Apple's $599 MacBook Neo Is a Chromebook Killer (Here Are the Trade-Offs)

Apple just did something nobody expected: they made a $599 MacBook. The MacBook Neo launched on March 11, 2026, and it's already shaking up the budget laptop market in ways that Chromebook manufacturers should be deeply worried about. $599 Gets You Actual Apple Silicon Here's what floors me about the Neo: it runs the A18 Pro. Not some stripped-down chip Apple designed specifically to hit a price point — the same A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro. Six CPU cores, a 5-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for on-device AI tasks. The base model pairs that with 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. Bump to $699 and you get 512GB storage plus Touch ID. Students get an even better deal at $499. For context, that $599 buys you a machine that Apple claims is 50% faster than the bestselling Intel Core Ultra 5 laptop for everyday tasks. For on-device AI workloads? 3x faster. Photo editing? 2x. These aren't subtle differences. The Specs That Actually Matter Display: 13-inch Liquid Retina, 1 billion