Farewell Neo, Hello Air.

[eXan]

Congrats on your switch, it takes decisiveness to make a switch so soon.

One thing I don't see much mention of, is the Air's screen, albeit small, but it gives a user more real estate for windows and toolbars compared to Neo. I found this out recently at the Apple Store where they had put Neo, Air and Pro side by side. The difference was quite noticeable. I supposed such positioning was intended to guide a buyer to the "middle" option considering their margins are likely better than on Neo.

 

[uller6]

You couldn't pay me money to use an Intel Mac, personally 🤣

Intel Macs from about 2011-2015 are the GOAT, and still rock hard in 2026! I have 10 Intel Macs running, most of them with Windows 11 25H2 no sweat. The earliest are a pair of 2009 21" iMacs, each with a 500 GB SSD and 12 GB RAM running windows 7 with uptimes longer than a year. They're rock solid and snappy, but only the Windows 11 machines touch the internet. Intel Macs forever!!!

My main work Mac is a M4 max MBP, and my M2 air is my couch machine. I would have gotten the Neo, but I found the M2 air on marketplace for a good deal and couldn't say no. The M2 air, even with 8 GB RAM, is way faster and more robust than I ever expected it to be, so I think a new Neo would last a good 5-8 years easily. Given my experience with my M2 air, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Neo to anyone.

 

[Mainsail]

They'll be good for moms and grandmas who play Apple Arcade games, check email, and watch YouTube with though. My mom did that for years on an underpowered Chromebook, and that thing was "ancient" even back then. If she were here today the Neo would be perfect for her for a long time.

The Neo is not limited to moms and grandmas. For example, most college students could effectively use the Neo to write reports, build spreadsheets, make presentations, and do all of the things necessary to succeed in academia. There are some majors that need more horsepower, but most would be just fine. It also makes a useable secondary mobile computer for business folks that prefer to put their money into a desktop computer (e.g. iMac or Mac mini).

I prefer the MBA, but it's an exaggeration to say the Neo is limited to Arcade games, checking email and YouTube.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Not the call that I would've made. M4/A18 cores will be supported for longer than M2/A15 cores. Though, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum for comfortable macOS Tahoe usage that entails using a browser with more than four simple tabs and it's not like we can get more than 8GB of RAM on an A18 Pro.

 

[snipr125]

I wouldn't say slower, I've seen plenty of Neo ssd speed tests come in slower, it's basically within the margin of error. But yes, the 256gb ssd on the m2 is much slower than every other gen. But for most usage cases, it's not something you'll really notice. Higher storage tiers of the m2 were about double the speed. I used own an M2 air with 1tb storage

The MBA M2 256 GB SSD used a single NAND chip resulting in slower speeds than the M1 MBA that preceded it (Had 2 x 128 GB ssds). It was controversial at the time for sure, but Apple fixed this with the M3, M4 base models, to the point where the M5 MBA now is up to 7 times faster. Most wont notice the difference though in daily tasks, its mainly when transferring large amounts of data (Photos, video etc) will you notice.

 

[uller6]

Not the call that I would've made. M4/A18 cores will be supported for longer than M2/A15 cores. Though, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum for comfortable macOS Tahoe usage that entails using a browser with more than four simple tabs and it's not like we can get more than 8GB of RAM on an A18 Pro.

That's exactly what I thought too, until I had an M2/8 GB in my hands. The M2 is totally fine. Even pushed well into yellow RAM pressure, the machine is perfectly functional and still snappy. Specs on paper aren't the whole story.

 

[conmee]

The MBA M2 256 GB SSD used a single NAND chip resulting in slower speeds than the M1 MBA that preceded it (Had 2 x 128 GB ssds). It was controversial at the time for sure, but Apple fixed this with the M3, M4 base models, to the point where the M5 MBA now is up to 7 times faster. Most wont notice the difference though in daily tasks, its mainly when transferring large amounts of data (Photos, video etc) will you notice.

I forgot this when I made my original comment about M2 having faster storage. I think there were some fairly long threads in here about it. Looking forward to threads discussing a similar next big controversy coming up with Apple swapping TLC for QLC storage in iPhone 18 (>=1GB models).

 

[urbis]

More for the overall package, SSD speeds aren't an issue for me and my usage.

 

[Acronyc]

At least the backlit keyboard. That was just mean.

That reminds me a lot of the 2010 MacBook Air. It was released without a backlit keyboard, then they put it back in the 2011 model. The 2010 11-inch Air was my first Mac and I loved that machine, but it was a bit annoying it didn't have the backlit keyboard as it obviously wasn't a technical or cost constraint.

 

[Yebubbleman]

That's exactly what I thought too, until I had an M2/8 GB in my hands. The M2 is totally fine. Even pushed well into yellow RAM pressure, the machine is perfectly functional and still snappy. Specs on paper aren't the whole story.

I think you're missing the point behind yellow memory pressure.

The point is that you are wearing out your SSD faster with higher memory pressure. You might not feel it, but that doesn't mean your SSD doesn't still feel it and that it won't crap out sooner.

 

[Mainsail]

I think you're missing the point behind yellow memory pressure.

The point is that you are wearing out your SSD faster with higher memory pressure. You might not feel it, but that doesn't mean your SSD doesn't still feel it and that it won't crap out sooner.

How much sooner? I understand in theory, but in practice, is there strong evidence that SSDs are actually failing at a significantly faster rate due to memory pressure?

 

[m1maverick]

How much sooner? I understand in theory, but in practice, is there strong evidence that SSDs are actually failing at a significantly faster rate due to memory pressure?

What does "Swap Used:" on the "Memory" tab of Activity Monitor say. Maybe provide a screen capture of that section and post it here (like this):

This is on a freshly booted M1 Ultra. Notice that, despite having just been booted, this system is using 9.75GB of RAM (Only applications running are Activity Monitor and Safari with a single tab for this website open).

 

[steve217]

How much sooner? I understand in theory, but in practice, is there strong evidence that SSDs are actually failing at a significantly faster rate due to memory pressure?

This question is a hardy survivor from the “Is 8gb enough” debate.

This post about the issue seems to be definitive that your drive will far outlast the computer itself no matter how much swapping takes place.

Apple Silicon Soldered SSD Upgrade Thread

just a little contribution, as for Louis Rossman not being comfortable with "donor" components there is two things to say about that : 1 - don't ask me how, but there is for years Chinese suppliers for brand new, original caps, inductors and more importantly brand new NANDs and power supply...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Mainsail]

This question is a hardy survivor from the “Is 8gb enough” debate.

This post about the issue seems to be definitive that your drive will far outlast the computer itself no matter how much swapping takes place.

Apple Silicon Soldered SSD Upgrade Thread

just a little contribution, as for Louis Rossman not being comfortable with "donor" components there is two things to say about that : 1 - don't ask me how, but there is for years Chinese suppliers for brand new, original caps, inductors and more importantly brand new NANDs and power supply...

forums.macrumors.com

Agreed.

What I am taking away from this is that; while it is true that swap does exercise the SSD, there is no real world evidence that Apple SSDs are failing early because of swap....and in particular, because of excess swap caused by 8gb of memory. So, is this "Swap killing SSDs" thing just a boogie man?

Yes, swap is slower than memory, but is it imperceptible for common day to day real world applications that most Neo consumers do on their computers? I am not talking about having 50 tabs open in Chrome. I am not talking about video editing large projects. I am talking about typical usage of productivity and built-in Apple apps. Would a user ever really notice?

 

[uller6]

I think you're missing the point behind yellow memory pressure.

The point is that you are wearing out your SSD faster with higher memory pressure. You might not feel it, but that doesn't mean your SSD doesn't still feel it and that it won't crap out sooner.

Frankly this isn't something I'm particularly worried about. As long as the drive lasts as long as the machine gets MacOS updates I'm fine.

 

[ikramerica]

The Neo is not limited to moms and grandmas. For example, most college students could effectively use the Neo to write reports, build spreadsheets, make presentations, and do all of the things necessary to succeed in academia. There are some majors that need more horsepower, but most would be just fine. It also makes a useable secondary mobile computer for business folks that prefer to put their money into a desktop computer (e.g. iMac or Mac mini).

I prefer the MBA, but it's an exaggeration to say the Neo is limited to Arcade games, checking email and YouTube.

My niece just bought the Neo for college. She doesn’t need much, but was hating the limitations of chromebooks in terms of real software.

 

[ElPaso]

Agreed.

What I am taking away from this is that; while it is true that swap does exercise the SSD, there is no real world evidence that Apple SSDs are failing early because of swap....and in particular, because of excess swap caused by 8gb of memory. So, is this "Swap killing SSDs" thing just a boogie man?

Yes, swap is slower than memory, but is it imperceptible for common day to day real world applications that most Neo consumers do on their computers? I am not talking about having 50 tabs open in Chrome. I am not talking about video editing large projects. I am talking about typical usage of productivity and built-in Apple apps. Would a user ever really notice?

This is an excellent post, and details my experience with the Neo in its first two months in my corral.

 

[Petite messe solennelle]

I think you're missing the point behind yellow memory pressure.

The point is that you are wearing out your SSD faster with higher memory pressure. You might not feel it, but that doesn't mean your SSD doesn't still feel it and that it won't crap out sooner.

This is very rarely a problem. You would need to constantly write to swap files over the course of ten years or so.

Google for something along 'How does macOS prevent wear and tear of SSDs caused to swapping'.

Ten, fifteen years ago this could have been a problem. But SSDs have evolved, and this is not a problem anymore. I've yet to see even one website or forum entry, where somebody claims that happened with an Apple Silicon device.

 

[snipr125]

This is very rarely a problem. You would need to constantly write to swap files over the course of ten years or so.

Google for something along 'How does macOS prevent wear and tear of SSDs caused to swapping'.

Ten, fifteen years ago this could have been a problem. But SSDs have evolved, and this is not a problem anymore. I've yet to see even one website or forum entry, where somebody claims that happened with an Apple Silicon device.

You have to also take into consideration that data stored on the SSD slows it down further via parallelism. So a half full 256 GB ssd is slower than if it was empty, and with swapping this will further impact performance and increase wear on the ssd.

 

[bapegg]

Not the call that I would've made. M4/A18 cores will be supported for longer than M2/A15 cores. Though, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum for comfortable macOS Tahoe usage that entails using a browser with more than four simple tabs and it's not like we can get more than 8GB of RAM on an A18 Pro.

I did a test on my 512GB Neo by running Safari with 15-20 tabs open along with running 2-3 amateur radio apps at the same time. The maximum RAM usage I saw was 6.5 GB and zero swapping.

We all know some websites use more resources than others. Facebook and news websites with a lot of photos use more memory than say a simple forum website does. I had Facebook, Fox News and a few other websites open that use more memory during my test. I even had a YouTube video playing.

We all know that the Neo is not for everyone. But it works fine for the intended user market.

 

[Yebubbleman]

How much sooner? I understand in theory, but in practice, is there strong evidence that SSDs are actually failing at a significantly faster rate due to memory pressure?

I've not held onto an Apple Silicon Mac with 8GB long enough to test it. But I'm also not in the business of stressing my Logic Boards to the point where I have to take the machines to Apple for a replacement.

All I know is that when the pressure gets high enough (and it invariably does) I do feel it with increased beach balling and other symptoms typically indicative of not having enough RAM.

Frankly this isn't something I'm particularly worried about. As long as the drive lasts as long as the machine gets MacOS updates I'm fine.

If you're not worried, fantastic. I sold off all of my 8GB of RAM M1 Macs because I frequently got low memory errors on fairly basic non-Power-User type uses. If I don't use more than ten tabs on sites without memory leak issues (this site usually has A TON of memory leaking going on), then I'm okay. But that's not often the case for me and I'd be surprised if it was for anyone using their computer more than infrequently and for more than one single site at a time.

This is very rarely a problem. You would need to constantly write to swap files over the course of ten years or so.

Google for something along 'How does macOS prevent wear and tear of SSDs caused to swapping'.

Ten, fifteen years ago this could have been a problem. But SSDs have evolved, and this is not a problem anymore. I've yet to see even one website or forum entry, where somebody claims that happened with an Apple Silicon device.

Not having enough RAM does present other symptoms that are much more noticeable...even with Apple Silicon being as performant as it is.

I did a test on my 512GB Neo by running Safari with 15-20 tabs open along with running 2-3 amateur radio apps at the same time. The maximum RAM usage I saw was 6.5 GB and zero swapping.

We all know some websites use more resources than others. Facebook and news websites with a lot of photos use more memory than say a simple forum website does. I had Facebook, Fox News and a few other websites open that use more memory during my test. I even had a YouTube video playing.

We all know that the Neo is not for everyone. But it works fine for the intended user market.

I never said it was a dumpster fire computer. The low RAM amount is the one thing that should give folks pause about this machine. For the education market where multiple browser tab/window use should naturally be discouraged, this machine is a dream. But, I don't think that the MacBook Neo is the no-brainer recommendation for most MacBook customers that the MacBook Air has been since the Apple Silicon era began (and still is today).

 

[cynics]

If memory pressure is green with your standard workload you're good to go.

The rest of the stats in Activity Monitor aren't very useful depending on your workload. With unified memory the kernel is preemptive when it comes to swap and compressed memory for stagnant task in the background.

Even with 64gb of RAM I have swap (880mb) and compressed memory (760mb), likely from DaVinci and Final Cut earlier in the day.

Memory pressure isn't a problem for casual user task because those task are small and easy for the kernel to manage. Conveniently smaller task that could get moved to swap aren't easy to detect when loading because its a sub second burst of data (an old tab from a browser with 50 tabs open for example). And btw something like a browser has separate processes for each tab that can be individually swapped or compressed if the need arises.

Memory pressure is a problem when the kernel is transferring data back and forth between the SSD and RAM constantly due to the dataset used exceeding the available RAM. Most of these are professional or high end hobbyist uses though, kind of disqualifies the Neo before RAM is even a subject.

Admittedly I don't fully understand this discussion. I'm sure I forgetting something obvious but all the task I could think of that require more RAM also require that RAM to have a higher bandwidth and also require a faster CPU/GPU aka a different computer.

Don't get me wrong I would definitely recommend 16gb minimum in 2026 however average task don't need it. I have a 2018 8gb Intel MBP I keep in my backpack and it's fine for the essentials plus more. And I wouldn't recommend too much future proofing with an Apple products, in 4ish years it won't get MacOS updates anyway, unless that doesn't bother you. Better off buying what you need in the foreseeable future.