PC Makers Are Not Ready for the MacBook Neo

Antonio G. Di Benedetto, The Verge:

Somehow, the PC makers still don’t see it coming. Here’s how [Asus CFO Nick] Wu described the MacBook Neo, specifically its 8GB of RAM limitation:

“I think when Apple positioned the product, it’s probably focused more on content consumption. This differs somewhat from mainstream notebook usage scenarios, because in that case, the Neo feels more like a tablet — because tablets are mostly for content consumption.”

Hang on. Can we hold up for a second here? [...]

The proof of the MacBook Neo’s performance for the money is in the numbers. In single-core benchmarks tests — which most accurately measure the kinds of everyday tasks you do on a computer — the Neo’s A18 Pro chip beats out all manner of Windows laptops, including the new flagship Intel Panther Lake chip in Asus’ own $2,400 Zenbook Duo. Is a Zenbook Duo more capable than the MacBook Neo for heavier tasks, like photo and video editing or playing more graphically demanding games? Yes, and it’s part of why I loved that dual-screen laptop when I reviewed it. But the Zenbook Duo also costs four times as much. And, again, the Neo can hang with it for most common tasks, even with its 8GB of RAM.

This idea that because it’s “an iPhone chip” the Neo is not capable of, say, editing 4K video is utterly ignorant. You know what computers are fully capable of editing 4K video? iPhones. So of course the same chip that enables smooth 4K video editing in an iPhone can do the same in a Mac.

It’s folly to look at the MacBook Neo and presume that an Apple laptop with iPad-like specs must be iPad-like in its capabilities. Anyone who finds iPads limiting for work — and I’m one of them! — isn’t limited because of the hardware. It’s because iPadOS isn’t designed to suit the way we work. The MacBook Neo is a full-fledged kick-ass Macintosh. It really is. If PC makers think it’s something akin to an iPad in a laptop enclosure, they’re even dumber than I thought, and I’ve long thought most of them are pretty dumb.

★ Saturday, 14 March 2026