Macbook Neo Review: Apple Puts Every $600 Windows Pc To Shame

I really don't cognize really Apple did it. The MacBook Neo is simply a $600 laptop that doesn't consciousness for illustration an afterthought, which is simply a curse that has befallen truthful galore inexpensive Windows notebooks. Sure, it has a slower A-series processor and it's constricted to 8GB of RAM. But nan MacBook Neo still feels arsenic profoundly considered arsenic Apple's astir premium hardware. Its screen, trackpad and wide usability is truthful acold up of nan competition, each Windows PC maker, including Microsoft, should beryllium ashamed.

I've based on that a inexpensive MacBook could beryllium nan champion for Apple to peel distant Windows users, and aft spending almost a week pinch nan Neo, I'm convinced it will do conscionable that. It's conscionable accelerated capable to grip basal productivity work. It's sturdy capable to beryllium tortured by kids successful classrooms. And you really can't hit its $599 starting price. Once Windows users study it's not that difficult to move to macOS, Apple will apt person different deed connected its hands.

What's truthful Neo astir this MacBook?

I'll admit, I laughed astatine nan MacBook Neo's sanction astatine first. It really does consciousness for illustration a desperately hep sanction ASUS aliases Acer would slap onto their machines (in fact, Acer is doing truthful correct now), alternatively than thing Apple would moreover consider. But nan Neo sanction is much than conscionable a dated reference to nan Matrix — it's besides a clear awesome that this is simply a new type of MacBook. It's nan first 1 Apple has ever been capable to waste truthful cheaply. It's nan first 1 powered by a mobile A-series chip. And for galore people, it will apt extremity up being their first Mac.

The MacBook Neo besides marks nan first clip Apple has built a value-focused notebook nether $1,000. The adorable handle-equipped iBook G3 looked for illustration a strategy geared towards kids, but it launched astatine $1,599 successful 1999. The original MacBook Air, which Steve Jobs revealed by pulling it retired of a manilla envelope, sold for $1,799 successful 2008. MacBooks only sewage semi-affordable erstwhile Apple dropped nan Air's introduction value to $999 successful 2014. (The starting value has bounced betwixt $999 and $1,099 ever since.) It dabbled successful nan conception further by keeping nan M1 MacBook Air astir astatine Walmart stores for $699 successful 2024 earlier yet dropping its value down to $650 past year. If you were lucky, you could besides find it for $499 during immoderate vacation sales.

While nan M1 MacBook Air was a awesome worth complete nan past fewer years, its last-gen Apple creation aged quickly. The Neo looks acold much modern, pinch an all-aluminum lawsuit that resembles nan existent Air (it's a spot smaller, but weighs nan aforesaid 2.7 pounds). Color is nan Neo's biggest draw, pinch bolder options for illustration nan greenish citrus and pinkish blush, on pinch Apple's emblematic acheronian and ray lawsuit options. The citrus hue is nan astir unique, arsenic we've seen roseate golden MacBooks before. It would person been bully to spot different beardown colors too, for illustration a brighter bluish aliases thing pinch a hint of purple. The group want personality, Apple!

Under nan hood, nan MacBook Neo is simply a communicative of compromise, much truthful than immoderate MacBook earlier it. Apple had to find a measurement to present its premium personification acquisition while besides cutting costs importantly to scope its $599 price. Relying connected nan A18 Pro, which powered past year's iPhone 16 Pro, was apt acold much costs effective alternatively of utilizing an older M-series spot that isn't being built anymore. That A18 Pro spot besides intends nan MacBook Neo has to beryllium reasonably constricted erstwhile it comes to ports: location are only 2 USB-C connections connected committee (one is USB 3.0, and nan different is USB 2.0). There's nary MagSafe charging connection, which is simply a shame since nan MacBook Neo will apt extremity up astir trip-prone kids successful schools and homes.

The biggest discuss lies successful nan MacBook Neo's RAM and disk space. It starts pinch conscionable 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You tin ammunition retired different $100 to get 512GB of retention and a Touch ID button, but there's nary measurement to adhd much RAM. Typically, my first portion of proposal to immoderate prospective machine purchaser is to get astatine slightest 16GB of memory, arsenic that's nan easiest measurement to spot faster capacity erstwhile juggling tons of tabs, apps and ample files. That's peculiarly existent for Mac laptops, since Apple's unified representation is baked into its A-series and M-series chips.

The MacBook Neo's 8GB limitation shows nan precise audiences Apple is targeting pinch nan MacBook Neo: casual users. Those see group who request secondary machines for ray workloads and schools relying connected Chromebooks. I'm not reneging connected my 16GB RAM proposal — if nan thought of little RAM successful your main machine makes your tegument crawl, nan Neo isn't for you. The MacBook Air is still around, and it tin easy beryllium equipped pinch tons of RAM and storage.

Apple besides deserves in installments for squeezing successful an awesome 1080p webcam successful nan Neo, thing I haven’t seen successful immoderate different $600 Windows notebook. And while nan solution is impressive, Apple’s image processing besides manages to present crisp and vibrant image quality. It’s usually easy to show nan wide value of someone’s machine connected group video calls based connected their video quality. The MacBook Neo will person group reasoning you’re calling successful from a pricier MacBook Air aliases MacBook Pro.

When I first demoed nan MacBook Neo astatine Apple's motorboat event, its keyboard felt a spot flimsier than those connected nan Air and Pro. But I whitethorn person conscionable been distracted by nan crowd and noise. My reappraisal unit's keyboard feels conscionable arsenic meticulous arsenic nan Air's, allowing maine to type astatine afloat velocity (near 100 words per minute) without immoderate issues. There's nary of nan weird input problems I noticed connected Dell's acold much costly XPS 14.

The MacBook Neo's trackpad is likewise responsive and meticulous for swiping and gestures. That's peculiarly surprising, since Apple isn’t utilizing a haptic Force Touch trackpad for illustration each of its laptops for nan past decade. The Neo's pad clicks down mechanically — and yet, it doesn't consciousness arsenic muddy arsenic akin trackpads we spot connected fund PCs. It's besides notable that Apple was capable to make nan Neo's trackpad wholly clickable, whereas PC mechanical options often only click on their bottommost half aliases third.

Enough Mac for most

I didn't expect overmuch from nan Neo's A18 Pro processor and constricted specs, and yet it still managed to astonishment me. It easy handled having dozens of tabs unfastened crossed aggregate browsers, a show playing connected nan TV app, photograph editing successful Pixelmator Pro and moving nan caller Apple Arcade title Oceanhorn 3 without immoderate important slowdown. There's intelligibly immoderate swift representation guidance going on, delivering conscionable capable RAM for nan task correct successful beforehand of you.

The Neo's RAM usage typically hovered betwixt 80 and 85 percent erstwhile I was trying to accent it, but it ne'er went beyond that range. And if you're curious, nan Neo typically utilized astir 50 percent of its representation conscionable to tally macOS, moreover pinch nary different apps running.

I'd stake astir group wouldn't spot a awesome capacity quality betwixt nan MacBook Neo and nan Air for basal tasks. Even their screens look similar: The Neo's LCD sheet has only a somewhat little solution than nan Air's, but its smaller 13-inch surface size gives it a likewise rich | pixel density. The surface looks bold and colorful indoors, and it's besides agleam capable to usage successful nonstop sunlight outside. That's not thing you usually spot connected $600 laptops.

During a demo astatine nan Neo's motorboat event, I saw its surface compared side-by-side to a $600 HP laptop. The quality was virtually nighttime and time — nan HP's show struggled to show nan vibrancy of daylight photos, while nan Neo's made photos popular disconnected nan screen. Similarly, nan Neo's side-firing speakers sound importantly amended than nan tinny garbage HP stuffs into its discount machines. The Neo's speakers are perfect for watching videos and streaming content, but they decidedly deficiency nan clarity and low-end bump from nan Air and MacBook Pro's upward firing speakers.

I was decidedly trying to push nan MacBook Neo harder than a emblematic user, but it simply kept delivering. In Geekbench 6's CPU benchmark, nan MacBook Neo sits betwixt nan M2 and M3 MacBook Air for single-core tests, and beneath nan M2 for multi-threaded work. Apple's hardware still manages to put Intel and AMD to shame, pinch single-threaded Geekbench 6 scores that are higher than nan latest hardware from some companies. But of course, that's conscionable 1 benchmark — beefy CPUs pinch progressive cooling will still beryllium much performant overall.

What’s astir awesome astir nan MacBook Neo is that it manages to beryllium a functional and well-rounded notebook astatine conscionable $599. Microsoft’s “low-budget” $800 Surface Pro 12-inch was cute, but we recovered its capacity incredibly underwhelming (and you still had to salary much for nan keyboard). The 2.2-pound ZenBook A14 was impressively light, but again it was conscionable excessively slow to beryllium useful. Apple astir apt could person worked harder to make nan MacBook Neo a tad lighter, but it’s still easy to clasp and recreation with. I’d overmuch alternatively Apple kept it astatine nan MacBook Air’s 2.7-pound weight, alternatively of making nan Neo little powerful aliases much expensive.

The only clip nan MacBook Neo wholly grounded was erstwhile I tried to tally analyzable games meant for Apple's M-series chips. Lies of P installed conscionable fine, but upon motorboat it conscionable stopped arsenic it tried to load shaders. Honestly, I'm amazed I was moreover capable to instal it successful nan first place. The astir gaming you'll do connected nan Neo are things built specifically for Apple Arcade and nan company's mobile chips, aliases unreality streaming options for illustration GeForce Now aliases Xbox.

During our artillery test, which involves looping a 4K video, nan MacBook Neo lasted 12 hours and 15 minutes. That's acold beneath nan 18 hours and 15 minutes I saw connected nan M4 MacBook Air, but it's still capable to past you during a emblematic activity aliases schoolhouse day. Again, Apple besides had to sacrifice plugging successful a bigger artillery to support nan Neo's costs down.

Should you bargain nan MacBook Neo?

It's uncommon for Apple to genuinely astonishment maine these days, but nan MacBook Neo did conscionable that. It's a $599 machine that tin grip basal workloads conscionable fine, each nan while looking for illustration 1 of nan company's much costly notebooks. Most importantly, it delivers much speed, a brighter surface and an wide amended personification acquisition than immoderate competing $600 Windows PC. It's truthful good, I deliberation it'll make galore group wonderment why they've stuck pinch sub-par PCs for truthful long.