Do you think $599 is a low price? One cannot answer this question without knowing for what and in how that what compares to others in the market. Today Apple announced the MacBook Neo, which as Wired tells us is the most affordable laptop the company has ever made. In other words, Wired says that $599 relative to other Apple laptops is a low cost.

My first reaction while reading the headlines and before reading the articles is that $599 is too expensive, and reading the articles further convinces me that this is true. My advice is to hold off on buying the Neo and let’s see how much lower you can buy one say later this summer or during the Christmas buying period.

What is behind my reaction is that I think “low cost” isn’t just about the amount of money but also about value. For $599 the MacBook Neo enables you to run MacOS apps in 8GB of RAM and store them and their data on 256 GB of storage, and I think both of those amounts are too low for $599. You can get more of both provided you are willing to run Windows and not MacOS.

Apple itself has established that 16 GB of RAM is the starting point in 2026, as every other laptop it sells starts at that amount. The higher cost of RAM may be a legit reason why Neo only has 8 GB, but I wonder if that lower RAM constraint is also tied to selling Apple’s services. The latest AI technology is not going to run well in 8 GB of RAM, so that means using AI in the cloud, and I am sure the Neo will do that very well at a cost of $20 per month.

My current laptop usage indicates to me that 256 GB of storage is just not enough. I have a 512 GB disk in my MacBook that is 70% full. I find it curious that Apple is not including Touch ID in the $599/256 GB model, for that you need to pay $699 for the 512 GB model, which I strongly suspect is the real version of the Neo that Apple expects to sell. Maybe $599 for 512 GB of storage and Touch ID would be good enough, but I still don’t like that 8 GB of RAM constraint.

You will hear that Apple is targeting the Neo at those who would buy a Chromebook, or perhaps a low cost Windows, but I got to ask, if a person is really concerned about price what exactly is Apple offering here that is better than either option? Go find some articles about the latest version of MacOS and you will find unhappy users.

So, you are going to see a lot of articles saying how wonderful it is that Apple has come out with this low cost model. In the end I think you have to determine whether $599 is low cost or not, for me low cost starts at below $500 but even then that requires some minimum specs. I won’t be surprised at some time in the future this entry Neo will get to below $500, but even then a fair question is whether the device is worth that price. (Note that right now students can buy one for $499, but I ask again, is 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage good enough for students?)