- New rumors suggest that Apple’s MacBook Neo will receive an upgrade in 2027
- Reliable tech columnist Tim Culpan expects the Neo to use the iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM
- The Neo is also expected to stick with a five-core GPU instead of the A19 Pro’s six-core GPU
The MacBook Neo is critically acclaimed as one of the best budget laptops, despite the drawback of 8GB of total memory. That may change next year, but the ongoing RAM crisis could make things challenging for Apple.
As reported by MacRumors, Apple’s MacBook Neo could be set to receive two upgrades with an A19 Pro chip and a push up to 12GB of RAM in 2027, according to tech columnist Tim Culpan in the Culpium newsletter. This would see the MacBook Neo use the same chip used in iPhone 17 Pro models: the A19 Pro.
The current MacBook Neo became available in March with both 256GB and 512GB storage models limited to 8GB of memory, so the alleged upgrade to 12GB is expected to give the Neo an extra boost for productivity and multitasking.
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Culpan also expects the rumored upgraded Neo to use a ‘binned’ (slightly less powerful but stable) version of the A19 Pro, but a five-core GPU instead of the chip’s six-core GPU. This means there won’t be much of an upgrade in GPU power, as the A18 Pro already has a five-core GPU.
However, there is an elephant in the room, which is the ongoing RAM crisis that is affecting several PC hardware manufacturers and ultimately leading to higher prices for consumers. The likes of Dell, Framework and several other laptop companies have been hit by supply chain issues in the past four months.
Fortunately, it’s widely reported that Apple had locked down its RAM supply chain before the RAM crisis hit, and frankly, Apple’s RAM usage on hardware is effectively used to deliver good performance without the need for more memory, unlike other Windows 11-based systems.
We can only hope that by the time the rumored MacBook Neo upgrade arrives, the RAM crisis and its impact will have simmered down, or that Apple’s supply chain will remain strong throughout 2026, leading into next year.
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