From today, you can buy MacBook Neo in the Czech Republic. Apple offers an aluminum laptop with all-day battery life for 16,990 CZK

The cheapest MacBook in history is on sale starting today. You can buy MacBook Neo on Alza starting from 16,990 CZK with a 60-day return period. And that return option is crucial for this product – the Neo comes with compromises and may not suit everyone. We wrote about it in more detail last week, today we are adding impressions from foreign reviews.

Quick summary:
✅ Makes sense if you want your first Mac or an inexpensive laptop for web browsing, office work, and lighter tasks – and you don’t want to spend more than twenty thousand.
⚠️ Consider carefully if you need more than 8 GB RAM, a backlit keyboard, Thunderbolt, or plan to connect more than one 4K monitor.
💡 For 16,990 CZK you get a full-fledged macOS with an A18 Pro chip, all-day battery life, and an aluminum body – and on Alza, you can test it all for 60 days risk-free.

How it performed in practice

The build quality is on par with more expensive MacBooks – the aluminum body doesn’t creak, doesn’t bend, and looks and feels premium. In its price category, it has no competition in this regard.

The A18 Pro chip handles everyday tasks absolutely smoothly – web browsing, documents, email, streaming, lighter photo edits in Photoshop, or video edits in Final Cut. Single-core performance surpasses older MacBook Airs with both M1 and M2. Where you’ll encounter limitations is with multi-core workloads (video export, code compilation, local AI models) – there, the six-core A18 Pro is noticeably behind the M-series. However, this is not relevant for the Neo’s target audience. Battery life in tests is around 13.5 hours of video streaming and 7-8 hours of typical use.

Compromises worth mentioning

The keyboard is not backlit – an unusual compromise in 2026, although the light keycaps (especially for blush and citrus) are more readable in the dark than you might expect. Touch ID is missing in the base model – and that’s the main reason why the premium for the 19,990 CZK version makes sense. The mechanical trackpad instead of the haptic Force Touch is surprisingly fine – the click is consistent across the entire surface, and most people won’t notice the difference until someone points it out to them.

The display only covers sRGB (not P3), True Tone is missing, and the bezels are wider – but the advantage is that, thanks to this, the Neo doesn’t have a notch in the top bar. The two USB-C ports have different speeds (USB 3 vs. USB 2) and are not labeled, but macOS will warn you if you connect a device to the slower one. The 8 GB memory is fixed. For web browsing and office work, it’s sufficient – macOS is excellent at memory management, and SSD swap works transparently. The speakers are surprisingly good for a two-speaker system, comparable to the Air, just less loud.

Who it’s for and who it’s not for

The MacBook Neo for 16,990 CZK is ideal as a first Mac, a student laptop, a second family computer, or a lightweight travel machine. For web browsing, documents, streaming, and basic creative work, it’s more than sufficient – and its build quality is in a different galaxy than Windows laptops at the same price. Conversely, if you need more demanding work, more memory, or a backlit keyboard, opt for a MacBook Air.

By the way, sales of the iPhone 17e also started today.

Will you get the cheapest MacBook, or would you rather pay extra for an Air? Let us know in the comments.