MacBook Neo is the budget Apple laptop we all wanted – with a major flaw we really didn’t
Apple’s budget laptop has surprised me, in a good way, but there’s something lurking in the specs that makes me nervous
Why doesn’t Apple offer a cheaper, stripped-down Mac? That’s the question the company was constantly asked back in the 2000s. Then, in 2005, it responded with the Mac mini. That dinky desktop certainly didn’t look cheap, retaining Apple’s trademark hardware polish. But at $499/£339, it left money-conscious, Mac-curious potential switchers with no excuse. Apple cleverly used laptop components to keep down noise, heat, size and costs, creating what it called the “cheapest computer Apple’s ever offered”. And if you’re getting déjà vu, you’re not alone. Because with the MacBook Neo, Apple has pulled much the same trick.
Today’s announcement surprised me. Not in terms of what the MacBook Neo is – Apple leaks like a sieve these days, and so many specs were already known – but because of what it costs. With RAM and storage prices skyrocketing, plenty of people predicted this new Mac would start at $699 or even $799. Instead, Apple landed at ‘from $599/£599’.
That’s audacious – new territory for Mac laptops, just as the Mac mini once was for desktops. And that’s perhaps just as well, since the previous entry-level Mac laptop – the MacBook Air – just got a price hike and now appears to be a mid-range device, much like its iPad Air sibling.
A Neo kind of Mac
MacBook Neo users haven’t been left in the dust though. Superficial or not, I love that colour has returned to Apple laptops in a manner we’ve not seen since the iBook G3. I adore my purple iMac, and the idea of a Mac laptop that isn’t a boring corporate shade of grey appeals. However, in contrast to the toy-like iBook, the Neo looks sleek. It’s as light as the Air and only slightly thicker. It won’t take your arm off or hog half your bag.
Battery life sounds solid. Connectivity is fine too. The two ports don’t repeat the mistake of the single port misadventure that was the 2015 12in MacBook. Display, audio and camera specs seem acceptable as well, bearing in mind 1) the price, and 2) that this is Apple kit.
Where I start to worry is the A18 Pro chip. Much like the Mac mini drew from laptops, this laptop draws from mobile devices. In some cases, that won’t matter. The A18 Pro is essentially the same as the one in my iPhone 16 Pro. While that’s not the device I use for everything – to my ongoing frustration – it’s more than capable of surprisingly demanding tasks, such as multi-track songwriting in Korg Gadget and the odd burst of AAA gaming.
Power pray
For single-core performance, this Mac should feel similarly zippy – close to an M4 MacBook Air. In multi-core, it may impress less, hovering around 2020 M1-era performance. In other words, it’ll be fine for watching or writing Pixar films, but not rendering them.
And that’s OK. The MacBook Neo isn’t aimed at folks who spend their days buried in complex video timelines, sprawling layered Photoshop documents and terrifyingly massive dev workloads. It’s Apple’s answer to Chromebooks and mid-range PC laptops. In some ways, it’s almost an iPad take on a Mac, and so the fact it uses a mobile chip doesn’t feel out of place.
But the A18 Pro has one other major limitation: RAM. Specifically, 8GB of RAM. You may recall Apple once insisted 8GB was plenty for a Mac. Not long afterwards, it quietly decided 16GB was the new baseline. Which was good, because 8GB too often isn’t these days. And I know that because I have an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM – and it struggles.
With Apple loudly touting its green credentials for this laptop, I sincerely hope the Neo can surprise me one more time by remaining viable five years from now. Because the worst outcome wouldn’t be middling performance today, but a rare Mac people feel compelled to replace early because it simply can’t keep up.
- Now read: I’ve used the MacBook Neo, Apple’s new $600 laptop – here’s why it could be a game changer
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
