- New rumors suggest Apple’s MacBook Neo will receive an update in 2027
- Reliable tech columnist Tim Culpan expects Neo to use iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM
- The Neo is also expected to follow 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 8 GB of unified memory. That could change next year, but the current RAM crisis could make things difficult for Apple.
As reported by MacRumors, Apple’s MacBook Neo could receive two upgrades, with an A19 Pro chip and an increase to up to 12GB of RAM in 2027, according to technology columnist Tim Culpan in the Culpium newsletter. This would see the MacBook Neo use the same chip used in the iPhone 17 Pro models: the A19 Pro.
The current MacBook Neo was available in March, with 256GB and 512GB storage models limited to 8GB of memory, so the rumored upgrade to 12GB is expected to give the Neo an extra boost for productivity and multitasking.
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Culpan also anticipates that the rumored updated Neo will 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. That means there won’t be much improvement in GPU power since the A18 Pro already has a five-core GPU.
However, there is an elephant in the room: the current RAM crisis affecting several PC hardware manufacturers and ultimately leading to higher prices for consumers. Companies like Dell, Framework, and several other laptop companies have been hit by supply chain issues over the past four months.
Fortunately, it’s been widely reported that Apple had its RAM supply chain locked up before the RAM crisis hit, and frankly, Apple’s RAM usage in hardware is used efficiently to deliver good performance without needing more memory, unlike other Windows 11-based systems.
We can only hope that by the time the rumored MacBook Neo update arrives, the RAM crisis and its impact will have subsided, or that Apple’s supply chain will remain strong throughout 2026, into next year.
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