The MacBook Neo is not only the Apple laptop that the majority should buy, but it’s also almost good enough to recommend to some MacBook Pro buyers.
I’ve been using a $599 MacBook Neo Blush (read, pink) for a few weeks now and I’m in love with it. It’s a wonderful little laptop whose chip powering the iPhone belies its capabilities.
I’m going to get straight to the point right off the bat. Any concerns about the performance of the Neo’s A18 Pro chip were allayed five minutes after unboxing the item.
Pair that performance with an eminently portable design and gorgeous colors, and Apple clearly has a winner. The MacBook Neo is flying off the shelves at a pace Apple can’t keep up.
It’s also easy to understand why. My normal machine is a 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro, and the MacBook Neo has regularly left me wondering if I should switch.
Ultimately, I can’t, for reasons we’ll get into. But I really wish I could do it. So much so that I’m wondering if I need another laptop when my carrier MacBook is just too big.
I probably do. RIGHT?
MacBook Neo review: The little laptop that could
The MacBook Neo has a lot going for it, but it all starts with the form factor. With a 13-inch screen, the MacBook Neo is small by many modern laptop standards. And that’s a good thing.
Built like a tank, the MacBook Neo gives off an impression of solidity and quality. This is thanks to the use of Apple’s familiar aluminum construction. Most other laptops at this price use flimsy plastic.
This feeling is also the key to the MacBook Neo’s charm. Pick it up, and it feels like a machine that costs twice its price, because it’s like a MacBook Air or Pro.
I mentioned this a moment ago, but it bears repeating. The MacBook Neo also feels incredibly sturdy, unlike budget laptops.
But the MacBook Neo is a budget laptop. And if it’s not felt in the fit and finish, it’s definitely felt in the connectivity options.
MacBook Neo review: blush on the outside, blush on the inside
The MacBook Neo only has two USB-C ports, and only one of them is rated for USB 3 speeds of 10Gbps. This means the other is limited to USB 2, which is 480 Mbps.
Charging is handled by either of those USB-C ports, so there’s no MagSafe here. The only other port is a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Wireless connectivity is handled by Apple’s N1 chip, bringing Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 to the party. Both are good, even exciting. And that makes sense given the target market.
Another area where Apple saved money was the 13-inch screen. It’s a Liquid Retina display, so it can’t boast the specs of the MacBook Pro I’m used to.
In reality, this means it’s limited to “only” 500 nits of brightness and is sRGB rated. There’s no P3 wide color here, and there’s no True Tone support. I hate the True Tone yellowing effect, but I know some people use it a lot.
Continuing the cost reduction, the MacBook Neo does not come standard with a Touch ID sensor. This is only available if you give Apple the extra $100 for the 512GB SSD model.
That’s right, great. The base model comes with just 256GB of storage, which is either enough or nowhere near enough, depending on how you use it.
So what’s left? The elephant in the room, of course.
MacBook Neo review: An iPhone chip, you say?
When I received the MacBook Neo, I was fully aware that it was powered by the A18 Pro. It’s not even the same A18 Pro that comes in the iPhone 16 Pro, as it has one fewer GPU core. Besides, he has five.
As someone who spends their days with an M4 Pro, I was curious how I would fare with it. After all, writing words in Google Chrome is more resource intensive than it probably should be.
Luckily, it turns out the A18 Pro is pretty fast. I’ve already argued that it could be called an M4 mini, and that it compares similarly to an M1 in multi-core tests. It’s even faster using a single core.
MacBook Neo review: The A18 Pro is no exception
In use, I found the MacBook Neo perfectly usable for doing everything I do on a daily basis. That’s multiple browsers, open with multiple tabs in each, a touch of bright image editing in Pixelmator Pro, that sort of thing.
The only time I found the Neo to be less responsive than I would like was when I was installing my apps. I had the machine for less than an hour, so I put that down to the relatively slow SSD.
I’ve tried playing a game or two on the MacBook Neo, and my recommendation is to skip it. They perform relatively well, but the small SSD can’t handle more than one or two heavy hitters at a time. And this chip can’t do much either.
MacBook Neo review: An M1 by any other name?
But Apple didn’t design the MacBook Neo for people to play games. He built it to do everything budget laptops do. Browsing the web, some light image editing and getting the job done.
This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been using for the past few weeks. And I must say that I found it simply brilliant.
But it has its limits beyond gaming and the small SSD.
MacBook Neo review: It’s still a $599 laptop after all
In case it’s not clear yet, I’m a big fan of this MacBook Neo. I can even admit that I really like the color Blush. It is silver in most lighting, with a pink tint in others.
But there are still times when I remember that this is a $599 machine, not $2,500. The first happened when I plugged it into my monitor.
According to Apple’s specifications page, the MacBook Neo supports only one external display. And this monitor can have a resolution of up to 4K at 60 Hz.
This will be more than enough for most monitors that a MacBook Neo is likely to face. But I’m using an ultrawide with a resolution of 5120 x 1440. It also supports 144Hz refresh.
I was happy to try the 60Hz, so I thought I’d give it a try. After all, this resolution should use less bandwidth than Apple’s supported 4K, according to Neo.
Alas, something is wrong with this combination. All I get is a stretched image that reaches 1080p.
MacBook Neo review: it’s pink, sort of
This could surely be fixed by using a DisplayLink dock, but I don’t have one. A search on Reddit at least gives me confidence in this approach.
This type of limitation shouldn’t be that surprising considering how similar the A18 Pro is to the M1. But it’s still worth pointing out, and it’s enough to make the MacBook Neo a non-starter as a primary machine.
One downside I can’t fault the A18 Pro is the battery life. While I found the Neo did well when away from the charger, it’s not a battery life champion.
Apple says it’s good for 11 hours of web use and 16 hours of video streaming. Whether you get close will depend on various factors, including screen brightness.
But the problem arises when it’s time to recharge the device. I’m in the UK, where Apple doesn’t ship the MacBook Neo with any type of charger. A USB-C cable, of course. But nothing to plug it in.
The good news is that you can use any charger rated at 20W or more. It will charge faster if you give it more juice, but just barely. This means that charging the Neo takes longer than I would like. More than about three hours, in fact.
But at this point, it’s clear I’m nitpicking. And these issues aren’t as big as they seem when you remember the Neo’s $599 price tag.
MacBook Neo review: The laptop most macOS users should buy
The MacBook Neo is a marvel. The fact that Apple managed to find a way to sell this device for less than $600 makes it a laptop that’s impossible not to recommend. It replaces the MacBook Air as the Mac most people should buy. Its 13-inch screen isn’t the best on a Mac, but it’s better than almost anything at its price.
Yes, the fact that it has an A18 Pro at its heart might be enough to give some people pause. But it really shouldn’t. We knew what these A-series chips were capable of, and the addition of macOS makes it even better.
On the contrary, the MacBook Neo reminds me, once again, how much I would like to see macOS come to the iPad as well. Imagine grabbing the MacBook Neo’s screen, removing it from its keyboard, and settling into the couch for an evening of idle browsing. It would sell by the truckload.
As it stands, the MacBook Neo is still selling faster than Apple can make it. I think a lot more will have to be done before this is no longer true.
MacBook Neo Review – Pros
- An incredible machine priced at $599
- Beautiful bright colors
- Lots of power in this A18 Pro for the most part
MacBook Neo Review – Disadvantages
- Limitations of external display
- Touch ID should be standard
- Charges slowly
MacBook Neo rating: 4 out of 5
Where to buy Apple’s MacBook Neo
The MacBook Neo is available now from Amazon, B&H Photo and Expercom.
You can get a slight discount on the standard $599 model at Amazon at the time of publishing, with a breakdown of deals available in our MacBook Neo Price Guide.