MacBook Neo Full Review

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here's my review of the MacBook Neo.

The MacBook Neo is Apple's latest new Mac model. It's basically a less expensive MacBook. There are now 3 MacBook models. The MacBook Pro on the high end and the MacBook Air in the middle, and the MacBook Neo, the least expensive of them all.

What you need to know about it is that instead of using one of the M processors, like the current M5 processor in all other Macs, it uses the A18 Pro processor, the same one that's in the iPhone 16 Pro. Both the A and the M processors are made by Apple. They both can be used to run macOS. But the A series processors are much more energy efficient which are why they are used in iPhones and many iPads as well. 

The Neo comes with only 8GB of memory and it has two configurations for storage, 256GB and 512GB. The 512 version also includes Touch ID. So there's only two versions of the MacBook Neo. Besides the four colors you only have the two options of the 256GB storage or the 512GB of storage which also includes Touch ID. 

Now this doesn't feel like a cheap MacBook. It's made of aluminum and is approximately the same size and weight as the MacBook Air. As a matter of fact by switching myself from a M2 MacBook Air to this you don't even notice the difference in how it feels to carry it around, hold it, or use it on a table or on your lap. 

Let's take a look at many of the different aspects of the MacBook Neo. One is the Trackpad. The Trackpad is a mechanical trackpad which means it actually moves when you press down on it. For a while now Apple has only had sold trackpads that give haptic feedback to make it feel like it moves but it is not actually moving. The trackpad does work and feels very much like the one on the MacBook Air. So you're not missing out, really, too much on this. I should mention that you still have the option in System Settings to use Tap to Click. So you never have to actually press down on the trackpad at all. This is a common preference of MacBook users. So if you're doing this you can still do it even though it is a mechanical trackpad. It works the same. 

Now how about the keyboard? So the keyboard is different in two ways. One is there is no backlight. The other is that the keyboard is actually tinted the color of the aluminum of your MacBook. So you can see mine here is tinted the same indigo as the aluminum. It doesn't feel any different than the regular MacBook keyboard. The travel seems to be the same. It feels the same. The keys are exactly the same size and I had no problem switching from one to the other. I didn't even notice it. As far as the backlight is concerned, if it is something you use a lot you may miss that. 

Now the camera on the MacBook Neo is one step down from the cameras in the current MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro models. So it is basically the same as the camera from a few years ago. It is a 1080p camera, not the 12MP camera that you currently get with the higher end MacBooks. But here's what it looks like just using it in regular conditions and it seems to work fine. It's perfectly fine for online meetings. It's perfectly fine for lightweight content creation. Of course if you're going to want anything more than that you're probably using your iPhone's camera or some other camera anyway. 

Now how about the audio? The mics in the MacBook Neo aren't as good as the higher end MacBooks, but they seem to work pretty well. In fact I'm going to switch to them right now and you can see how they sound here. So I'm just switching back and forth between my regular camera microphone, which is a Rode Video Mic Pro hooked up to my camera and the MacBook Neo microphone that's sitting just below that recording from the MacBook Neo. So you can get an idea of how it sounds. Again if you're doing content creation you're probably using a separate external microphone anyway. But for video conferencing this is perfectly fine. Works really well. 

It's a little harder to demonstrate the speakers here in a video. But I tried listening to some audio, including music, with the speakers and it sounded fine to me. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to listening to music so I rarely listen to music over speakers unless they are really good ones. Of course you have a headphone jack there in the Neo and you can just use Bluetooth or AirPods to listen to music. So it's just more for like listening to, say, videos without having to use headphones and for that it sounded fine. 

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Now let's talk about the USB ports. There are two USB ports on the MacBook Neo and they do very different things. The one on the back has USB3 speeds and can also be used to hookup an external display. So it's not Thunderbolt but it's a combination USB3 and Display Port port. The one on the front looks the same but it is only USB2 speed. But you certainly can hookup some sort of hub or dock, especially to the back port to have more USB peripherals if you really want. I did do some speed tests and in general with an SD card or Flash Drive plugged into the USB ports I found the speeds of the USB3 port in the back worked twice as fast as the one up front. There are actually many times faster than that but of course the Flash Drives and SD cards themselves are kind of limited in their speed. But when I hooked up a really fast SSD drive to them I found there was a huge difference. Transferring a 1.25 GB file over the USB2 port took 37 seconds. Transferring that same file over the USB3 port took 2 seconds. So if you need fast speeds you definitely need to use the ones in the back. Note either one of these can be used for power.

There's no MagSafe port on the MacBook Neo. You have to plug in with USB. So, if you're using something like an external drive with the MacBook Neo you want to make sure you plug it into the USB3 port and then use the USB2 port for power.

Now the Display isn't as nice as the MacBook Air. It doesn't have the range and brightness. But the MacBook Air isn't as nice as the MacBook Pro either. If you're, say, a pro photographer you probably really want a MacBook Pro just to have that good screen. But, for what the MacBook Neo is meant for the screen is actually really good. It's perfectly bright. In very bright conditions you can see it just fine. You could see it from the side just fine as well, if you need that. It looks really good and photos and videos, everything, looks really great on it. Note that it doesn't have a notch at the top like the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro or it is more accurate to say it has a notch but it goes all the way across. The bezel all the way around looks about even. So the camera is taking up space at the top there. You can hookup one additional Display to the MacBook Neo. So you can continue to use the built-in Display while you have a second Display that can have more windows and apps and things on it. It worked perfectly well like that. It is limited to 4K but I was able to use the 4K Display at full resolution and it didn't seem to affect performance at all. So if you just need one additional screen or, say, you need the capability to make presentations with the MacBook Neo, I can tell you this works great. 

Let's talk about performance for a minute. I have a whole other video where I talk about performance but basically it seemed to handle things pretty well. I was able to open up a lot of memory hungry browser tabs and also a lot of different apps at the same time. I was able to work with very large images in Pixelmator Pro and it was able to handle everything. So it looks like for general use the 8GB of memory and the fewer CPU and and GPU cores in the A18 Pro processor still worked pretty well.

Note there is no fan in the MacBook Neo, just like in the MacBook Air as these Apple processors don't really run too hot. I didn't really notice it getting hot at all! But I know a lot of people that use their MacBooks for audio, they like the MacBook Air because it doesn't have that fan. There's no danger of the fan starting up and then you hearing that on the audio. The MacBook Neo is like that as well. 

Not a lot of people are comparing the MacBook Neo to Chromebooks, but there is a huge difference here. I want to make sure that this is clear. The MacBook Neo runs macOS, the full Mac operating system. It also runs all Mac apps. This is not some sort of separate device here. It's a regular, normal Mac unlike the Chromebook which doesn't run Windows, it runs a special operating system. So keep that in mind. As I'm getting a lot of people asking questions about like what operating system does this run and can it do this or that, that other Macs can do. The answer is basically yes. This is just a regular Mac.

Let me talk about the battery for a minute as well. I'm been using this for a few days. I mostly use it on battery while moving around. I've used it in a few coffee shops. I've used it in my living room all not plugged in. Even my performance tests I did without it plugged into power. The battery has held up pretty well. It's very similar to my MacBook Air. For instance using it for about two hours sitting on my lap doing light work used about 20% of the battery. Running all those performance tests really pushing it to its limits that used probably about 40% over two hours. I was really pushing it rendering video and all that. So for most people you're going to be able to use the MacBook Neo all day long doing standard tasks and simply plug it in overnight to charge up and be ready for the next day. 

So you're probably wondering if the MacBook Neo is for you. Well, it's for several different types of Mac users. One is those that are on a budget. At $699 for the 512 GB version it's a great budget MacBook. You're going to be able to use it for all general computer tasks and even some pretty power hungry ones. You just may want to mind the browser tab and maybe if you're doing some really intense, like working with 4K video in Final Cut Pro or lots of tracks in Logic Pro, you may want to limit what other apps are running. But it should be able to handle normal use and occasional power user use as well. 

Besides those on a budget there's another type of user that this will appeal to and that's people like me. People who have a powerful Mac on their desk top but also want a laptop to travel with or bring anywhere with them. This works very well for that. Another type of user may be somebody that's not on a budget but doesn't particularly need anything better than the MacBook Neo. For instance if you're not concerned about having more memory or more storage or having a really nice MacBook Pro screen or any of the features of a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro then you may find that the MacBook Neo is all you need and you can save some money by getting it rather than having to spend more for, say, a MacBook Air and not use all of its features. 

Of course a really big part of the user base is going to be students. This is definitely a great student machine. Students also get educational pricing so you get $100 off. So it is $499 and $599 with the student discount. A lot of schools that use MacBooks in the classroom or in a computer lab, they're going to love this too because they get everything that they need for the students at a much lower price. 

I do have one important recommendation though. That is to get the higher end model. So the $699 model not the $599 model. Why? Well, 256GB of storage is just not going to be enough for anybody unless you really don't use any storage at all. Like you don't take any photos. You don't use any videos. You don't download any apps or anything like that. Then you're going to want more than the base storage. The system takes up a huge chunk of it and another big chunk is used for swap memory. So you're not left with much if you've got only 256GB of storage. 512GB isn't just double. It's much more than the base because the system and swap memory are still using the same amount. Of course having Touch ID is also a great security feature, especially for a MacBook where you're likely going to be using it in public spaces, traveling with it, and everything. 

If you look at the MacBook Neo and think that you want something better, like better than the 8GB of RAM, better than the 512GB of storage. Better than the keyboard with no backlight, keep in mind Apple offers that. It's simply the MacBook Air, the next step, and the MacBook Pro the step after that. There's no point in Apple having a higher end MacBook Neo, that's simply the MacBook Air. So you've got all these options now. Starting with the $599 MacBook Neo all the way through the MacBook Airs, to the MacBook Pros. You have tons of options to fit any need. Just pick the one that's right for you and your budget. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.