As first noticed by MacRumors, Apple has raised the starting price for its MacBook Neo from $599 to $649 on its US online education store. That means the discount for college students and other eligible education users is a mere $50, down from $100. The change was made within the past week. Equivalent price hikes have been made for local currencies in other countries.
The MacBook Neo first launched in March, and carried a base price of $499 in Apple’s education store. However, the price rose to $599 in June, and now sits at $649. Apple blames the rising price of the MacBook Neo – and that of several other Apple devices – on the rising cost of components, led by the ongoing memory chip shortage, which has led to skyrocketing prices for the RAM Apple uses in its devices, the MacBook Neo included. The ever-increasing price of RAM is fueled by giants like Nvidia and OpenAI buying up huge amounts of memory chips for their AI servers.
The MacBook Neo’s base price for the general public started at $599, but was hiked to $699 in June as well. Currently it remains at that price on Apple’s website. That model is available on Amazon with overnight delivery for Prime customers, for $689. It’s not much of a discount, but you could use that 10 bucks to buy a small coffee at Starbucks.
Apple is expected to release a second-generation MacBook Neo in the first half of 2027 that will be powered by an A19 Pro chip, 12GB of RAM, and will offer new color options. The current MacBook Neo is powered by an A18 Pro chip and has 8GB of RAM. The Neo is currently available in Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo.
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