I’ve been an Apple fan for as long as I’ve been using technology, and whilst I would always go for Apple in any given product category that they play in, I’d never describe any of their products as having incredible value for money, but when it comes to the MacBook Neo, it has all of the high quality components that make up a MacBook (or any Apple product) at a price point that is extremely accessible all whilst being capable as an everyday laptop.
The MacBook Neo features Apple’s classic aluminum design which you’re just not finding at a price point like this anywhere else ($899 AUD) which means that it weighs just over a kilo and measures just 0.5 inches thin. Apple has gone for a more colourful design this time around with Silver, Blush, Citrus and Indigo all bringing a little flare to the Neo without making them too colourful. For the first time ever this colour carries across to the keyboard too, which isn’t backlit, which I personally don’t find to be an issue as I don’t look at the keys when I type, and I suspect it won’t be too much of an issue for others either.
At $899 you don’t get TouchID, with that coming at $200 more on top of the base model and also bringing you double the storage as well. If you want to get into your MacBook Neo quickly or want that extra storage, you might want to consider the upgrade, but for most (and it’s the model I tested) the base model will be fine. If you’ve got an Apple Watch you can unlock the Neo with this automatically, and most of your photos/messages are stored in the cloud making storage not an issue.
Interestingly enough, Apple has reverted back to using an actual physical touch pad, which I have to say I actually really loved as it has the tactility that you just don’t get from the haptic trackpad felt in the other Macs. After a few clicks, they all feel the same, which is a positive to the entire range really, and I assume this one comes at a lower cost but the core fact is that nothing is lost going back to that physical trackpad.
The display featured in the MacBook Neo is a step back from the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, but again, at this price point, you will not find a better display on the market in a Windows laptop. It is a Liquid Retina 60hz display with 500 nits of peak brightness, and sure coming from my MacBook Pro I could tell a slight difference, but it is an absolutely fantastic, crisp display that is perfect for browsing the web, watching movies or anything in between.
As far as ports go, you get two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm jack. One of the USB-C ports is USB 3 whilst the other is USB 2 meaning that you’ll want to connect SSDs and other devices needing faster transfer to the back USB-C port and this goes for displays as well, with the Neo cleverly telling you that you’ve connected your monitor to the wrong port if you use the USB-C 2 port. I think this is fine for the target market, and once again, if you’re deep into how fast your USB -C ports are you’re probably already considering (or using) a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air.
The other thing worth mentioning are the side-firing speakers, which are pretty fantastic. Obviously at this size you’re going to have limitations, but comparing to the MacBook Pro 16-Inch I was actually surprised how much volume and bass come out of these little speakers, and again, for day-to-day use it’s going to be more than fine. When it comes to the webcam we have a 1080p FaceTime HD camera which you’re not going to get Centre Stage or the like with, but for general video calls, is more than fantastic at this price range.
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And then it comes to performance. This is the first MacBook to use an iPhone chip in a slightly different version of the A18 Pro chip that was found in the iPhone 16 Pro, and it works as well as you’d expect in the MacBook Neo. If I were to place it somewhere in the M-series range, I’d put it between the M1/M2 overall, but it felt just as fast as even my M4/M5 machine in a lot of everyday tasks, which at this price is the greatest compliment that I can give this device.
I went about my daily workload and general browsing on the MacBook Neo and only once or twice did it slow down (granted I use an M4 Max with 128GB of memory day to day to show you how many tabs/tasks I’ve got open at once). I was able to use Photoshop, I was able to edit full 4K videos in CapCut, and I was even able to play games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Dead Island 2 and Death Stranding which absolutely blew me away.
In particular, Cyberpunk 2077, I wasn’t even sure would open given it’s not on iPhone and only made for M-series Macs, but it ran incredibly solidly at 30+ FPS using MetalFX upscaling, which is really impressive. Is it the way that I’d recommend someone play this game? Probably not, but it is absolutely more than playable and again, at just $899 which is just a tad more than what you pay for a Nintendo Switch 2.
It’s no secret given the A18 Pro chip, but battery life also really impressed me. Apple has it rated at up to 16 hours of video streaming or 11 hours of web browsing and whilst I haven’t had time to do a pure time test, it more than lasted me an entire day even whilst gaming and really putting it through its paces.
Apple’s MacBook line has been going from strength to strength since it started using its own chips, and this is just another addition to that which makes perfect sense. Both the Air and Pro are ridiculously powerful at this point, beyond what most people would need, which is where the Neo comes in at a sub $1000 price point without making it feel like your everyday user is missing out on what makes Apple products special. It’s the laptop that I’d recommend to most people unless you’re going to be doing serious video editing or really wanting a workhorse machine.
This is the one for someone who wants to have that old-school laptop experience of checking their emails, doing a bit of browsing, playing a game or two all whilst having one of Apple’s best looking MacBooks of all-time and at a fantastic price point too.iew
