Apple made headlines by announcing the MacBook Neo this week, a laptop that costs just $599. While I am certain the MacBook Neo will make many people happy and flood college campuses later this year, it's far from the only good laptop you can buy for under $600.
Sure, you'll have to do a bit of shopping around or wait for a good deal, but over here on the Windows side of things, we're familiar with quality PCs that don't break the bank.
You may think it's unfair to compare the sale price of a Windows laptop to the retail price of the MacBook Neo. I suppose that's fair, but tech goes in cycles and Apple isn't on the same cadence as Windows OEMs.
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 is a quality Windows laptop you can buy right now for under $600. But if you are willing to wait a bit, there will be more options before the end of the year (and not just because of discounts).
Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme will compete with Apple's M4 Max and other high-end chips. The Snapdragon X2 Plus, which arguably matters more than the X2 Elite or X2 Elite Extreme, is designed for PCs in the $799-$1,299 range.
That means that entry-level laptops powered by Snapdragon X2 chips (and current-gen Snapdragon X chips) should easily fall into the same price bracket as the MacBook Neo.
Shifting back to the Galaxy Book4, it's an entry-level laptop in many ways. It pairs an Intel Core 7 Series 1 chip with Intel Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Along with its 1920x1080 display, you have a solid laptop for productivity.
And that's really what this price range and category is about. You don't buy a Galaxy Book4 (or a MacBook Neo) for gaming, heavy duty editing, or demanding tasks. Laptops like this need to be reliable and priced in a way that's accessible.
👉POINT: A $599 MacBook Neo is Apple’s new Windows‑killer
👉COUNTERPOINT: My meager macOS interest quickly faded with the $599 MacBook Neo and its specs
Notably, the Galaxy Book4 has 16GB of RAM. That's more than the MacBook Neo has, even if you pay Apple an extra $100 to get TouchID and increase storage to 512GB. And that upgrade doesn't even touch the 8GB of RAM that ships with the MacBook Neo regardless of which model you pick.
I know people argue macOS uses RAM well, but I'd rather have 16GB of RAM in a laptop than 8GB. It would take a heck of an efficiency jump to overcome having half the RAM.
The Galaxy Book4 also comes with an HDMI port, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports. It has an Ethernet port, microSD slot, and a headphone jack as well.
That means you won't have to pack a dongle in your bag if you pick the Galaxy Book4. While there are cheap dongles, getting a docking station or dongle that includes all the ports of the Galaxy Book4 could cost between $30 and $50.
The MacBook Neo is a fascinating device that I'm glad is here. It's colorful, affordable, and fits into the iPhone-centric ecosystem many live in. But as the Samsung Galaxy Book4 proves, Apple hasn't reinvented the wheel.
For $50 less than the base MacBook Neo, the Galaxy Book4 has enough RAM for multitasking, enough storage for photos and videos, and enough ports to save you from the dongle life.
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