The MacBook Neo might be the iPad’s biggest threat yet

The iPad is one of Apple’s most iconic products, and it has helped the company keep a comfortable lead in the tablet industry, selling tens of millions of units every year.

But the iPad is on its way to either being completely overhauled as a product or disappearing from Apple’s stores altogether. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the bigger picture as of late.

The iPad’s biggest threat to date: Apple’s own MacBook Neo

First and foremost, we have to start with the most serious threat we’ve seen to the iPad since it came out.

Apple’s new budget laptop, the MacBook Neo, starts at $599, or $499 with education pricing. It is probably the best-value product Apple has ever made, and it includes a lot of the things people buy an iPad setup for in the first place.

Inside the Neo, there is the A18 Pro chip, and don’t let the fact that it’s a phone chip fool you—it is plenty capable of running everything most people use their laptops for. You also get a beautiful 13-inch display, a keyboard, a trackpad, multiple ports, and a full desktop operating system with macOS. In other words, it’s already a complete productivity device out of the box.



Now compare that with the base iPad.

A base iPad may start at $349, but if you want a configuration that resembles a laptop setup, that number rapidly starts to increase.

Once you upgrade to a model with 256 GB of storage the price rises to about $449. With Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio, it suddenly comes to a total of $700.

At that point, you are paying more than the MacBook Neo while still running iPadOS instead of macOS. Oh, and you get a much less capable chip inside.



The price gap is even worse if you compare the Neo with the iPad Air. A 256 GB iPad Air starts at $699, and adding a Magic Keyboard pushes the price to $968. Meanwhile, the MacBook Neo costs hundreds of dollars less and comes with a keyboard and trackpad included.

And as I said, the Neo’s hardware is surprisingly capable, probably more than you expect. The A18 Pro chip performs close to Apple’s original M1 processor in many tasks, particularly single-threaded workloads like web browsing, messaging, schoolwork, and light productivity. It even supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI features thanks to its neural engine.

Moreover, it comes with a fanless design (meaning it is quiet), a 36 Wh battery rated for up to 16 hours of video playback, and a weight of just 1.23 kg. All of this makes it extremely compelling, especially for students—one of the main target audiences for iPads too.

The foldable iPhone could replace the iPad’s portability factor

While the MacBook Neo challenges the iPad from a productivity standpoint, Apple’s rumored foldable iPhone might replace the other fundamental part of the tablet experience.

Apple is said to introduce changes in iOS 27 that are specifically tailored to the upcoming foldable iPhone. For example, when the phone is unfolded, apps will behave like they do on an iPad. Another example is the ability to multitask via split-screen.

In other words, the foldable iPhone will essentially transform into a small iPad when opened. Essentially, it will be like an iPad mini—it will provide a larger screen for tasks like watching videos, reading, gaming, or browsing the web.

Of course, the foldable iPhone would be a lot more expensive than an iPad mini. Currently, that’s the only thing that’s keeping me from being certain that Apple will drop one or more of its iPads.