I really don't know how Apple did it. The MacBook Neo is a $600 laptop that doesn't feel like an afterthought, which is a curse that has befallen so many cheap Windows notebooks. Sure, it has a slower A-series processor and it's limited to 8GB of RAM. But the MacBook Neo still feels as deeply considered as Apple's most premium hardware. Its screen, trackpad and overall usability is so far ahead of the competition, every Windows PC maker, including Microsoft, should be ashamed. 

I've argued that a cheap MacBook could be the best for Apple to peel away Windows users, and after spending almost a week with the Neo, I'm convinced it will do just that. It's just fast enough to handle basic productivity work. It's sturdy enough to be tortured by kids in classrooms. And you really can't beat its $599 starting price. Once Windows users learn it's not that hard to switch to macOS, Apple will likely have another hit on its hands. 

What's so Neo about this MacBook?

I'll admit, I laughed at the MacBook Neo's name at first. It really does feel like a desperately hip name ASUS or Acer would slap onto their machines (in fact, Acer is doing so right now), rather than something Apple would even consider. But the Neo name is more than just a dated reference to the Matrix — it's also a clear signal that this is a new type of MacBook. It's the first one Apple has ever been able to sell so cheaply. It's the first one powered by a mobile A-series chip. And for many people, it will likely end up being their first Mac. 

The MacBook Neo also marks the first time Apple has built a value-focused notebook under $1,000. The adorable handle-equipped iBook G3 looked like a system geared towards kids, but it launched at $1,599 in 1999. The original MacBook Air, which Steve Jobs revealed by pulling it out of a manilla envelope, sold for $1,799 in 2008. MacBooks only got semi-affordable when Apple dropped the Air's entry price to $999 in 2014. (The starting price has bounced between $999 and $1,099 ever since.) It dabbled in the concept further by keeping the M1 MacBook Air around at Walmart stores for $699 in 2024 before eventually dropping its price down to $650 last year. If you were lucky, you could also find it for $499 during some holiday sales.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

While the M1 MacBook Air was a great value over the last few years, its last-gen Apple design aged quickly. The Neo looks far more modern, with an all-aluminum case that resembles the current Air (it's a bit smaller, but weighs the same 2.7 pounds). Color is the Neo's biggest draw, with bolder options like the greenish citrus and pink blush, along with Apple's typical dark and light case options. The citrus hue is the most unique, as we've seen rose gold MacBooks before. It would have been nice to see other strong colors too, like a brighter blue or something with a hint of purple. The people want personality, Apple! 

Under the hood, the MacBook Neo is a story of compromise, more so than any MacBook before it. Apple had to find a way to deliver its premium user experience while also cutting costs significantly to reach its $599 price. Relying on the A18 Pro, which powered last year's iPhone 16 Pro, was likely far more cost effective instead of using an older M-series chip that isn't being built anymore. That A18 Pro chip also means the MacBook Neo has to be fairly limited when it comes to ports: there are only two USB-C connections on board (one is USB 3.0, and the other is USB 2.0). There's no MagSafe charging connection, which is a shame since the MacBook Neo will likely end up around trip-prone kids in schools and homes.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

The biggest compromise lies in the MacBook Neo's RAM and disk space. It starts with just 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You can shell out another $100 to get 512GB of storage and a Touch ID button, but there's no way to add more RAM. Typically, my first piece of advice to any prospective computer buyer is to get at least 16GB of memory, as that's the easiest way to see faster performance when juggling tons of tabs, apps and large files. That's particularly true for Mac laptops, since Apple's unified memory is baked into its A-series and M-series chips.

The MacBook Neo's 8GB limitation shows the precise audiences Apple is targeting with the MacBook Neo: casual users. Those include people who need secondary machines for light workloads and schools relying on Chromebooks. I'm not reneging on my 16GB RAM recommendation — if the idea of less RAM in your main computer makes your skin crawl, the Neo isn't for you. The MacBook Air is still around, and it can easily be equipped with tons of RAM and storage.

Apple also deserves credit for squeezing in an impressive 1080p webcam in the Neo, something I haven’t seen in any other $600 Windows notebook. And while the resolution is impressive, Apple’s image processing also manages to deliver sharp and vibrant image quality. It’s usually easy to tell the overall quality of someone’s computer on group video calls based on their video quality. The MacBook Neo will have people thinking you’re calling in from a pricier MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

When I first demoed the MacBook Neo at Apple's launch event, its keyboard felt a bit flimsier than those on the Air and Pro. But I may have just been distracted by the crowd and noise. My review unit's keyboard feels just as accurate as the Air's, allowing me to type at full speed (near 100 words per minute) without any issues. There's none of the weird input problems I noticed on Dell's far more expensive XPS 14. 

The MacBook Neo's trackpad is similarly responsive and accurate for swiping and gestures. That's particularly surprising, since Apple isn’t using a haptic Force Touch trackpad like all of its laptops for the past decade. The Neo's pad clicks down mechanically — and yet, it doesn't feel as muddy as similar trackpads we see on budget PCs. It's also notable that Apple was able to make the Neo's trackpad completely clickable, whereas PC mechanical options often only click along their bottom half or third. 

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Enough Mac for most

I didn't expect much from the Neo's A18 Pro processor and limited specs, and yet it still managed to surprise me. It easily handled having dozens of tabs open across multiple browsers, a show playing on the TV app, photo editing in Pixelmator Pro and running the new Apple Arcade title Oceanhorn 3 without any significant slowdown. There's clearly some swift memory management going on, delivering just enough RAM for the task right in front of you.

The Neo's RAM usage typically hovered between 80 and 85 percent when I was trying to stress it, but it never went beyond that range. And if you're curious, the Neo typically used around 50 percent of its memory just to run macOS, even with no other apps running.

I'd bet most people wouldn't see a major performance difference between the MacBook Neo and the Air for basic tasks. Even their screens look similar: The Neo's LCD panel has only a slightly lower resolution than the Air's, but its smaller 13-inch screen size gives it a similarly rich pixel density. The screen looks bold and colorful indoors, and it's also bright enough to use in direct sunlight outside. That's not something you usually see on $600 laptops. 

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

During a demo at the Neo's launch event, I saw its screen compared side-by-side to a $600 HP laptop. The difference was literally night and day — the HP's display struggled to show the vibrancy of daylight photos, while the Neo's made photos pop off the screen. Similarly, the Neo's side-firing speakers sound significantly better than the tinny garbage HP stuffs into its discount machines. The Neo's speakers are ideal for watching videos and streaming content, but they definitely lack the clarity and low-end bump from the Air and MacBook Pro's upward firing speakers.

	Geekbench 6 CPU	Geekbench 6 GPU	Cinebench 2024
Apple MacBook Neo (A18 Pro)	3,372 /8,406	19,511	107/324
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4, 2025)	3,784/14,745	36,273	172/660 GPU: 3,465
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3, 2024)	3,190/12,102	30,561	N/A
Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch (2025, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus)	2,315/10,915	9,539	108/530

I was definitely trying to push the MacBook Neo harder than a typical user, but it simply kept delivering. In Geekbench 6's CPU benchmark, the MacBook Neo sits between the M2 and M3 MacBook Air for single-core tests, and below the M2 for multi-threaded work. Apple's hardware still manages to put Intel and AMD to shame, with single-threaded Geekbench 6 scores that are higher than the latest hardware from both companies. But of course, that's just one benchmark — beefy CPUs with active cooling will still be more performant overall.

What’s most impressive about the MacBook Neo is that it manages to be a functional and well-rounded notebook at just $599. Microsoft’s “low-budget” $800 Surface Pro 12-inch was cute, but we found its performance incredibly underwhelming (and you still had to pay more for the keyboard). The 2.2-pound ZenBook A14 was impressively light, but again it was just too slow to be useful. Apple probably could have worked harder to make the MacBook Neo a tad lighter, but it’s still easy to hold and travel with. I’d much rather Apple kept it at the MacBook Air’s 2.7-pound weight, instead of making the Neo less powerful or more expensive.

The only time the MacBook Neo completely failed was when I tried to run complex games meant for Apple's M-series chips. Lies of P installed just fine, but upon launch it just stopped as it tried to load shaders. Honestly, I'm surprised I was even able to install it in the first place. The most gaming you'll do on the Neo are things built specifically for Apple Arcade and the company's mobile chips, or cloud streaming options like GeForce Now or Xbox.

During our battery test, which involves looping a 4K video, the MacBook Neo lasted 12 hours and 15 minutes. That's far below the 18 hours and 15 minutes I saw on the M4 MacBook Air, but it's still enough to last you during a typical work or school day. Again, Apple also had to sacrifice plugging in a bigger battery to keep the Neo's costs down.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Should you buy the MacBook Neo?

It's rare for Apple to genuinely surprise me these days, but the MacBook Neo did just that. It's a $599 computer that can handle basic workloads just fine, all the while looking like one of the company's more expensive notebooks. Most importantly, it delivers more speed, a brighter screen and an overall better user experience than any competing $600 Windows PC. It's so good, I think it'll make many people wonder why they've stuck with sub-par PCs for so long.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/macbook-neo-review-apple-puts-every-600-windows-pc-to-shame-130000878.html?src=rss

There is so much to love about Dell's new XPS 14, it's hard for me to discuss it without sounding like a total fanboy. Its new design makes it incredibly thin and light. And Intel's Panther Lake chips give it a ton of power, even when it comes to games. After reviving the XPS brand from last year's ignominious rebranding, it's as if Dell was laser-focused on fixing all the issues we've had with the XPS 14 so far. 

Unfortunately, a shallow, unresponsive and hilariously error-prone keyboard kept me from truly loving the XPS 14. Simply put, it has trouble recognizing keys if you press them too quickly in succession. And for fast and demanding typists like myself, that leads to countless errors that disrupt your flow. In the last sentence alone, I counted ten times where I had to go back and make sure commas appeared before a space, or tweak simple spelling errors. What good is a fast, light and beautiful machine if I can't type a sentence in peace?

It's not unusual for laptop keyboards to require a bit of user training. But my issues with the XPS 14 aren't from a lack of practice — it simply doesn't recognize key presses as quickly as every other laptop I've tested. As you can see in the video below, quick key presses are almost always recognized in reverse, or sometimes aren't recognized at all. Those issues mostly go away if you type more slowly and deliberately, but that seems like a ridiculous compromise for a premium machine in 2026.

Dell engineers are currently testing one of the two review samples I received, both of which exhibited the exact same keyboard issue. Other reviewers have also noted that they need to type more slowly for the keyboard to work best. Gizmodo's Kyle Barr seems to be just as frustrated with the keyboard as I am, but he thinks it's due to Dell's seamless key design, which doesn't have any spaces between keys. My brother, who is an IT professional, also noticed the input issues when he typed on the XPS 14. 

I'm not crazy, I swear!

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

According to Dell, its engineers say that “a small batch of early XPS units” have the quick typing issue I ran into. They also say the issue is currently resolved and doesn’t affect XPS units shipping now. The company plans to release a firmware fix later this month, and I’ll be sure to update this review once I get my hands on it. But given that these laptops have been out in the wild for weeks, I decided to review the XPS 14 as is. TL;DR, it's the prettiest machine I've ever used that I hate to type on.

Seriously, this thing is gorgeous. Dell's designers outdid themselves with the machine's smooth metal case, which is more MacBook-like than its boxy predecessors. It's astonishing this system weighs just three pounds, putting it right between the 3.4-pound 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 2.7-pound 13.6-inch MacBook Air. It's also just a third of a pound heavier than the MacBook Neo, Apple's attempt at an underpowered entry-level laptop.

I'm also glad to see that Dell has heard my complaints about how over-designed the last XPS line was. For example, the company has stuck with its "invisible" trackpad, which sits flush with the laptop's wrist rest. But now there are two faint lines that designate where, exactly, the trackpad begins and ends. It's a solution reminiscent of Apple's MacBooks, which all feature large glass trackpads separated by a light border from their metal cases. Thanks to these two small lines, which don't detract from XPS 14's minimalist aesthetic, I feel more confident swiping around.

Dell also reversed course on the wonky capacitive function row from the previous models — which again, looked cool, but had some serious usability issues. It was tough to touch type with them, since they didn't feel as tactile as normal keys. And most crucially, the capacitive function row completely disappeared in direct sunlight. God forbid you were outside and wanted to change the volume level! This XPS 14 brings back a normal keyed function row, which is easier to touch type on and actually works in direct sunlight. (I sometimes wonder if Dell's designers ever went outside with the last XPS 14.)

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Our review model's 2.8K 14-inch OLED touchscreen looked spectacular, with bold colors and wonderfully deep black levels. But that's pretty much what I've come to expect from OLED by this point. I can't get enough of the extra eye candy OLED adds to photos and videos, and it makes a huge difference with games as well. But take note that OLED is only available for the priciest XPS 14, all other models get a standard non-touch 2K LCD. 

When it comes to connectivity, three USB-C ports and a headphone jack are all you get with the new XPS 14. The microSD card slot from the previous model is gone, and there's also no HDMI or USB Type A connections like you'd find on similar systems from ASUS and Acer. Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro, notably, features three USB-C ports, a full-sized HDMI slot, a large SD card reader and a headphone jack. 

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Beyond Dell's redesign, the main star of the XPS 14 is Intel's new Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H chip, which offers some serious graphics upgrades over the last generation. Our review unit, which featured 32GB of RAM and Intel's built-in Arc B390 GPU, was able to reach 130fps in Arc Raiders while playing in 1080p with medium graphics settings, as well as XeSS upscaling and frame generation. I was able to play through a few rounds with no lag — my only distraction was the lingering realization I was playing so smoothly on an ultraportable's integrated graphics.

I certainly wouldn't recommend the XPS 14 for heavy gamers. But if you're forced to choose a new non-gaming system for work or school, it's certainly nice that it can play some modern titles well. I also saw 63fps while playing Cyberpunk 2077 in 1080p with medium graphics settings and XeSS tech active. Not bad for one of the most demanding PC games in recent memory! 

Computer	PCMark 10	Geekbench 6	Geekbench 6 GPU	Cinebench 2024
Dell XPS 14 (Intel Core Ultra X7 358H)	9,651	2,890/16,745	56,378	125/685
MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ (Intel Core Ultra X7 358H)	10,169	2,864/16,633	56,425	117/719
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025)	N/A	4,310/18,003	48,840	197/1,034
Dell 16 Premium (Core Ultra 7 255H, NVIDIA RTX 5070)	7,780	2,711/15,919	109,443	127/1,104

Benchmarks also point to plenty of power under the hood: The XPS 14 scored similarly to the MSI Prestige 14 AI+, which also has the Ultra X7 358H chip, in PCMark 10 and Geekbench 6. I was also surprised to see that its single-core Geekbench 6 score was higher than ASUS's ProArt PX13 GoPro Edition, a beastly machine with 128GB of RAM and a powerful AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip. The XPS 14 also scored 3,000 points higher than the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI gaming laptop (powered by a last-gen Core Ultra 9 288V chip) in Geekbench's multi-threaded CPU test. 

Clearly, this was a growth year for Intel's hardware. Just keep in mind that all of our figures come from Dell's highest-end XPS 14 configuration, which currently starts at $2,250 with 64GB of RAM on the company's site. The lowest-end configuration, which starts at $1,450, comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. When I briefly tested that system (it had to be sent back to Dell for that keyboard issue), it scored 2,000 points lower than the Ultra X7 model in PCMark 10. I didn't get to game on the entry-level XPS 14, but I wouldn't expect much, since Intel's beefy Arc graphics are reserved for its pricier X7 and X9 CPUs.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

I was also surprised to see that the XPS 14 lasted just 10 hours and 21 minutes in PCMark 10’s Modern office battery test. The MSI Prestige 14 went for a whopping 22 hours and 15 minutes — that’s far more in line with Intel’s efficiency claims for Panther Lake systems. I tested both the XPS 14 and MSI Prestige 14 in Window’s “balanced” battery profile, so you may be able to eke out more life with more battery saving features turned on. 

If I were to judge the XPS 14 based purely on its specs and design alone, it would be my favorite Windows laptop available today. But I swear, I can't live with its keyboard issues. I had to seriously slow down my typing just to get this review written, and even then I still had to back up and make more corrections than usual. Dell is so close to making a PC that’s a true MacBook Pro competitor, it's a shame a simple keyboard issue holds the XPS 14 back from true greatness.

Update 3/6/26 2:20PM ET: Added further information about the XPS 14’s keyboard issue and a potential firmware fix.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/dell-xps-14-2026-review-a-beautiful-laptop-that-excels-at-almost-everything-except-typing-130000656.html?src=rss

Meet the MacBook Neo, Apple’s long-rumored low-cost Mac. Powered by the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro series, the $599 MacBook Neo is Apple’s first attempt at delivering a genuinely affordable Mac laptop. (Ironically, it comes after Apple raised the base prices of the new MacBook Air M5 and MacBook Pro M5 Pro/Max.) It’s well below the $1,099 MacBook Air, but Apple didn’t skimp on the design.

For $599 you get 256GB of storage and no Touch ID on the keyboard; another $100 doubles the storage and adds Touch ID. All models of the MacBook Neo ship with an extremely scant 8GB of RAM — but at this price, we can withhold judgement on whether that’s enough until we put this thing though some testing.

The A18 Pro chip includes a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine — based on pure numbers that’s far behind what you’ll get with a current M-series processor, but again it may be enough juice for the basic computing tasks this laptop seems geared towards.

There’s still a sturdy aluminum case, with no cheap plastic to be seen. It includes a 13-inch Retina display, a 1080p webcam, two USB-C ports, a headphone jack and optional Touch ID. You’ll need to use one of those ports for charging, as there’s no MagSafe connector on this MacBook. The side-firing speakers support Dolby Atmos playback. And the MacBook Neo comes in four colors than usual: silver, indigo, blush and citrus. The keyboard is color-matched to the case, too.

The display appears to be fairly basic. The 13-inch LCD has a 2,408-by-1,506 and 500 nits of brightness. There’s no True Tone features for adjusting the screen’s color temperature to your surroundings; this is the first display Apple has released in years without that feature. It also doesn’t support the P3 wide color gamut, another feature present on most other Apple screens.

Another place Apple cut costs is the trackpad. All Mac laptops besides the Neo have a “Force Touch” trackpad that doesn’t actually move. Instead, Apple’s Taptic Engine provides subtle haptic feedback to confirm various actions. It can also sense pressure. Those features are absent on the MacBook Neo — it’s a more standard throwback of a trackpad that physically moves when you click it.

And while its mobile chip isn’t nearly as powerful as the Air’s M4, it’s still fast enough to handle many productivity tasks without much trouble. As we argued last week, the Neo could just be the cheap MacBook to tempt over Windows users disgruntled with Microsoft’s AI obsession.

It’s easy to view the MacBook Neo cynically as a sign that Apple is running out of ideas. But given how many PC options there are between $500 and $1,000, it simply makes sense for Apple to offer something in that range. The company experimented with a low-cost offering by selling the the older M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for $700 in 2024, which later went down to $650 last year. The only question now is how long Apple can maintain its prices, as the AI-induced RAM shortage will likely lead to some increases this year. HP claims RAM now accounts for a third of its PC costs, double the amount from last year.

As with everything else Apple announced this week, the MacBook Neo is up for pre-order today, and it’ll ship on March 11.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-599-macbook-neo-is-apples-cheapest-mac-laptop-yet-141028666.html?src=rss