Apple MacBook Neo 2 expected to attract 100% more buyers with RAM upgrade

The Apple MacBook Neo launched in early March and is an intriguing product, especially amid the DRAM crisis. Apple offers a high-quality aluminum chassis, a high-resolution display with 500 nits of brightness, and long battery life at an affordable price. To make this possible, Apple uses an iPhone processor, the Apple A18 Pro, and pairs it with just 8 GB of RAM.

In our in-depth review this setup proved surprisingly capable, with the MacBook Neo responding quickly during web browsing and basic multimedia tasks. According to information from DigiTimes Apple will produce a total of around 8 million MacBook Neo units in 2026. In 2027, the company reportedly plans to order components for as many as 16 million units from its suppliers, so Apple apparently expects sales of its budget MacBook to double. This is likely due primarily to two reasons.

On the one hand, competing laptops are becoming increasingly expensive due to the DRAM crisis, making the MacBook Neo look more attractive. On the other hand, Apple is rumored to be launching a second-generation MacBook Neo as early as the first half of next year, which is expected to receive a significant performance upgrade with the Apple A19 Pro and 12 GB of RAM. As our benchmarks show, this would give the laptop roughly the single-core performance of the Apple M4 and the multi-thread performance of the Apple M2.