In March 2026, Apple officially unveiled its inaugural entry-level notebook, the MacBook Neo, priced at 4,599 yuan with an enticing education discount bringing it down to 3,999 yuan. This device signifies a pioneering move by Apple, integrating the A18 Pro chip—the same powerhouse found in the iPhone 16 Pro—into the Mac lineup, thereby democratizing access to the full macOS ecosystem. The MacBook Neo boasts a fanless, silent design and an impressive battery life of up to 16 hours. Nevertheless, it has made certain trade-offs in terms of memory (8GB), port selection (USB 3 + USB 2), and screen quality (sRGB only), sparking debates within the market. Tests conducted by virtualization software provider Parallels reveal that when running lightweight Windows 11 office applications within a virtual machine environment, the MacBook Neo's single-core performance outpaces that of the Dell Pro 14 (which sports an Intel Core Ultra 5 235U processor and runs Windows 11 natively) by 20%. However, it falls short by 40% and 50% in multi-core and graphics performance, respectively.