I’ve been testing the new colorful budget laptop, and I think people are going to love it. By Timothy Beck Werth on March 11, 2026.
The MacBook Neo officially launches today, and as I noted in my MacBook Neo review, Apple is sure to sell millions of these colorful laptops. The MacBook Neo is Apple’s new budget MacBook, priced at $599 (or $499 with education pricing). Asus’s co-CEO called its price a “shock” to the Windows laptop market.
The Neo comes in citrus, blush, silver, and indigo.
What is the MacBook Neo? The MacBook Neo is Apple’s first true budget MacBook, bringing premium MacBook features to the budget category. It has an all-aluminum build, a Liquid Retina Display, macOS, and the Apple cool factor. It’s still a status symbol on campus.
To keep the price low, the Neo is the first MacBook without M-series silicon since 2020, using the A18 Pro chip first introduced with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Some critics have dismissed it as a “computer phone,” but reviews are nearly unanimous: It’s a surprisingly capable laptop.
In my testing, it scored nearly identical to the legendary M1 MacBook Air on benchmark tests. For students, casual users, and non-super-users, it should handle daily workloads with ease. I was able to create simple videos in Final Cut Pro and edit massive image files in bulk. I recommend citrus or indigo, personally.
The MacBook Neo costs $599, but a version with Touch ID and 512GB SSD is also available for $699. Both versions have 8GB of RAM. Users reported low stock during preorders, but as of now, all four colors are available on Amazon. However, due to an ongoing global memory shortage, availability might change.