire market they never had before.
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Which is the whole point, and something missed by many posters; not everyone needs a lot of power.

Blackstick said:
It's like if BMW made a new vehicle for $25,000 in this decade.
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Sig me up, a successor to the '02.

foo2 said:
My point is not that the Apple laptop is too expensive; for an Apple laptop I think $499 is right where it should be. But I don’t think it’s a bargain or anything like that; it’s competitive with lower end PC offerings, and, of course, destroyed performance-wise/price-wise by anyone willing to put in the legwork to work a deal on the PC side.
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Maybe, but for people who want a Mac but balked tax the price this can be a compelling offering, especially since I suspect it will regularly be discounted. It will be interesting to see what Back to School promo it gets.

MN7119 said:
Wish they had one in green to remind of a turtle. That is how fast this computer will perform with 8gb RAM.
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Sometimes, a turtle is fast enough to win the race. For the target market, 8GB will do the job; no one is buying this thinking the can run huge spreadsheets or LLMs natively on it.

What I find interesting is the argument "Apple should turn the iPhone in to a dockable computer" becomes "It's useless...an atrocity...etc." when they essentially turn an iPhone into a Mac.
 
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stevoc921 said:
Yeah, and why nerf it with max 512GB?
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Because those who need 1TB will likely want the more powerful MacBook Air anyway.

I thought it was possible Apple would have only one configuration of the MacBook Neo, just as they sold only a single configuration of the M1 Air at Walmart the last 2 years.
 
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