Apple’s MacBook Neo has quickly turned into the benchmark every budget Windows laptop gets measured against. Acer’s response with its latest Go Air seems to be checking off the hardware boxes Apple skipped.
Acer just launched a new Go Air configuration in China, built around Intel’s recently released Core 5 320 processor. It comes with 12GB of LPDDR5 memory and a 512GB SSD, priced at CNY 5,499, which works out to roughly $815. There’s no word yet on whether this exact configuration will launch globally, though it looks nearly identical to the Acer Swift 14 shown off at Computex 2026.
That price sits above where the MacBook Neo starts, but Apple’s entry-level model only comes with half the storage. Bump up to Apple’s 512GB variant at $799, and the two laptops land close enough to make a fair comparison.
Acer Go Air Features
The Go Air runs a 14-inch IPS display at 1920 x 1200 resolution, with a 120Hz refresh rate and DC dimming. Apple’s MacBook Neo goes smaller at 13 inches but sharper, at 2408 x 1506 resolution, rated for 500 nits of brightness.
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So Apple wins on pixel density and resolution, while Acer counters with double the refresh rate, which shows up in smoother scrolling, animations, and any compatible games you run.
That refresh rate advantage stands out even more on a laptop priced this reasonably for everyday work. Acer also equips the Go Air with two Thunderbolt 4 ports plus one USB-A port.
The MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports too, but only one actually runs at full USB 3 speed, up to 10Gbps, with DisplayPort support. The second port drops down to USB 2 speeds at just 480Mbps. Apple officially supports one external display, capped at 4K and 60Hz.
Acer Go Air vs MacBook Neo Storage
Apple prices the base MacBook Neo at $699 with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage. Bump storage up to 512GB and the price climbs to $799, with memory staying put at 8GB.
Acer’s China-market Go Air configuration gives you 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for roughly $815 after conversion. Worth noting that taxes, regional pricing, and currency conversion mean that $16 gap isn’t a clean apples-to-apples comparison. But on paper, the Go Air makes its case with more memory, faster ports, and that 120Hz screen.
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Portability holds up surprisingly well too. Acer lists the Go Air at 1.19kg, about 2.62 pounds, and 12.99mm thick. The MacBook Neo weighs 2.7 pounds and measures 12.7mm, so there’s barely any difference once either one is in your bag.
Acer fits a 70Wh battery inside, claiming up to 19 hours of runtime, along with 100W USB-C charging that hits 50% in half an hour.
Apple goes with a smaller 36.5Wh battery, rating the Neo for up to 16 hours of video playback or 11 hours of wireless browsing. Both companies test battery life differently, though, so neither number should be read as a definitive win until independent testing confirms it.
As for the chip itself, Intel’s Core 5 320 is a six-core Wildcat Lake processor built on the 18A node, with two performance cores, four low-power efficiency cores, a 4.6GHz max turbo speed, integrated graphics, and a 16-TOPS NPU.
It’s not Intel’s fastest chip by any means, but like Apple’s A18 Pro in the Neo, it’s built for everyday tasks rather than heavy productivity work.
