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REVIEW

Apple MacBook Neo

Issue: 24.3 (May/June 2026)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Article Description: The MacBook Neo review highlights its sleek design and impressive performance, powered by Apple's latest M-series chip, which ensures efficient multitasking and extended battery life. The display is praised for its vibrant colors and sharp resolution, making it ideal for creative professionals and everyday users alike. The keyboard and trackpad offer a comfortable typing experience, maintaining Apple's high standards. While the port selection is limited, the inclusion of Thunderbolt ports compensates for this, providing fast data transfer and connectivity options. Overall, the MacBook Neo is recommended for those seeking a powerful, portable, and stylish laptop, though some may find the price point a bit steep compared to other models in the market.
Article Length (in bytes): 7,202
Starting Page Number: 12
Article Number: 24302
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Last year, rumors were swirling that Apple was going to release a low-cost laptop based on an old iPhone CPU. There was much skepticism about this move. Why do it? Would an iPhone chip be fast enough? Would using that chip lower the cost enough to be worth doing? What other corners would be cut to make this laptop cheap?

Those answers finally came in February when Apple announced the MacBook Neo. Everyone was surprised. Not only is the machine metal with a beautiful design, a quality screen and keyboard, and a capable Apple-designed A18 Pro processor, but it's not crippled in any significant way.

Starting at a ridiculous $499 for the education price, its biggest limitations are the 8GB of non-expandable memory, smallish internal drives, no backlit keyboard, no MagSafe, and one of the two USB-C ports is not high-speed. Those are totally acceptable trade-offs for a computer of this power and quality.

Keep in mind you're still getting Apple hardware design; this still runs all the latest Mac software (complex apps may be slow), and it has all-day battery life. Compared to other Apple laptops, this guy is half the cost, and it's superior and cheaper than many PCs. Plus, it comes in fun colors!

Prior to the announcement, I had zero interest in a cheap Mac laptop. I already have a high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro that's my main computer and a smaller Air I use when I travel. I didn't need another.

And yet the Neo intrigued. It came out right as I was planning my trip to Germany for the MBS Xojo Conference. I had been waffling on what exact equipment to bring. My usual is to take my MacBook Air, which I need for presenting at the conference, and my iPad for entertainment. However, both devices are quite heavy and bulky, and especially for an international trip, I want to travel as light as possible. The iPad includes my external keyboard. Could I leave it at home? Maybe I should leave the iPad at home, too?

Another concern was security. My Air mirrors my MBP, so both have lots of personal information on them. That hasn't worried me much for local travel (camping trips), but going overseas is another matter. I didn't want or need all that data on a trip like that. What would be nice would be a pared-down device with minimal content. A cheap device, so I wouldn't be heartbroken if it got damaged, lost, or stolen. In other words, a Neo!

I ordered one in yellow. I did "splurge" on the high-end configuration with a 512GB SSD and the Touch ID sensor. With a minimum of content on it, I've still got 300GB free—plenty to store a few movies and TV show episodes for watching on plane flights and downtime during my trip.

My thinking is that this laptop will be perfect for international travel, and later I can use it exclusively for writing fiction. Right now, I do that on my main computer, but that gets "blurry," if you will, because I've got work and dozens of other ongoing projects on that machine which are distracting. My Neo can be my "focus" computer.

Setting up the Neo, what impressed me the most is that it is totally, 100% a Mac. If I gave you one and told you it was $1000, you'd believe me. It doesn't feel cheap in any way. Everything is beautiful, elegant, and works well.

Sure, there isn't much RAM or storage, and the processor can be easily taxed and slow down, but for 90% of most people's needs, this thing is pure gold. For serious professionals or those that can afford it, I'd still recommend an Air or a Pro with more memory and a bigger SSD, but for the average non-computer person, a Neo is all they need.

I used to recommend an iPad for such users, but not anymore. A Neo is far more capable, and by the time you add a keyboard and other accessories to an iPad, it costs more than a Neo (even a low-end iPad). Why use a baby word processor on an iPad when you can use a real app on a full Mac?

Of course, if you have a need for an iPad—you're an artist and want to draw on it, need the tablet form factor, or want a convertible device—then get an iPad. But just about anything an iPad can do, a Neo can do, and the reverse is definitely not true.

You can even run high-end software on the Neo—like video editing, 3D graphics, and so on—though I'd do that only in a pinch. For occasional use, such software will work fine; it will just be slow.

I had no issues running Xojo, Apple Intelligence models, or my own Xojo apps. Everything was quick, and though I didn't do benchmarks, my impression is that the Neo is only a few seconds slower than my M4 Max for single-core tasks. Memory pressure is increased when you run a lot of apps simultaneously, but you can control that with your usage, so I don't see it as a huge problem. (With Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture, 8GB is more like 16GB on a normal machine.)

The bottom line is that the Neo is a terrific value and the perfect laptop for first-time computer users, those with low-end or casual needs, a secondary travel machine, or just for fun or focus. Highly recommended. Apple is going to sell millions of these.

End of article.