First there was the iPhone 17e, then a refreshed iPad Air followed swiftly by souped-up MacBook Pros, and now, to finish things off, Apple has dropped the MacBook Neo, a bargain-basement laptop that can be yours for just $599.

Priced at $599, the MacBook Neo is Apple's cheapest laptop, but it is not without compromise. Instead of an M-series Mac chip, it uses the A18 Pro that Apple first introduced in t