Apple has made an unusually bold move to hit a $599 starting price with the new MacBook Neo, and the cost-cutting (or cost-optimizing) changes go beyond the processor and ports. A new report now claims the budget MacBook also breaks from Apple’s long-standing approach to wireless connectivity by using a MediaTek Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth chip.
That’s a notable shift. For years, Macs have typically relied on Broadcom networking hardware, while some newer and higher-tier models have moved to Apple’s own in-house solution (often referred to as the N1). The MacBook Neo, however, reportedly goes in a different direction entirely with MediaTek handling Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth duties. Given the Neo’s aggressive pricing, the most likely explanation is simple: MediaTek offers a more cost-effective path to delivering the wireless features most buyers expect, while helping Apple keep the entry price low.
Even with its budget positioning, the MacBook Neo still aims to look and feel like a modern Mac. It’s said to feature a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a 2,408 x 1,506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and uniform bezels. Apple also includes Touch ID, dual-firing speakers with Spatial Audio support, a 1080p front-facing camera, and a brightly colored aluminum chassis paired with a color-matched keyboard—details that are clearly meant to make the Neo feel less like a “cheap Mac” and more like a smaller, more accessible one.
But the low price comes with trade-offs, and Apple isn’t hiding them. The MacBook Neo reportedly includes only two USB‑C ports, and they don’t offer the same capabilities across the board. It also ships with an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, and a mechanical trackpad that lacks pressure-sensing features. These compromises help explain how Apple can deliver a MacBook at $599 while still using premium materials and a high-quality display.
Performance is where the MacBook Neo is generating the most buzz. Earlier impressions suggest it delivers roughly a 43 percent performance jump over the M1 MacBook Air, highlighting just how far Apple silicon-class performance has advanced—even when it’s coming from an A-series chip like the A18 Pro rather than an M-series processor.
The A18 Pro also picked up fresh bragging rights thanks to a single-core Geekbench 6 result that compared the $599 MacBook Neo to a much more expensive machine: a $13,000 Mac Pro equipped with Intel’s 28-core Xeon W processor. In that specific single-core test, the MacBook Neo reportedly scored about three times higher, an eye-catching result that underscores how much single-threaded performance has improved in modern chip design.
There’s an important caveat, though. Most real-world apps and pro workflows today are heavily multi-threaded, and that’s where high-core-count systems can still stretch their legs. On top of that, the MacBook Neo’s 8GB of RAM could become a serious limitation in demanding workloads, especially when multitasking, working with large files, or running memory-hungry creative software. So while the single-core win makes for a dramatic headline, buyers should keep expectations grounded based on how they actually use a laptop.
Between the MediaTek wireless hardware, the pared-back port selection, and the scaled-down trackpad, the MacBook Neo looks like Apple’s most deliberate attempt in years to redefine what an entry-level MacBook can be. For shoppers looking for a modern macOS laptop with strong day-to-day speed at a low starting price, these design decisions may be exactly the point—and the MediaTek networking switch is just one more sign that Apple is willing to rewrite its usual playbook to get there.
