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Spring 2026 brought us something astounding: a legitimately excellent budget MacBook. However, based on what we've seen at Computex and in the weeks leading up to the show, the MacBook Neo could be just the start of a cheap laptop Renaissance.
Frankly, I'm relieved. When the RAM crisis hit, I feared the budget category might disappear altogether. But thanks to impressive new processor options, innovations in operating systems, and aggressive pricing, I feel confident saying that our cheap laptop recommendations will grow considerably before the year is out. "Budget" no longer means "compromised."
How the MacBook Neo Sparked the Shift
Leveraging Apple's design and manufacturing experience and the capabilities of its A18 Pro processor, the MacBook Neo arrived in March with an unheard-of low starting price for an Apple laptop: $599. As Asus co-CEO S.Y. Hsu put it, "this is obviously a shock to the entire industry."
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)We haven't had enough time for the MacBook Neo to directly spark a wave of innovative, cheap laptops, but it's "poised to upend the budget-laptop market at a time everything else is just getting pricier," we noted in our review. It even made us question our $600 iPad upgrade.
The MacBook Neo pairs a sturdy aluminum chassis with a mobile chip capable of powering a full macOS experience. It also features built-in memory limits that keep RAM costs down. The Neo makes a few compromises, such as a limited port selection and a lower ceiling for multitasking in macOS, but it still delivers the genuine feel and experience of a MacBook at a budget price.
Intel's Counter-Attack: Wildcat Lake
Intel's counter-attack seems to be the new Wildcat Lake Core Series 3 processors. As far as x86 chips go, this is the anchor for budget models in 2026. These chips target buyers who used to buy the cheap Core i3 and Core i5 machines of yesteryear, but who want something that keeps up with the times. It features a six-core layout with both performance and low-power efficiency cores, an integrated NPU, and Intel Xe3 graphics.
The new chips offer good-enough performance, improved battery efficiency, and have the NPU chops to support at least basic on-device AI features in Windows Copilot.
(Credit: Dell)Case in Point: The Premium-Feeling $700 Dell XPS 13
At Computex, we're getting our first look at these entry-level Wildcat Lake machines. The new XPS 13 took Dell's flagship laptop, traditionally a premium, four-figure product, and gave us a $699 entry-grade model, armed with a Wildcat Lake Core 5 320 processor, squarely positioned to battle the Neo head-on.
Obviously, a few finer features have been dropped from the budget XPS 13 in the interest of affordability, such as the seamless touchpad, the flush, lattice-free keyboard, and the 4K webcam. Those are all replaced with far more pedestrian versions of those amenities, saving the premium stuff for the premium models.
But Dell is also ruthlessly exploiting the MacBook Neo's weaknesses. The XPS 13 also has an all-aluminum frame and weighs half a pound less than the Neo at just 2.2 pounds. The display is larger with a 13.4-inch panel that also offers touch input and a variable refresh rate. The MacBook Neo has no touch input and is locked at 60Hz. The XPS 13 also comes standard with a backlit keyboard, a 512GB SSD, and Wi-Fi 7. By comparison, the Neo only has Wi-Fi 6E and no keyboard backlight, while 512GB of storage costs an extra $100.
That's an extremely aggressive answer to Apple's MacBook Neo budget play.
Qualcomm's Aggressive Floor: Snapdragon C
And then there's Qualcomm. In the lead-up to Computex, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon C processor, an ultra-affordable chip made to power laptops in the $300+ range. While that $300 floor does sound mighty affordable, actual consumer configurations are expected to be priced more in the mid-$400s and up, depending on chassis design, memory, and storage choices.
But the Snapdragon C chip is a smart play similar to Apple's A18 Pro move, putting a phone processor into a laptop. The Snapdragon C does not use the premium Oryon architecture found in most recent Qualcomm laptops. Instead, it uses the phone-derived Kryo SoC package, which is built on Arm Cortex instead of a proprietary design. It's much closer in design to the Snapdragon chips Qualcomm has used in smartphones over the last decade.
Unlike Snapdragon X, X Plus, and X Elite, the Snapdragon C skips the full Copilot+ PC certification and has a less powerful NPU for lighter AI feature support, but it aims to win big on a responsive user experience and high efficiency for long battery life.
(Credit: John Burek/PCMag)Case in Point: The Acer Aspire Go 15 Starts at $300
We also saw the first Snapdragon C laptops at Computex. The Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-Q31P) features the eight-core Snapdragon C processor and wraps it in a sustainable, 100% recyclable plastic chassis. That doesn't sound as impressive as the all-metal construction of the MacBook Neo, but it will keep prices down. It pairs that with a 15.6-inch 1080p display, a full-size keyboard with a number pad, and a 1080p webcam.
The catch here is that the spec sheets list up to 8GB of memory, suggesting that the most affordable Snapdragon C laptops could dip back down to lower memory configurations to hit the lowest prices. HP and Lenovo are both poised to offer Snapdragon C Windows laptops in the near future, so we'll see if the Acer Aspire Go sets the trends that other manufacturers will follow.
Redefining the Low-End Hierarchy: The Googlebook Wildcard
But these low-end Windows machines are only part of the landscape. At Google I/O, Google announced the successor to the popular Chromebook line, called Googlebook. Using a new Android-based operating system that merges ChromeOS desktop features with Android as the foundation, the new Googlebooks are aiming to offer native Android app support, deeply integrated AI features, and a more premium experience than the budget Chromebooks that have been so popular in recent years.
(Credit: Google)Will that be too pricey for budget shoppers? When the Googlebook was first announced, there was strong speculation that Intel's Wildcat Lake processor would be used in the new models, and shortly after, the Snapdragon C announcement confirmed that the Qualcomm chips would also be used in new Googlebook models. If Googlebooks are using Intel Wildcat Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon C processors that are intended to power sub-$500 Windows laptops, then it stands to reason that many of the new Googlebook models will also be in that affordable price range.
Frankly, that's great news. Without the expense of a Windows license, Chromebooks have long been able to undercut Windows machines in affordability, and the lightweight operating system has offered a better user experience on the same hardware. We don't know exactly how the Android-based operating system of Googlebooks will change that equation, but if the hardware stays at that low price, we'll probably get several highly affordable Googlebook models.
I'm also heartened by Google's talk of premium build quality. For so long, the budget laptop category has not only been underpowered and scaled down, but also effectively single-use products that become e-waste as soon as they break or malfunction. If Google can push the budget category to provide more premium construction, it might make the most affordable laptops a bit less disposable.
Better Budget Laptops Everywhere: A Win for Everyone
Now, these are just the first glimpses we have of the coming wave of products. The new chips and even Google's new operating system are both fresh announcements, with many products not launching until late summer or early fall.
But if these first impressions hold, we should see a healthy number of laptops in the $300-to-$600 range. And that is great news for shoppers, because no matter how many $3,000 gaming laptops or powerful AI-ready machines we review, the fact is that most people don't have the budget for those systems.
These new chips and more aggressive competition in the budget space mean that those lower-priced laptops can deliver higher value, and maybe even a better experience for users. And that's a win for everyone.