Apple takes on cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks with the $599 MacBook Neo

Right off the back of the iPhone 17e, new iPads and MacBook Airs, Apple also announced a keenly priced new laptop. The is a multi-colored low-cost Mac ($599), running on an iPhone chipset with most but not all of the hardware features you find on the MacBook Air and Pro. All models of the MacBook Neo ship with an extremely scant 8GB of RAM, which might be the main productivity bottleneck for demanding tasks.

The Neo has a 13-inch Retina display, a 1080p webcam, two USB-C ports, a headphone jack and optional Touch ID, if you’re willing to pay a little more. A lot has been said about whether this is Apple marching to the beat of its own drum again, in a year of RAM shortages and AI obsessions. This is a direct attack on cheap Windows laptops and underperforming Chromebooks. Tempted? Check out our initial impressions from Apple’s event earlier this week, right here. Oh, and for everything Apple announced – we’ve pulled all the news together here.

– Mat Smith

The other big stories this week

Design-wise, it seems a little safer than the company’s usual.

There’s no flagship Nothing Phone 4 this year, but the company has put a lot of effort into making its A-series almost flagship, including a notable design pivot with the Phone 4a Pro. The transparent back is now aluminum, and the trademark Nothing aesthetic has been boxed into the camera unit. It looks more grown-up, perhaps, but a little less fun? That said, the egregious camera bump on the Nothing 3a Pro last year is no more. Both 4a phones are sleek slabs of smartphones. The company has also substantially upgraded the devices, with better cameras, more batteryand improved screens. Only the 4a Pro will be coming to the US later this month.

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The stealth upgrade.

While MWC 2026 offered us plenty of Chinese smartphones ready to wow us, established player Samsung managed to surprise us with its S26 Ultra the week before. Sure, it doesn’t have a ton of major improvements, but it brings subtle upgrades across the board, along with a standout new display for anyone who cares about privacy.

The Privacy Display is the standout new feature – one we’ve never seen before on a smartphone. When you turn the Privacy Display on and view the phone from less than head-on, everything fades to black, like those privacy-sticker screen protectors, but at the hardware level.

The S26 ultra can even selectively activate Privacy Display under specific situations, turning on when you get notifications or open certain apps (like for banking or authenticators). The phone can also enable the feature when you need to enter a PIN, pattern, or password, though this is only for system-level prompts, such as your lock screen.

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The company promises to keep “filmmakers at the center of the process.”

What could go wrong?

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