PC makers are not ready for the MacBook Neo

The MacBook Neo is here, and it took nary clip astatine each for an executive from a awesome PC shaper to put their ft successful their rima trying to talk this caller title from Apple’s $600 laptop. On Asus’ latest net call, CFO Nick Wu said that the Neo and its fierce entry-level pricing were “certainly a daze to the full market.” Wu besides disclosed that Asus had immoderate knowledge of Apple processing the Neo backmost successful 2025, overmuch arsenic galore of america had heard rumors of a MacBook pinch an iPhone chip for months — and yet, Asus and different PC makers look to person been caught flat-footed.

What’s worse is these institution executives don’t moreover look to recognize what the Neo means. Apple has afloat entered the fund laptop space, pinch an highly tin (and colorful) instrumentality seemingly geared astatine everything from mainstream Windows laptops to the fleets of Chromebooks successful schools everywhere. Apple’s manufacturing might, creation chops, and near-total ownership of its tech stack springiness it the devices to return connected this marketplace successful a large way. Somehow, the PC makers still don’t spot it coming. Here’s really Wu described the MacBook Neo, specifically its 8GB of RAM limitation:

“I deliberation erstwhile Apple positioned the product, it’s astir apt focused much connected contented consumption. This differs somewhat from mainstream notebook usage scenarios, because successful that case, the Neo feels much for illustration a tablet — because tablets are mostly for contented consumption.”

Hang on. Can we clasp up for a 2nd here?

Equating the MacBook Neo to a glorified Netflix instrumentality is preposterous. It’s not a desktop replacement-class laptop pinch tons of power, but it’s a very tin machine. And this misunderstanding tells maine that PC manufacturers are astir to repetition galore of the aforesaid mistakes arsenic erstwhile they spent years mocking the supposedly underpowered MacBook Air, and erstwhile former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed astatine the iPhone. Once again, the Windows world appears to not understand what group really want.

How, exactly, does the MacBook Neo disagree from mainstream notebook usage, for illustration web browsing, editing documents, making basal presentations, and possibly occasionally playing a game? According to a 2025 CNET survey, 52 percent of laptop owners usage their laptops for creating and viewing documents. Next highest was 35 percent utilizing their laptops for streaming and watching shows and movies (content consumption, yes). The different surveyed uses down that were imaginative work, studying, trial taking, and basal life organization. That’s each worldly the Neo tin do good (with immoderate limits connected the imaginative side). And it does it while having a bully trackpad, a agleam and colorful screen, a coagulated keyboard, and value speakers — things that spell a agelong measurement to making a machine compelling, and which are often lacking connected low-cost Windows laptops.

If the Neo came retired moving iPadOS, sure, telephone it a depletion machine, but it runs macOS — a desktop OS that’s known for getting by amended pinch little RAM than Windows. And, meanwhile, acknowledgment to the ongoing RAM shortage, we whitethorn once again get much caller laptops pinch 8GB of starting RAM connected Windows. As RAM prices explode, Apple’s vertically integrated proviso concatenation tin proceed to connection computers cheaper. Even if PC makers tin lucifer the specs, they’ll person a difficult clip matching the price.

The impervious of the MacBook Neo’s capacity for the money is successful the numbers. In single-core benchmarks tests — which astir accurately measurement the kinds of mundane tasks you do connected a machine — the Neo’s A18 Pro spot thumps retired each mode of Windows laptops, including the caller flagship Intel Panther Lake chip successful Asus’ ain $2,400 Zenbook Duo. Is a Zenbook Duo much tin than the MacBook Neo for heavier tasks, for illustration photograph and video editing aliases playing much graphically demanding games? Yes, and it’s portion of why I loved that dual-screen laptop erstwhile I reviewed it. But the Zenbook Duo besides costs 4 times arsenic much. And, again, the Neo tin bent pinch it for astir communal tasks, moreover pinch its 8GB of RAM.

I said successful my reappraisal that the Neo embarrasses an full people of affordable Windows laptops, but further embarrassment awaits these companies if they person thing to reply it with. I dream they’re already moving connected that adjacent procreation of laptops that will really compete astatine $600. And I really hope companies for illustration Asus, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Acer, Samsung, and MSI person an existent knowing of what makes their caller title truthful good, and what it tin do for a full batch little than existent Windows-based offerings. I reached retired to each these companies, and the answers I’ve received truthful acold are expectedly milquetoast.

Gigabyte trading head Howard Chiu told me, “Gigabyte is not presently pursuing laptops successful the aforesaid conception arsenic the Neo. The Gigabyte A16 would beryllium minimum specs that we are progressive in.” Which, okay, I tin really respect that. Because Gigabyte is simply a mini subordinate successful the laptop abstraction and mostly specializes successful gaming — it’s simply not competing pinch the Neo.

Dell PR rep Nathalia Romano pointed maine to COO Jeff Clarke’s CES keynote. Clarke teased the release of a caller XPS 13 laptop that will beryllium “the astir accessible XPS value constituent ever.” He besides said the company’s purpose is to “cover each value points pinch awesome products. Is a awesome merchandise different astatine $399 than it is astatine $1,999? Of people it is, but they some tin beryllium awesome astatine what they’re expected to do.” What does Dell presently person astatine the Neo’s price? A Dell 15 laptop pinch a dim 16:9 display, integrative build, three-year-old Intel chip, and… 8GB of RAM. On Windows 11. Woof.

It isn’t conscionable astir capacity scores aliases the magnitude of RAM, it’s besides astir making affordable laptops that don’t consciousness for illustration a reward to usage — a full package for mundane people, for a value that’s not exorbitant. That’s what Windows laptop manufacturers are up against, and if they don’t understand that, past they don’t understand an full people of customers who tin locomotion into an Apple Store coming and get precisely that for $599. Because they’re astir to.