A longtime Windows user finds the MacBook Neo tempting

I’ve generally been a generation or two behind on consumer electronics: my family didn’t get a home PC until late into the ’90s, I had a desktop in college instead of a laptop because it was cheaper, my first cellphone was pay-as-you-go and my first smartphone wasn’t until 2012.

I write online every day and my laptop is a 10-year-old Asus Zenbook that’s missing three keyboard keys. The new Apple MacBook Neo feels like the budget laptop I’ve been waiting for. Revealed earlier today, it’s a 13-inch liquid retina device running on 2024 A18 Pro mobile chips and starting at $600.

It only has 8GB of un-upgradable RAM, but it comes in muted metallic pastels, including a piss yellow that recalls early 2000s gaming handhelds. I’ve never owned an Apple device and have no desire to be trapped in the walled garden, but a sleek, fun, functional low-end laptop might be worth deprogramming my Windows-pilled brain.

macbook neo, apple, a18 pro, 13-inch, liquid retina, 8gb ram, $600, asus zenbook, muted pastels, windows