The historically cheapest MacBook has already dropped in price! The Neo version with 512 GB and Touch ID is now worth it

A MacBook for less than nineteen thousand. In an aluminum body. With a chip from the iPhone 16 Pro. It sounds absurd, but the MacBook Neo 512 GB with Touch ID is sold on Heureka from 18,535 CZK — and yet it has only been on the Czech market for a few weeks. The original price of 19,990 CZK has already started to drop and is slowly reaching the level of the inferior version, which only has a 256GB drive and does not feature Touch ID.

Quick summary:
✅ Makes sense if you want a Mac for everyday work — email, web, documents, video calls, studying — and don’t want to spend on a MacBook Air.
⚠️ Consider that it has 8 GB RAM with no expansion option, the keyboard is not backlit, and you won’t find Thunderbolt.
💡 For 18,535 CZK you get 512GB storage, Touch ID, A18 Pro, a 13″ display with 2408 × 1506 resolution, and an aluminum construction in four colors.

Why the 512GB version with Touch ID

The basic MacBook Neo for 16,990 CZK has 256 GB and a keyboard without Touch ID — you unlock it with a password or a watch. For an extra 3,000 CZK (or less now thanks to the discount), you get double the storage and biometric login. Reviewers agree that this is the version worth buying. Touch ID not only speeds up login but also enables payments via Apple Pay and authorization in apps. And 512 GB instead of 256 GB provides significantly more space for photos, documents, and apps — the storage cannot be expanded.

What it can and cannot do

The A18 Pro chip (6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine) is more than sufficient for email, web browsing, office applications, video calls, and light video editing. The 13″ Liquid Retina display with 500 nits brightness and a resolution approaching 1440p looks excellent for this price. The battery lasts 10 – 12 hours depending on the load. The notebook is completely silent — it has no fan. It weighs 1.23 kg and is available in silver, indigo, citrus, and pink.

For more demanding work — 4K video editing, large projects in Logic Pro, development — you will encounter the limits of 8 GB RAM. It’s not great for gaming either; the GPU has one less core than in the iPhone. The keyboard is not backlit. And pay attention to the ports: the left USB-C is USB 3 (10 Gb/s, external display support), the right is only USB 2 (480 Mb/s) — they are not marked in any way, macOS will notify you if you plug a device into the wrong port. A charging adapter is not included in the package.

MacBook Neo, or rather an older MacBook Air from a second-hand store? What would you choose?