Apple's $600 MacBook Neo Handles 1080p Gaming, but Chokes on Cyberpunk 2077

2 articles · Updated · digitalfoundry.net · May 16

$600 MacBook Neo delivered roughly 45-60fps at 1080p in lighter games such as Death Stranding and Control, showing Apple's cut-price laptop can handle older or less demanding titles despite using an A18 Pro phone chip.
8GB of unified memory and a disabled-core A18 Pro quickly became the bottlenecks: Control with ray tracing fell to 20-30fps, Grid Legends and Resident Evil 4 needed 720p, and Cyberpunk 2077 was effectively unplayable.
90% sustained performance in stress tests was a bright spot, with the fanless Neo holding clocks better than iPhones and M-series iPads thanks to its larger chassis and thermal mass.
Content-creation results were usable rather than fast: web and office tasks stayed smooth, Final Cut Pro exports were acceptable for casual work, but an M4 Mac Mini finished a 4K60 H.264 encode in about one-third of the time.
Digital Foundry's verdict was that the 13-inch Neo remains a strong value for budget buyers, pairing premium build quality and a Retina-class display with gaming performance closer to an iPhone 16 Pro than a modern Mac.

Is the MacBook Neo a brilliant gateway to macOS, or a compromised machine that redefines what a 'Mac' can be?

With its key chip supply dwindling, is Apple's hit budget MacBook already doomed to a price hike or discontinuation?