The MacBook Neo Might Be the iPad Killer Nobody Saw Coming — My First Week

After one week of using a $600 laptop as my primary computer, I have some thoughts. And an unpopular opinion.

Quick Summary

Apple’s new MacBook Neo starts at $599 and runs on the same A18 Pro chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro. I picked up the $699 model — 512GB of storage, Touch ID included — and spent the past week using it as my main machine for everything except video editing and heavy photo work. The short version: it handled nearly everything I threw at it, the build quality is exceptional for the price, and it made me seriously rethink how much computer most people actually need. My full 30-day review is coming, but here’s what I’ve found so far.

The Unpopular Opinion

Let’s get this out of the way: I think the MacBook Neo might be the iPad killer for a lot of people — including some who have spent years (and a lot of money) trying to make the iPad work as a productivity machine.

I’ve been buying iPads since the original. Nearly every year, I find myself ordering the new one, convinced this is the version that’s finally going to simplify my workflow. And every year, I end up back on a laptop — not because I can’t find apps that work on iPad, but because iPad OS just isn’t Mac OS. Jumping between a browser, email, and a few files on an iPad requires a certain mental gymnastics that macOS doesn’t. The operating system gets out of the way on a Mac in a way it still doesn’t on iPadOS.

The MacBook Neo changes the equation. It’s $500 less than a MacBook Air, weighs 2.7 pounds, and runs full macOS. For the people who’ve been buying iPads hoping to replace their laptop, this is probably the device they were actually looking for.

What I Bought and Why

I went with the $699 configuration: 512GB of storage and Touch ID. I’d strongly recommend skipping the base $599 model for two reasons. First, 256GB fills up faster than you’d think. Second, Touch ID is genuinely useful in the Apple ecosystem — it unlocks the machine, authenticates Apple Pay, and handles password autofill. Yes, an Apple Watch can do some of this, and yes I wear one, but having Touch ID built into the keyboard is just smoother.

The MacBook Neo comes in four colors: silver, blush, citrus, and indigo. The color extends to the keyboard in lighter shades, which gives it a more cohesive, personality-forward look than any other MacBook Apple has made. Build quality is recycled aluminum, and it is genuinely excellent — exactly what you’d expect from Apple and not what you’d expect from a $600 laptop.

What’s Actually Inside

Here’s the part that makes the MacBook Neo unusual: it runs on the A18 Pro chip — the same processor that powered the iPhone 16 Pro. This is the first time Apple has ever put an iPhone-class chip inside a Mac. That’s a significant decision, and it’s the reason this machine can be priced at $599 while still feeling like a real Mac.

The A18 Pro has a 6-core CPU (2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores) and a 5-core GPU. For reference, the MacBook Air M5 has a 10-core CPU and starts with an 8-core GPU. On paper, the Neo is slower. In practice, for most day-to-day tasks, you won’t notice.

The machine has 8GB of unified memory across both configurations. There is no upgrade path. You cannot add more memory later. This is the most significant limitation, and I’ll talk about how it plays out in real use below.

On the port side: two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. No MagSafe. One thing worth knowing is that the two USB-C ports are not identical — the rear port is USB 3 (10 Gb/s) and supports DisplayPort for an external display up to 4K at 60Hz. The front port is USB 2. This matters if you’re thinking about peripherals.

One Week of Real Work

My challenge to myself was simple: use the MacBook Neo as my primary machine for everything that doesn’t require rendering video or editing large photo batches. Here’s what that actually looked like.

Most of my days involve jumping between a browser, email, client websites, and AI tools. I’ve been running Claude Code and Claude’s desktop app on this machine while managing Chrome tabs and keeping email open. On a device with 8GB of RAM — which most of our phones have now bested — you might expect this to choke. It didn’t.

What I noticed is that macOS does an exceptional job of managing application resources when apps aren’t in active use. When I’m in a browser tab, the email client sitting in the background isn’t consuming meaningful resources. When I switch to email, the browser gracefully steps back. Apple has clearly optimized macOS with this chip’s constraints in mind, and the experience benefits from that.

I was able to maintain several things open simultaneously — Brave browser with six tabs, Notes, Messages, and Claude Code — without feeling any lag switching between them. Applications were ready when I switched to them. Tabs loaded without hesitation.

Where things got interesting: I intentionally tried to break it. Fifteen browser tabs, email, Messages, and Adobe Lightroom open in the background all at once. That pushed the machine to its limits, and yes — things got jittery. But here’s the thing: I wouldn’t use an iPad that way either. On iPadOS, heavy multitasking is constrained by design. Most of us are effectively single-tasking on an iPad anyway — finishing one thing before switching to the next. The MacBook Neo rewards the same disciplined workflow, and the machine runs beautifully when you use it that way.

One unexpected benefit: because I know this machine has a ceiling, I’ve been more intentional about what I leave open. I close tabs instead of hoarding them. I quit apps when I’m done. The result has been genuinely impressive battery life — all-day use without hunting for an outlet. Sometimes a constraint is a feature.

Build Quality at This Price

Nothing at $500–$600 builds like this. Recycled aluminum enclosure, solid hinge, no flex in the keyboard deck. The keyboard itself has a slightly different feel from the MacBook Air’s — a bit more spongy, some reviewers have said, but in a satisfying way. The trackpad is mechanical rather than haptic (like the MacBook Air’s Force Touch trackpad), requiring a firmer press. It’s still better than anything you’ll find on a Windows machine at this price.

The display is a 13-inch Liquid Retina at 2408 x 1506 pixels, 219 PPI, 500 nits of brightness. It renders in sRGB color rather than the P3 wide color found on the MacBook Air, which matters for creative professionals doing precise color work, but for the target audience of this machine, the display looks excellent in everyday use.

The speakers are a standout. Side-firing with Spatial Audio support, they’re noticeably better than anything else in this price category. For a machine you might use to listen to music, take video calls, or watch content, they deliver.

Worth noting: the base $599 model does not have a backlit keyboard. The $699 model adds Touch ID but the keyboard still lacks backlighting. If you frequently work in low-light environments, that’s a genuine trade-off to weigh.

Who This Machine Is Really For

I’ve been thinking about this carefully, because I don’t think the answer is as simple as “students and casual users” — which is the default response from most coverage I’ve seen.

The MacBook Neo is an exceptional fit for:

People who’ve been trying to make the iPad work as a laptop replacement. If you’ve bought multiple iPads, invested in keyboard cases, and still find yourself wishing you had a “real” computer, this is probably what you’ve been looking for. Full macOS. MacBook build quality. $600.

Parents buying a computer for their kids. At $499 with an education discount, this is the most capable, best-built laptop available at that price — by a significant margin. It’s going to outlast any Chromebook or budget Windows machine.

Professionals who do most of their work in a browser, email, and a handful of productivity apps. If you’re not editing video or running processor-intensive software, this machine handles the reality of most professional work days without breaking a sweat.

Anyone who wants to own less or spend less without sacrificing the Mac experience. The MacBook Neo is a real Mac. macOS, Apple Intelligence, iCloud integration, Continuity Camera, Handoff — it all works exactly as it does on a more expensive machine.

Who it’s not for: video editors, photographers doing heavy batch processing, software developers compiling large codebases, or anyone who genuinely needs sustained multi-core performance. For those use cases, the MacBook Air M5 or MacBook Pro is the right answer. But that’s a smaller group than most tech coverage assumes.

The Bigger Realization

I have a MacBook Pro M4 Max. It’s a remarkable machine. And when I’m browsing the web, checking email, or writing — which is most of what I do — it’s barely being touched. The processing power I paid for is sitting idle.

Using the MacBook Neo has been a reset on how I think about hardware requirements. In a world where we’re always chasing the next chip, the next benchmark, the next upgrade, this $600 machine is doing the work. Not because it’s underpowered, but because most of the work most of us do doesn’t require the power we’ve been buying.

That’s worth sitting with.

What’s Coming in the 30-Day Review

I’m committing to using the MacBook Neo as my primary non-video machine for the next 30 days. When I come back with the full review, I’ll have a clearer answer to the questions that matter most:

• Does 8GB of RAM start to show its limits over sustained, real-world use?
• How does the battery hold up across a full month of varied workloads?
• Is the lack of a backlit keyboard a genuine annoyance in practice?
• Can this realistically replace an iPad for someone who currently reaches for both?

I’ll also be connecting it to an external display — my Apple Studio Display isn’t supported via the Neo’s ports, but a 4K display via the USB 3 port works — and testing it in a clamshell setup.

If you’ve been on the fence about the MacBook Neo, or if you’ve been trying to make an iPad your primary portable computer, I’d encourage you to stay tuned. My initial week has been more impressive than I expected.

Quick Recap

The MacBook Neo is Apple’s most affordable laptop ever at $599, powered by the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro chip and running full macOS. After one week of real-world use — web browsing, email, AI tools, client work — it has handled nearly everything I’ve asked of it without noticeable slowdown. The build quality is exceptional for the price, the battery life has been all-day impressive, and the speaker quality is well above what you’d expect at this tier.

The 8GB RAM ceiling is real, and it rewards a more intentional, focused approach to how you use your computer. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Limitations can clarify what you actually need.

My full 30-day review is coming. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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