To say the MacBook Neo disrupted the laptop market would be an understatement. When the Neo dropped, former Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple had its best-ever launch week for first-time Mac customers, and the company is reportedly planning on doubling the MacBook's sales for 2027. It's not hard to see why the MacBook Neo is such a hit: Apple is offering the essential Mac experience at a fantastic price point. You no longer need to spend $1,000 or more for a MacBook, so long as you're okay making some sacrifices to get there—which, it seems, many customers are.
MacBook Neo (256GB) $669.22 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $669.22 at AmazonPart of the issue for PC manufacturers was Apple's control over its own ecosystem. Unlike most PC makers, which only produce the hardware for each machine, Apple makes both the hardware and the software for its MacBook lineup. As such, the company has the advantage of optimizing that hardware. It can design macOS to run more efficiently on weaker hardware, in a way that companies like Dell or ASUS can't. You might be comparing the MacBook Neo against a Windows laptop with similar specs, or even better specs, but because Microsoft makes Windows, not the laptop manufacturer, it's possible the Neo ends up with the better overall experience. While that might still be the case, Microsoft may have just closed that gap in a meaningful way.
In its blog post, Microsoft highlighted improvements that users with 8 GB of RAM can expect from Windows going forward. First, Microsoft says it focused on better utilizing the RAM your machine already has. The company compares its memory management to a desk: Anything on the "desk" is stored in RAM; anything in your "drawer" is stored in your drive. As you use your PC, Windows used to move more of your apps and tabs to your drawer to free up more RAM for other things, meaning you'd need to reload those items whenever you returned to them. Going forward, the company says that Windows can keep up to 2GB more of your active data in RAM instead of moving it to slower storage elsewhere. That means apps and tabs should refresh less frequently when you leave and return to them.
Microsoft says it also improved the memory efficiency in its apps: The company claims it reduced committed-memory growth by up to 900 MB, and saved up to 360 MB in RAM across Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. That extends to third-party apps as well: Microsoft says that WhatsApp has double-digit memory improvement now. Widgets also only load when you open the app, which saves 200 MB of RAM when the app is closed, while Edge tabs go inactive after 15 minutes instead of two hours.
8 GB PCs are competitive again
PCMag's Chris Hoffman was adamant before this latest Windows update that buyers should steer clear of PCs with 8 GB of RAM. Now, he's pulling back a bit. In his testing, Hoffman noticed improvements when multitasking on an 8 GB PC when compared to similar tests from months ago. He could run multiple Chrome tabs, a Microsoft Word window, and Spotify without bogging down the computer much. Hoffman isn't a lightweight user, so he still wouldn't personally choose an 8 GB machine, but he admits, "If I were an average PC buyer looking for a reasonable desktop experience and could save hundreds of dollars by opting for 8GB of RAM, I might be happy with the performance."
As Hoffman says, 8 GB of RAM is not ideal for any user looking for serious multitasking or professional workflows, regardless of whether they choose a Mac or PC. But for the average computer customer looking for a solid machine without breaking the bank, I no longer see the Neo as necessarily the default choice. After all, Apple has slowly raised its price, too, from $599 to $699. If you're platform-agnostic, or even prefer Windows to macOS, these updates from Microsoft are quite promising. If you're in the market, check out PCMag's excellent list of budget laptop recommendations.
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