The MacBook Neo Might Not Stay Cheap For Long — Here's Why

It's not often that Apple releases a budget-minded product, much less an affordable MacBook. In March 2026, the company upended its laptop lineup when it launched the MacBook Neo, starting at $599 — $499 with a student discount. This budget MacBook has an aluminum body, two USB-C ports, fun colors, and uses a similar processor to the one found in the iPhone 16 Pro. With the MacBook Neo off to a hot start, Apple is now facing a tough decision, as it might have to raise prices for the budget computer due to RAM costs skyrocketing and the lack of available A18 Pro chips. However, if the MacBook Neo sees a price hike, it might lose what made it so popular in the first place.

Reports that Apple could increase the price of the MacBook Neo come from former Bloomberg reporter Tim Culpan in his newsletter. According to the journalist, Apple could discontinue the 256 GB variant of the MacBook Neo, which would raise the base price to $799 (the current cost of the 512 GB storage tier) or $699 with the student discount. While this would have some benefits, as the pricier model has more storage and Touch ID support, it would effectively represent a 40% price increase for students, which could put a serious damper on the MacBook Neo's early momentum.

If the MacBook Neo loses its lowest storage tier, it wouldn't be without precedent. Apple recently removed a few configurations of the Mac Studio from its website, including the variant with 512 GB of RAM and the base-model M3 Ultra version, and it did the same for the Mac mini's lowest storage option (256 GB). These changes may point to something more than Apple readying a new generation of M5 Macs — it's possible the company can't justify offering these products at their lowest price points amid the ongoing RAM shortage.

Along with the reported storage tier changes, Tim Culpan says Apple will consider releasing new MacBook Neo color options and offer them in the pricier configurations. Even though the company hasn't settled on the new colors, this could help Apple to make an already fresh lineup even fresher. Besides that, it's a strategy the company has used before, as some iMac colors were exclusive to more expensive models until the M4 version.

Another big issue for Apple is with chip manufacturer TSMC, which will reportedly have to make a fresh batch of A18 Pro chips. For context, Apple has been using a down-binned version of its iPhone 16 Pro chip in the MacBook Neo. It's essentially the same A18 Pro system-on-a-chip (SoC) that you'd find in the company's 2024 top-tier phone models, but with one GPU core disabled after that part of the chip came off the line defective. As Culpan points out, this means the A18 Pro SoCs used in the MacBook Neo may have required less overhead from Apple — but if TSMC makes a fresh batch, that would no longer be the case.

According to Tim Culpan, TSMC is now focusing on AI customers, which means producing a fresh batch of A18 Pro chips could cost Apple more. Since the SoC in the first batch of MacBook Neos was down-binned, Apple was essentially making use of faulty excess iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max chips. If TSMC makes a new batch of A18 Pro SoCs, a majority of the chips would not be down-binned, and Apple would have to pay TSMC accordingly. This would inherently raise the cost of the MacBook Neo's bill of goods, lowering Apple's profit margins for the device.

One solution, then, could be releasing a second generation of the MacBook Neo with the A19 Pro. It wouldn't be the first time Apple refreshed a lineup of Macs in less than 12 months, and it could give the company the chance to release a version of the Neo with 12 GB of RAM — the same amount offered in the iPhone 17 Pro. More importantly, it means Apple could repurpose down-binned A19 Pro chips with minor defects instead of having to produce an all-new batch of older chips for a new product.

Ultimately, Apple could simply decide to stop selling the MacBook Neo for a while, or just focus on the more expensive version. However, the budget laptop would stand to lose a lot of its momentum from a pause in availability or a price hike.