GoKawiilis a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
The MacBook Neo is here, and it took no time at all for an executive from a major PC manufacturer to put their foot in their mouth trying to discuss this new competition from Apple’s $600 laptop. On Asus’ latest earnings call, CFO Nick Wu said that the Neo and its aggressive entry-level pricing were “certainly a shock to the entire market.” Wu also disclosed that Asus had some knowledge of Apple developing the Neo back in 2025, much as many of us had heard rumors of a MacBook with an iPhone chip for months — and yet, Asus and other PC makers seem to have been caught flat-footed.
What’s worse is these company executives don’t even seem to realize what the Neo means. Apple has fully entered the budget laptop space, with an extremely capable (and colorful) device seemingly geared at everything from mainstream Windows laptops to the fleets of Chromebooks in schools everywhere. Apple’s manufacturing might, design chops, and near-total ownership of its tech stack give it the tools to take on this market in a big way. Somehow, the PC makers still don’t see it coming. Here’s how Wu described the MacBook Neo, specifically its 8GB of RAM limitation:
“I think when Apple positioned the product, it’s probably focused more on content consumption. This differs somewhat from mainstream notebook usage scenarios, because in that case, the Neo feels more like a tablet — because tablets are mostly for content consumption.”
Hang on. Can we hold up for a second here?
When I see macOS I don’t solely think “content consumption,” and I doubt anyone else who uses it does either. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Equating the MacBook Neo to a glorified Netflix machine is preposterous. It’s not a desktop replacement-class laptop with tons of power, but it’s a very capable machine. And this misunderstanding tells me that PC manufacturers are about to repeat many of the same mistakes as when they spent years mocking the supposedly underpowered MacBook Air, and when former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone. Once again, the Windows world appears to not understand what people actually want.
How, exactly, does the MacBook Neo differ from mainstream notebook usage, like web browsing, editing documents, making basic presentations, and maybe occasionally playing a game? According to a 2025 CNET survey, 52 percent of laptop owners use their laptops for creating and viewing documents. Next highest was 35 percent using their laptops for streaming and watching shows and movies (content consumption, yes). The other surveyed uses behind that were creative work, studying, test taking, and basic life organization. That’s all stuff the Neo can do well (with some limits on the creative side). And it does it while having a good trackpad, a bright and colorful screen, a solid keyboard, and quality speakers — things that go a long way to making a computer compelling, and which are often lacking on low-cost Windows laptops.
If the Neo came out running iPadOS, sure, call it a consumption machine, but it runs macOS — a desktop OS that’s known for getting by better with less RAM than Windows. And, meanwhile, thanks to the ongoing RAM shortage, we may once again get more new laptops with 8GB of starting RAM on Windows. As RAM prices explode, Apple’s vertically integrated supply chain can continue to offer computers cheaper. Even if PC makers can match the specs, they’ll have a hard time matching the price.
Your average Apple Store-goer will have an easy time demoing and shopping for this $600 laptop — one of Apple’s strengths compared to buying a Windows laptop online or at Best Buy. Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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