How the Apple Watch SE fixes the $599 MacBook Neo

How quickly things change. A few weeks ago, Apple was that company out of touch with expensive products; now, after the launch of the MacBook Neo and the iPhone 17e, it is the Value Tech Warehouse. The days of Think Different are over and incredibly awesome. Welcome to the era of stacking them high and selling them cheap.

Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. It is extremely unlikely that Apple will move toward the budget market in a broad strategic sense, and the company will maintain a strong interest in the high-margin premium market. Upsell opportunities will be found where possible. But it’s truer now than ever that you can buy a complete set of decent Apple products at a reasonable price.

In fact, the entry-level models of the MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, and Apple Watch SE 3 cost a total of $1,447 if you buy directly from Apple, or less if you shop around. While it’s not exactly an impulse buy, it’s historically priced. Just make sure you don’t give up on the Apple Watch, which is the key to all of this.

First of all, the SE 3 is simply a brilliant smartwatch at a great price. When we put together Apple’s 2025 success stories, I had no hesitation about which product I wanted to write about. A comfortable, low-profile design, always-on display, fast charging, excellent battery life, and in-device Siri… all for just $249. In my review, I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and an Editors’ Choice badge, and I would recommend the device to anyone looking to get into smartwatches. It’s both good and relatively cheap.

What I didn’t know at the time was how useful the Apple Watch SE would become just a few months later. What’s nice about the Apple Watch is that it covers one of the few problems with the $599 MacBook Neo: its lack of Touch ID, which we put at the top of our list of missing features. Biometric unlock may seem like a small thing, but it locks your Mac and provides great convenience when multiplied by the number of times you wake up your Mac or log in to a website.

If you’ve already had access to it, managing without it is going to hurt. And if not, integrating biometrics is a simple way to improve your everyday computing experience.

Let me set the scene. You wake up in the morning and put on your Apple Watch. Do you have to use the password to unlock it? No! Just look at your iPhone and Face ID will unlock both at the same time. Then you open your MacBook and get ready to start working. Do you have to enter your password? No! Proximity to an unlocked and authenticated Apple Watch will do this for you. You now have three unlocked devices without having to enter a single password, and only one of them needed to have biometric capabilities.

Multiply that by the number of unlocks per day, the number of days per month, the number of months per year… plus any times you need to log into a website or want to buy something with Apple Pay (by double-clicking the side button on your watch). It adds up.

Now, in fairness, I have to point out that the 512GB version of the MacBook Neo, which costs $100 more, do get Touch ID, so the $249 Apple Watch doesn’t actually save you money. But it is not a single-use product. It’s a great health and fitness product, a fashion accessory, and a convenient way to receive notifications without taking out your phone. Once you start wearing one, you won’t want to take it off.

Above all, it works as a team. Biometrics is just the beginning: When you own the classic trio of Apple devices (iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook), you start to notice all sorts of interesting interactions between them. This is what Apple is best at. Well, that and making cheap products, apparently.