Apple doesn’t want its newest budget laptop to be hard to buy, but that’s exactly the problem it’s trying to solve right now. After a strong start for the MacBook Neo, which begins at $599, a reported shortage of A18 Pro chips is tightening supply and stretching delivery windows. In some regions, wait times have reportedly climbed to as long as four weeks, putting pressure on Apple to secure more processors quickly and keep shipments moving.
To prevent the MacBook Neo from becoming one of those “always out of stock” products, Apple has reportedly told its suppliers to ramp up production significantly. The initial target of around 5 to 6 million units for the year is said to have jumped to 10 million units, signaling that Apple expects demand to stay strong and wants more inventory available through the rest of the year.
The biggest bottleneck is chip supply. Apple is reportedly pushing TSMC for additional A18 Pro production, but capacity is tight because TSMC’s 3nm N3E process is running at full tilt, driven heavily by demand from AI-focused customers. When manufacturing lines are packed, getting priority often means paying extra, and Apple is said to be doing exactly that—agreeing to a steeper premium to lock in supply.
The MacBook Neo uses a binned version of the A18 Pro. In simple terms, it performs the same as the A18 Pro used in the iPhone 16 Pro lineup for CPU-heavy tasks, but it comes with a slightly reduced GPU configuration. Specifically, the MacBook Neo version is said to use a 5-core GPU rather than a 6-core GPU, which can result in a small dip in graphics performance in GPU benchmarks. Even so, the overall performance profile remains close to the full version, which is a big part of the laptop’s appeal at its price point.
Here’s where things get more expensive: the report suggests Apple may need to buy more non-binned A18 Pro chips to meet higher production goals. Non-binned chips are generally pricier than binned parts, since binned silicon often includes chips that didn’t fully meet the top-tier configuration requirements. If Apple pivots toward more non-binned supply, the per-unit cost can climb—and that cost pressure doesn’t stop with the processor.
The report also notes that DRAM pricing for Apple’s next memory orders is increasing, which adds even more weight to the MacBook Neo’s overall bill of materials. When both key components—chips and memory—get more expensive at the same time, it can create a real risk that Apple may adjust pricing in future batches to protect margins.
To make any potential price bump easier to swallow, Apple could reportedly introduce new color options to refresh interest and keep the MacBook Neo feeling “new” even if the cost edges up. That strategy has worked across the consumer electronics market for years: new finishes, new colors, and small cosmetic updates can help maintain demand even when manufacturing costs rise.
That said, shoppers may still find better deals through major retailers in the near term, especially if those sellers already have inventory purchased at earlier costs. As an example of current pricing seen online, the 256GB model has been listed around $589.99, while the 512GB version has appeared around $689.99—numbers that undercut the laptop’s starting price and could become harder to find if supply stays tight and component costs continue to rise.
For anyone considering the MacBook Neo, the story to watch is simple: rising demand plus constrained 3nm chip capacity can squeeze supply, and higher CPU and DRAM costs could eventually influence pricing. Apple’s reported push to reach 10 million units suggests it’s taking the situation seriously—and doing what it can to keep its most affordable MacBook option widely available.
