MacBook Neo went on sale on March 11, 2026 — and appears to have immediately depleted warehouses. Apple has faced a shortage of A18 Pro chips for its cheapest laptop just weeks after release, according to Culpium.
The reason for the shortage is technical and telling: to sell the MacBook Neo for $599, Apple used so-called binned chips — rejected A18 Pro processors with 5-core graphics instead of full 6-core versions found in iPhone 16 Pro. This practice is standard in the industry, but supplies of "second-rate" chips are exhausted. Now the company is negotiating with suppliers: either order a new batch or limit sales.
What's inside the current model
The current MacBook Neo is the first Mac based on an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro here runs with 6 CPU cores, 5-core GPU, and only 8GB of RAM — while all other 2026 Macs start at 16GB. Memory bandwidth is 60 GB/s, compared to 153 GB/s in the M4 MacBook Air. Apple Intelligence is supported.
"MacBook Neo with A18 Pro is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks than the most popular PC with Intel Core Ultra 5 chip"
Apple, March 2026
The laptop weighs 1.22 kg and features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display without a notch — with bezels as even as on iPad — and is available in four colors: Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus. Starting price is $599 (256GB), $699 for 512GB with Touch ID.
Successor: A19 Pro and double the memory
According to Taiwan-based technology observer and former Bloomberg journalist Tim Culpan (Culpium newsletter), the next generation MacBook Neo will arrive in 2027 with the A19 Pro chip — the same one found in iPhone 17 Pro.
- 12GB of unified memory instead of 8GB — the main functional upgrade
- 5-core GPU — again a binned version of the chip (iPhone 17 Pro gets 6 cores)
- Performance gains, according to Digital Trends estimates, are in the low double-digit percentage range
The scheme is the same: Apple takes a flagship mobile chip, selects units with one defective GPU core, and puts them in a cheaper MacBook. Savings for the buyer are real, and savings for Apple too.
The question that remains unanswered: if Apple already cannot ensure stable supplies of A18 Pro right now, will it manage to establish production of binned A19 Pro versions by 2027 — or will the next MacBook Neo again start with a shortage in its first weeks?
