Macbook Neo Review: The Mac For The Masses

The MacBook Neo is fundamentally nan M1 MacBook Air each complete again. That laptop changed nan crippled successful 2020, and became nan default action for conscionable astir anyone who wanted a awesome all-around thin-and-light laptop and could walk $1,000. The M1 Air was bully capable that you could still bargain a caller 1 until last month. The Neo takes its spot arsenic Apple’s cheapest laptop, pinch a starting value of $599 and capable powerfulness to grip mundane tasks and past each time connected a charge. It’s designed to entice students and first-time laptop buyers into Apple’s world. It will.

The Air is still amended than nan Neo successful beautiful overmuch each way, but moreover nan cheapest MacBook Neo is bully capable to beryllium nan go-to Apple laptop for a batch of people. Actually, not conscionable nan go-to Apple laptop; nan Neo’s hardware simultaneously embarrasses an full people of affordable (and moreover acold pricier) Windows laptops, arsenic good arsenic conscionable astir immoderate Chromebook. And nan point runs connected an iPhone chip.

The Neo is “it conscionable works” astatine a little price. The 13-inch surface is vivid, bright, and pleasant to look at. It moreover gets agleam capable to comfortably usage extracurricular successful each but nonstop glare. The speakers sound afloat for their size, and cranking nan measurement tin capable a mini room pinch music. They don’t get arsenic large aliases bassy arsenic nan four- and six-speaker setups successful pricier MacBooks, and by comparison they sound thinner, but for dual side-firing speakers they’re A-OK. And nan Neo’s speakers are overmuch amended than nan mean ones recovered successful inexpensive aliases moreover midrange Windows laptops. Just beryllium mindful that you’re apt to muffle them erstwhile grabbing nan sides of nan Neo.

Typing connected nan Neo feels for illustration different existent MacBooks. The cardinal recreation isn’t arsenic heavy arsenic connected immoderate Lenovo and Asus keyboards that I prefer, but it’s not excessively shallow, for illustration nan butterfly switch-era MacBooks were. It’s a bummer there’s nary backlight illumination, but astatine slightest 3 of nan 4 colour combos person bright, near-white keycaps (which helps conscionable a tiny bit). Another just-fine constituent of nan Neo is its 1080p webcam, which looks crisp and clear, moreover successful debased light, but lacks nan higher solution and Center Stage auto-framing of nan existent MacBook Airs and Pros.

The Neo’s astir absorbing hardware discuss is its mechanical trackpad. It’s missing Apple’s Force Touch, but who cares? I ne'er usage it. You cognize what’s much important? A mechanical trackpad that clicks anyplace — area to corner, conscionable for illustration Apple’s haptic trackpads. It moreover feels akin to nan haptic ones, but pinch a somewhat chunkier click sound and smaller aboveground area. The Neo’s trackpad sets nan barroom for mechanical trackpads, easy outclassing each nan just-okay trackpads retired location that person stiff, piano-key-style apical hinges wherever nan apical 3rd doesn’t moreover click.

I’ve tested overmuch much costly Windows laptops that make awesome compromises connected their screen, speaker, keyboard, trackpad aliases webcam value — aliases much than one, truthful nan truth that nan Neo has nary awesome flaws is simply a large deal. I wouldn’t mind if nan instrumentality were a small spot lighter, though; nan Neo is nan aforesaid solid-feeling 2.7 pounds arsenic nan 13-inch MacBook Air. Asus has a 16-inch laptop coming retired that weighs less than nan Neo. Regardless, Apple is putting connected a session pinch this complete package astatine $599, particularly erstwhile you besides see its performance.

The MacBook Neo zips done nan ray workloads it’s designed for. The A18 Pro spot really outperforms Apple’s M1 MacBook Air (and astir Windows laptops) successful single-core processing benchmarks, nan spec astir captious for nan mundane productivity worldly nan Neo is meant to handle. That’s why this $600 laptop excels astatine ray tasks for illustration web browsing and moving connected Google Docs. The Neo’s 8GB of RAM and slow 256GB retention are wholly capable for surviving this life, but nan instrumentality does consciousness a small slower astatine nan fringes if you cognize wherever to look — for illustration really clicking nan Applications files connected nan dock sometimes takes a 2nd for nan icons to populate.

The comparatively paltry RAM and retention forestall nan Neo from performing arsenic good successful heavier imaginative apps arsenic nan MacBook Airs and Pros, but that’s fine. Think of nan Neo arsenic much Canva and CapCut than Photoshop and Premiere. I pushed nan Neo to its limits by opening complete 60 Chrome tabs crossed 4 desktops, 1 of which was playing a 1080p YouTube video of The Vergecast, and I kept Slack, Signal, Steam, Messages, and Apple Music each moving simultaneously. The Neo slowed to a crawl amid that chaos, particularly while swiping betwixt those desktops.

The Neo besides struggled pinch my accustomed Lightroom Classic editing. I could browse done image previews of astir 300 50-megapixel RAW files conscionable fine, but diving into nan Develop module for existent processing meant sitting done galore turns of nan spinning formation shot of death. I managed a afloat edit of astir 55 last images pinch immoderate batch processing, but it was achy to slog through. It’s also, I repeat, not what nan Neo is for.

Apple tempts you to upgrade from nan guidelines Neo, and if you can, you should, moreover though it won’t lick all your problems. The $599 exemplary has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. But for $699 nan retention is doubled and you get a Touch ID sensor successful nan powerfulness button. The upgrade is wholly worthy it (especially if nan $100 student discount makes it efficaciously free). A fingerprint sensor is overmuch much convenient than typing successful your password each clip you aftermath your laptop. And pinch rising prices from nan memory spot shortage, it’s nary longer trivial to supplement your laptop’s constricted retention pinch a value outer SSD.

We weren’t capable to trial nan 512GB type of nan Neo, but it’s imaginable that for illustration different MacBooks it could person faster publication / constitute speeds than nan guidelines 256GB — which would help. It’s a small disheartening not to person moreover nan action for 16GB of RAM 2 years aft Apple yet made it modular connected each different MacBook. But for students making basal people presentations, aliases folks doing agency work, 8GB should beryllium fine.

When I utilized it for things for illustration web browsing crossed 20-ish Chrome tabs, Slack / Signal messaging, watching an occasional video aliases Twitch stream, and listening to music, everything hummed on smoothly. And it managed to past much than a afloat workday connected battery. I sewage conscionable nether 9 hours of artillery life pinch nan surface mostly kept connected astatine 75 percent brightness. (I had my lockscreen group to a 20-minute time-out.) That workday besides encompassed a Google Meet telephone lasting astir 40 minutes and astir 2 hours of Apple Music streaming astatine low-to-medium volume. Windows laptops that besides do this often person overmuch bigger batteries and costs much than $599.

Apple only includes a 20W USB-C charger, though erstwhile I plugged nan Neo into a 140W charger, it did complaint astatine up to 30W. That’s not peculiarly awesome considering nan iPhone 17 tin complaint astatine 40W. Unlike nan Airs and Pros, nan MacBook Neo doesn’t person a MagSafe connector, conscionable 2 USB-C ports — 1 10Gbps USB 3 and 1 USB 2.0, some connected nan left-hand side, of course. They’re unmarked, which is conscionable silly, but nan USB 3 is astatine nan back, person to nan hinge, and if you plug an outer show into nan beforehand port, you’ll get a notification alerting you. Either tin beryllium utilized for charging. Even astatine 30W, it took astir 45 to 50 minutes to complaint from zero to 50 percent, and different hr to get it each nan measurement to 100 percent. That’s not outlandish, but you’re not getting immoderate speedy top-ups. And nan charging cablegram Apple includes successful nan container is annoyingly short astatine 5 feet / 1.5m (half a metre shorter than nan MagSafe cablegram included pinch different MacBooks).

There will ever beryllium cheaper laptops than nan MacBook Neo, but you’d beryllium hard-pressed to find thing cheaper and better, aliases moreover nan aforesaid value and better, without a bunch of compromises somewhere. If you request aliases want much RAM, a amended screen, a faster processor, and more, faster ports, nan Neo is not for you — that’s what nan Air and Pro are for. But nan Neo is nan caller default proposal for students and laptop newcomers who want thing easy to usage pinch minimal fuss.

I wouldn’t expect a Neo to past rather arsenic agelong arsenic an Air pinch much RAM, but nan much affordable value makes it a much than worthwhile on-ramp — particularly because astir group don’t want aliases request to walk $1,000 connected a laptop. Apple now has nan cleanable laptop for that crowd. And a fewer years down nan statement erstwhile they determine it’s not rather powerful enough, Apple has nan cleanable laptop for that, too.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge