At a time when everything is skyrocketing, when uncertainty is setting in, when a “new” DDR4 tower PC is selling for over €1,500 in some stores, Apple has just pulled off a masterful counter-attack that may well mark its history as much as the legendary launches of its heyday. Who would have thought that in 2026, price would be Apple’s main argument for ensuring the success of its new MacBook Neo?
What if the best deal in 2026 was an Apple laptop?
The title is deliberately provocative, but by offering a gateway to the brand‘s universe at €699, Apple is obviously making a statement in these turbulent times. This MacBook, more technically modest than its big brothers, targets students as well as users of cloud tools. Let’s not beat around the bush: in the space of a few seconds, the laborious Chromebooks have just taken a major beating. The product is beautiful, it’s sober and, of course, it benefits from the premium image of the rest of the Apple range. If you’re a student, it’s hard to ignore the MacBook Neo proposition… Not to mention that, technically speaking, this product isn’t all that limited.
When price becomes an argument for Apple…
In terms of construction, the MacBook Neo is clearly following in the footsteps of the MacBook Air. This is a lightweight machine with a chassis similar to that of its predecessor. The scale indicates 1.2 kg and almost the same size. The 13-inch screen, however, has a slightly smaller display surface, a choice obviously linked to a more prominent bottom edge. As a result, screen resolution has dropped slightly to 2408 x 1506 pixels, placing it one step below its big brother. However, Apple has not changed its position on brightness, with a peak still announced at 500 cd/m². The concessions that make this price possible are to be found in the machine’s innards. It’s powered by an A18 Pro, taken directly from the iPhone 16 Pro, backed by just 8GB of ram (non-expandable). SSD storage can be either 256 or 512GB.
According to initial tests, in terms of responsiveness, this little Neo doesn’t do badly at all. Thanks to its single-core performance, it’s even on a par with a MacBook Air M3, which is flattering. At the same time, it’s hard to be surprised, since the Soc A18 Pro uses virtually the same CPU cores as the M3. Where things get complicated is in multi-core mode. With only six cores under the hood, you can’t expect it to be a heavyweight. The score logically falls back to a level closer to that of the M1, a chip that is now over 6 years old. In other words, as soon as you start piling up tasks and calculations in parallel, the Neo quickly reminds you that it wasn’t born to race. But, let’s be objective, the same applies to all Chromebooks in the PC world. For office work, word processing or classic use, there’s nothing scandalous about it: it’ll get the job done. The real glass ceiling, however, is the 8 GB of RAM, even when using cloud tools. Webapps like Canvas or Google Docs are getting heavier and heavier, while Electron apps, led by Slack and WhatsApp, continue to eat up ram resources with every update.
MacBook Neo vs Chromebock: can a student hesitate?
Finally, in 2D as in 3D, scores are famously low. Yes, Minecraft, a few small games and two or three light titles will run well. But to imagine launching a big AAA recent on this machine is in the realm of fantasy. In that case, cloud gaming will be imperative.
But that’s not the point. Apple has just temporarily abandoned its high-margin model for this product. Because even with the technical concessions mentioned above, this MacBook Neo is no slouch. A few years ago, it was said that the iPhone was Apple’s Trojan horse for pushing its ecosystem. With the Iphone now virtually in the luxury goods category, the MacBook Neo represents quite an ambassador for a brand that was said to be aging.
