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Matt Hanson

Apple MacBook Neo review: the best budget laptop you can buy

MacBook Neo laptop on a desk with plant in background.

Apple MacBook Neo two-minute review

The MacBook Neo is one of the most interesting releases from Apple in a long time, and it comes at an important moment. Thanks to a global memory shortage, a tariffs-loving president in the White House, and other global conditions, consumer electronics are becoming ever more expensive, just as the cost of living has also risen, which means consumers have less money to spend on things like a new laptop.Apple is generally regarded as a company that sells high-end and expensive devices, which isn’t entirely fair, as I think the Mac mini (M4) is one of the best-value products in the computing space. The MacBook Neo is interesting, as Apple is entering the budget and midrange laptop market for the first time. This is a market that's dominated by cheap Chromebooks and affordable Windows 11 laptops, and while Apple is joining the fray with the MacBook Neo, it’s doing so on its own terms.That means, as the company is keen to emphasise, that while the MacBook Neo is a more affordable MacBook, it is in no way a cheap, pared-back or limited MacBook.

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