Apple’s $599 MacBook Neo Smashes Records: Best Launch Week Ever For New Mac Users
Apple's colorful and budget-conscious MacBook Neo is bringing in new users to the Mac ecosystem in record numbers, with CEO Tim Cook announcing on X that "Mac just had its best week launch week ever for first-time Mac customers." And it's no secret why—the $599 starting price makes the MacBook Neo the most affordable MacBook ever released.
Sure, Apple needed to cut some corners to arrive at $599, or as low as $499 for anyone who qualifies for an education discount. Even so, the MacBook Neo is surprising a lot of people and has emerged as a viable threat to competitors in the lower-cost laptop space.
Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers. We love seeing the enthusiasm!
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 20, 2026
The biggest drawback to the MacBook Neo, at least on paper, is the combination of an A18 Pro chip paired with just 8GB of unified system memory. The A18 Pro is the same processor that Apple uses in its iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max devices, and the big question mark was how it would fare in a laptop. Having just 8GB of RAM raised even more questions about performance.
In the early going, however, the MacBook Neo has proven to be more capable than many people anticipated. It's already been put through torture tests with mostly positive results. For example, this Fstoppers video on YouTube stress tests the MacBook Neo with various scenarios, such as running 10 YouTube videos in 10 different tabs, and then opening 14 other applications, all without any slowdown.
The video also shows how the MacBook Neo handles a massive 8GB photo in Photoshop with a bunch of filters applied, and how it compares to a MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. If you have 11 minutes to spare, we highly recommend watching the video.
On top of all that, a recent teardown of the MacBook Neo revealed it to be the most repairable MacBook design in over a decade, which is another bonus.
That said, as impressive and capable as the MacBook Neo is, it's not for everyone. Power users will still want to commit bigger budgets to their laptop purchase, and to that end, the last-generation M4 MacBook Air is on sale for an all-time low price.
