We’ve crowned our laptop of the year and there was really only one option: the Apple MacBook Neo
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I reviewed the MacBook Neo back in March, and even then I knew there was very little chance it would give our Laptop of the Year award to any other device at the 2026 TechRadar Product of the Year Awards.
It’s not necessarily the best choice for everyone – there were a lot of much more powerful laptops released this year, and if you want to play PC games on your laptop, don’t even think about buying the Neo – but what Apple did with the MacBook Neo is pretty incredible and set the tone for many other laptops that came out this year.
Apple has always been seen as a premium brand, offering expensive devices that (usually, but not always) justify their prices with superior build quality and the kind of lifespan that Windows laptop owners, who feel like they have to upgrade every five years, can only dream of.
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However, with the MacBook Neo, Apple has produced a (relatively) cheap laptop that manages to retain much of what we love about Apple’s more expensive MacBooks, while making it affordable for more people.
The timing couldn’t have been better, as a global cost of living crisis has meant that more people are struggling to afford everyday essentials, let alone “luxury” purchases like laptops. At a time when a lot of technology is also increasing in price due to the RAM crisis, it was very welcome to see a company like Apple launch a new relatively inexpensive device.
Before the Neo announcement, rumors had circulated that Apple was planning to announce a cheaper MacBook, but I don’t think any of us expected the earthquake of its $599 / £599 / AU$1,049 starting price.
I say “earthquake” because not only was it much cheaper than expected, but it changed the landscape of the laptop market, shaking up Apple’s competitors and leaving them scrambling for an answer.
And they responded that they did, with companies like Dell and Acer releasing similarly priced laptops that were explicitly presented as competitors to the MacBook Neo when I discussed them with manufacturers.
Victim of your own success?
The fact that the MacBook Neo has had such an influence on the laptop market is one of the key reasons I chose it as TechRadar’s Laptop of the Year. Companies like the Dell
In fact, you could almost argue that the MacBook Neo proved too successful in inspiring its competitors, especially considering that a few months after launch, Apple increased the price of the MacBook Neo by $100 / £100. Not only did this make the MacBook Neo less of a groundbreaking value (and less of an “instant recommendation” when people asked me which laptop they should buy), but its competitors seem to have mostly held steady with their starting prices.
Suddenly, Apple seemed to have inspired its competitors to make rival products that were more economical than the MacBook Neo. Oops.
Despite that price increase, the MacBook Neo is still an excellent laptop that continues to offer plenty of value. If you’re looking for a reliable, well-built laptop for everyday tasks that doesn’t cost a fortune, it’s still one of the best laptops you can buy and is still the cheapest way to enter the Mac ecosystem.
The MacBook Neo proved that, at a time when hardware prices seem to be rising inexorably, it’s still possible to make an impressive, affordable device without making too many sacrifices, and that’s exactly what we need in 2026.
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