(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
Apple’s MacBook Neo, launched in March, was a runaway hit and sent shockwaves across the PC industry. So, it should be no surprise that the company is now prepping a second-gen version, which Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says will launch in the first half of 2027.
The Neo is the first Apple laptop to use an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro chip that debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro. It features 8GB of unified memory for Apple Intelligence and was launched at $599 (later hiked to $699) for 256GB of storage.
MacBook Neo 2 will see upgrades in RAM, processor, and colors, Gurman reported in July. Memory could be bumped to 12GB, while the processor could be an updated A19 Pro chip, first used on the iPhone 17 Pro models and the iPhone Air. Gurman hasn’t specified the possible new colors. Current offerings include blush (pinkish), citrus, indigo (blue), and silver.
The 13-inch Neo is designed to handle low-intensity productivity tasks, browsing, streaming, and AI features for students, families, and first-time Mac buyers. It will be interesting to see whether Apple can stick with $699 for its budget laptop, since memory and component costs are expected to rise next year as well.
In fact, Apple just raised the starting price of the MacBook Neo for education buyers from $599 to $649, MacRumors reports. The 512GB version is now $749.
While the Neo hogged all the attention in the first half of the year, Apple’s first-ever touch-screen MacBook could take the spotlight in the remaining months. The company is holding a launch event in Los Angeles later today, and PCMag is there to bring you the latest updates. Apple already updated the MacBook Pros and the iMac with M6 chips on Tuesday.