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The MacBook has always enjoyed praise for its premium build quality and, in recent years, for its top-tier performance and stellar battery life, too. However, it’s also never exactly been a budget-friendly option, with the entry-level MacBook Air hovering around the $1,000 price point. Older, discounted models typically sell very well, but they don’t get you the bragging rights of being the newest. Well, that changed when Apple launched the MacBook Neo, at nearly half the price of the MacBook Air.

For $600, you get construction that’s almost indistinguishable from the more expensive laptops that Apple sells. The MacBook Neo has a bright display, an excellent trackpad, and a 1080p FaceTime camera. Paired with macOS, which inarguably offers a comparatively cleaner and less bloated experience than Windows, it wasn’t a surprise when Apple CEO, Tim Cook, announced that the company had its most profitable launch week ever for its Mac lineup.

The Neo achieves its budget-friendly price by cutting a few corners. For starters, it offers only 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage with the base variant. Though users haven’t reported lackluster performance, it’s still a pretty restrictive configuration by modern standards — especially considering it’s not upgradable. If the Neo’s specifications don’t cut it for you, and you’re okay with a less premium experience overall, here are a handful of Windows laptops you can choose from that undercut Apple’s offering while packing in more horsepower. You can find more about our methodology at the end of this read.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 features a 16-inch IPS display, which offers noticeably more screen real estate compared to the 13-inch panel of the MacBook Neo — not to mention, it’s a touch screen. While it is dimensionally larger and heavier, it manages to keep a relatively slim form factor. Port selection is abundant with two USB-C ports capable of Power Delivery and DisplayPort output, two USB-A ports, one HDMI 2.1 output, an SD card reader, and an audio combo jack. 

Also, unlike the MacBook Neo, the IdeaPad Slim 5 features a backlit keyboard. For touch-typists, this may not be a determining factor, but for everyone else, being able to type in the dark without errors is going to be a challenge with the Neo. As for specifications, the IdeaPad Slim 5 is powered by the Ryzen AI 7 350 processor and 16GB of RAM. You also get a terabyte of fast SSD storage here — four times the capacity that the MacBook Neo provides.

You do get integrated graphics with the Radeon 860M, but you’re likely not going to be playing demanding titles on either machine. The laptop has positive reviews left by verified buyers on Costco. Users praise the laptop’s general performance and build quality, but a few do mention poor customer service by Lenovo. Overall, for $600, the IdeaPad Slim 5 is a great alternative to the MacBook Neo if you need more RAM and usable storage space.

Priced at $590, the Asus Vivobook 16 is another offering that gets you a spacious screen to work with. It’s a 16:10 panel, which allows for a slightly better experience when working on documents or in apps that can utilize a taller aspect ratio. While it’s not rocking an aluminum chassis, the glossy black plastic does bump up its aesthetics. You also get a fingerprint scanner located in the corner of the touchpad. Though it is available on the upgraded $700 MacBook Neo, the base variant doesn’t come with Touch ID.

The Vivobook 16 is powered by the Ryzen 5 7530U CPU and comes with integrated graphics. Unfortunately, you do only get 8GB of RAM out of the box, but it is user upgradable up to 16GB via the SO-DIMM slot. For storage, you get a respectable 512GB of SSD capacity. An added advantage of going with bigger laptops is you often get a number pad built-in. Port selection is also superior with a Power Delivery USB-C port, three Type-A ports, two of which are USB 3.2 Gen 1, an HDMI 1.4 output, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

The Asus Vivobook 16 was recommended by RTINGS as one of the best laptops on a budget. It also has a 4.4-star rating over on Amazon, with customers praising its value proposition. One user even claimed how it could handle “Valorant” just fine. 

The MacBook Neo is a lot of things, but a gaming machine it is not. Though the A18 Pro that powers it is capable of running AAA titles, the issue with macOS has more to do with library size. Over on the Windows side, you have a virtually endless catalog of games — you just need a laptop that can handle it. The Lenovo LOQ Essential is a worthy contender that’s designed to handle competitive titles like “Valorant” and “Counter-Strike 2,” which often don’t require a lot of raw horsepower to run. This is where its 144Hz 15-inch display also comes in handy.

The LOQ Essential is powered by the Intel Core i5 12450HX CPU and the GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. It’s a modern entry-level graphics card that can run most modern games quite well at medium settings. It does offer the same RAM capacity as the Neo at 8GB, but doubles its storage space at 512GB. TechRadar reviewed the RTX 3050 GPU variant and reported playable frame rates in demanding games like “Cyberpunk 2077”. The laptop earned a four-star rating overall, and it also does well in terms of build quality and port selection. 

The Lenovo LOQ Essential is priced at $650 — right in between the two MacBook Neo variants. If you’re looking for the right gaming laptop, your options in this price range are quite limited to begin with, but the LOQ Essential offers great bang for your buck.

It looks like Lenovo really does know how to craft excellent mid-range laptops, because our fourth mention also comes courtesy of the brand. Unlike the other picks on this list, though, the IdeaPad Slim 3X utilizes an ARM-based SoC — the Qualcomm Snapdragon X. The MacBook Neo is also powered by a mobile chip, but given the fact that Apple has spent over five years fine-tuning its machines to run on ARM-based processors, it’s never been a cause of concern. Surprisingly, the IdeaPad Slim 3X manages to outperform many of its contenders that use Intel or AMD silicon, as highlighted in PCMag’s review.

Another positive of going with the IdeaPad Slim 3X is battery life. It’s rated to last all day, and in real-world use, it seems to hold the promise reliably well. You get a 15.3-inch WUXGA display, which offers slightly more vertical resolution at 1200p. You can pick up the IdeaPad Slim 3X for $500 at Costco, so it’s priced well under the MacBook Neo, but manages to double its RAM at 16GB and quadruple its storage capacity at 1TB.

Other tidbits include a physical shutter for the webcam, a fingerprint reader, and a chassis that is partly made of aluminum. For connectivity, you get two USB Type-A and one USB Type-C port. There’s an SD card reader, an HDMI output port, and an audio combo jack that can be used to accommodate headphones or an external microphone.

The existence of the MacBook Neo in the $600-$700 range has made it quite difficult to recommend a Windows laptop. After all, you get premium build quality, a great typing experience, cleaner software, and superior battery life. If your workflow is primarily carried out through light apps or in the web browser and there’s nothing holding you back from switching to macOS, there’s very little incentive to look elsewhere in this price segment. That said, Windows laptops still hold a few advantages. Professional-grade software like SolidWorks isn’t available for Mac, for instance.

The laptops we’ve recommended can all be picked up for less than a brand new MacBook Neo. We’ve referred to feedback left by verified buyers on platforms like Amazon and Costco. We’ve also based our picks on reviews by experts in the industry. Publications like RTINGS, PCMag, and TechRadar all carry out comprehensive testing before recommending a product.

It’s worth noting that even if a laptop features more RAM and a fancier CPU, it might not always outperform the Neo. There are a lot of other factors to consider, like the overall user experience — an area where Apple’s laptops undoubtedly excel thanks to their tight hardware and software integration, excellent trackpad, and impressive speakers.