Hands-On With the New MacBook Neo

[michaelant]

I'm so old I remember when people were complaining that MacRumors had too many articles trying to pin down what the MacBook Neo might be like. I'd say they can be forgiven. It's a big deal.

Also that color slaps. I think most kids in 2026 are saying everything slaps.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Nice first/second glance, @Dan Barbera.

As to the FaceTime call, the camera looks lower res than the rest of the video (as expected), but it's not over-processed with weird face softening. That's kind of a plus. The audio does seem a little distant and hollow, which may be because it was filtering the background noise you described. When you went to the next segment it was super loud because I had to crank up the volume to hear the test.

I'm glad you'll be using it as your daily driver for your full review. I don't do video, but I do photography, so I'm interested in how long it takes you to download a memory card (if that's part of your workflow), what the color space is like and how Adobe software works on the A18 Pro.

Side note, the weight loss has you looking great!

 

[Pootie Tang]

So is the laptop underpriced or is the iPhone overpriced? Hmmmm...my guess is Apple isn't losing money on the Neo so what does that say about charging $1000 for a phone?

You can get an IPhone 17e for $599.

 

[Icelus]

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Although I appreciate that a backlit keyboard may be important to you, I just don’t get all the fuss people are making about the Neo missing this feature.

It's the latest bandwagon for people to jump on. With the M4 Mini, the usual suspects here were yelling that they suddenly needed to have the power button on the front. On other laptops it's the "I refuse to buy this until they get rid of the notch" crowd. Since the Neo doesn't have a notch, they need something to complain about. Turns out it's a non-backlit keyboard! Who knew?

Manufactured outrage, there's a lot of it here.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

MacBook Neo Teardown: The Most Repairable Mac Yet?

Thanks for posting this! I find these videos fascinating. And WOW, that Neo is different inside as compared to other laptops. The motherboard is TINY. The whole interior is so modular, everything can come out much easier than the guts of other machines. And no adhesive on the battery or the usual sticky-tape! Way to go, Apple. It's good to see a machine that looks like it can be user-repaired relatively easily.

 

[svish]

Good video. Had visited Apple Store earlier today to see it. Liked the Citrus color. Colors could have been better, like on the iMac. Think it is a very good computer. Don't think the 8 GB RAM will be an issue.

 

[dbwie]

I wish all of these reviewers would stop calling it the "cheapest" laptop Apple has ever made. The connotation of "cheap" is that it is poor quality, and yet all the reviews suggest good quality. Maybe try "least expensive".

 

[zecal]

It’s striking that a laptop costs less than a standard smartphone these days.

And it's less than Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit @ $699.00

Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit

Put your Mac Pro on wheels with the Mac Pro Wheels Kit. The custom-designed stainless steel and rubber wheels make it easy to move your Mac Pro around, whether sliding it out from under your desk or across your studio.

www.apple.com

 

[ronnor]

It appears the Apple logo on the lid is not made from stainless steel as it appears not shiny but rather matte.

 

[123]

I saw the machines in person today.

Citrus has strong iPod mini vibes.

They’re going to sell truckloads of these.

With cool colors (like the ones in the mock-ups) instead of this lackluster lineup they would sell 2 truckloads.

 

[Eidorian]

Another early adopter nightmare given the SoC limitations.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

M2Max

The Neo is faster for single core workloads. I agree that RAM and multi-core speed should count for something, but at the end of the day it's old technology.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

That HP laptop has a Snapdragon processor (i.e., a glorified phone chip), so it can't even run real Windows. I'd rather have an ARM chip that runs full macOS than one that can only run ARM Windows.

Besides that, OLED isn't everything. That HP's OLED display is only 300 nits vs. the Neo's 500, and it has a resolution of 1920x1200 (162 ppi) vs. the Neo's 2408x1506 (219 ppi) - a huge downgrade in both brightness and resolution.

Also, not all metal laptops are created equal in terms of build quality and power. This review of your HP notes that it "isn't quite as well-built as a similarly priced MacBook Air, and its graphics silicon won't get you through much more than casual photo edits." This is in contrast to the Neo, which has been shown in early reviews to have build quality on par with the rest of the MacBook lineup despite its other hardware compromises, and has shown itself to be capable of running Photoshop and FCP without breaking much of a sweat.

So, just because a laptop looks better on paper doesn't mean it's better in real-world use.

FYI, Windows for ARM is "real Windows". Not sure why you think it isn't. Any compatibility issues is on the software developers or device makers who are too lazy to rewrite drivers. Not the fault of Windows. Same with macOS -- not every device works with macOS does it? Does that make macOS inferior?

The other nitpicks of yours are purely personal preference. Many wouldn't know or don't care about build quality, although I would agree the Neo is nicer. OLED looks nicer than the Neo screen and would most people care about ppi?

To be honest, I don't own either of these laptops, but I can say if I had $500, I'd opt for the HP as I feel overall, it'd be less "confining" with 16GB RAM and upgradeable SSD. Others who are more comfortable with Macs would go Neo.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Another early adopter nightmare given the SoC limitations.

What are you talking about? It outperforms the M1 etc.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

He constantly posts that $1149 closeout model like it’s meaningful because it’s discounted to $499.

I am sure HP has millions of those ready to sell at $499…

Costco has no less than 14 laptops under $600, and almost all have 16GB RAM and 512GB or 1TB SSD.

There's no shortage of decent $600 Windows laptops.

 

[El Cabong]

FYI, Windows for ARM is "real Windows". Not sure why you think it isn't. Any compatibility issues is on the software developers or device makers who are too lazy to rewrite drivers. Not the fault of Windows. Same with macOS -- not every device works with macOS does it? Does that make macOS inferior?

The other nitpicks of yours are purely personal preference. Many wouldn't know or don't care about build quality, although I would agree the Neo is nicer. OLED looks nicer than the Neo screen and would most people care about ppi?

To be honest, I don't own either of these laptops, but I can say if I had $500, I'd opt for the HP as I feel overall, it'd be less "confining" with 16GB RAM and upgradeable SSD. Others who are more comfortable with Macs would go Neo.

Your original post stated:

• Macbook Neo is running a phone chip, therefore it's bad.
• That HP laptop is made of metal and has an OLED screen, therefore it's better than a Neo.

I pointed out:

• That HP laptop actually uses a Snapdragon chip, and while it's a step up from the ones used in phones, it's still an ARM chip (i.e., a mobile chip) with limitations. Blaming devs for not adopting it is beside the point, though it does highlight another limitation of the platform.
• The difference in the display specs of that HP are a huge downgrade compared to the Neo. I don't think that "higher resolution" and "brighter screen" are nitpicks; rather, they're arguably more important specs to the average consumer than RAM would be. Sure, most people couldn't quote ppi at you, but they can easily tell when a screen is pixelated or too dim. Inferior displays are a typical cost-cutting measure of Windows laptops, and it's the same for that HP.
• The build quality of that HP is worse than the Neo. But now you say people "don't care about build quality". I beg to differ.

In addition:

• That HP's MSRP is $1,149. As others have pointed out, $500 is not a standard price. Other vendors that sell it for more than that.
• I found a review of the HP that points out its cheaply-made touchpad and shows the flex in the chassis when lightly pressing down by the spacebar. The build quality is definitely much worse than it looks in a still image:

• Thank you for coming clean and stating that you don't own the HP laptop. As you say, it's personal preference. My argument is that most people would prefer the Neo if they were able to compare the real-world usage of the two side-by-side.

 

[turbineseaplane]

M2Max

Are you going to trade it in?

 

[Mikegwald]

Happy MacBook Neo launch day! Apple's $599 notebook is finally here, and we picked one up to take a look at the new machine and share some first impressions.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

The MacBook Neo looks like a MacBook Air, but a little bit smaller. It comes in fun colors, including Citrus, Blush, and Indigo, plus a plain Silver shade. It's lightweight, has rounded corners, and it's an all-around nice machine, especially compared to bulkier Windows PCs. The display is as bright as the MacBook Air display at 500 nits, and it has nice vivid colors.

The base model comes with a 256GB SSD and no Touch ID button for the color-matched keyboard, but the higher-tier 512GB model priced at $699 does have Touch ID.

Since this is a $599 MacBook, there are some compromises. You only get two USB-C ports and no Thunderbolt, plus no MagSafe or fast charging option. Only one of the USB-C ports is USB3, so you'll need to use that one if you want to connect an external display. It supports a 4K 60Hz display.

The trackpad isn't the same Force Touch trackpad you'll find on the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but it's just as usable with the exception of the pressure-based options. There is a physical click rather than the Haptic Force Touch click, but the entire button can click so you can press anywhere. The keyboard is identical to the keyboard of the MacBook Air in terms of feel.

Apple designed new speakers for the MacBook Neo, and they're side-firing for the first time. Maximum sound is a little limited, but sound quality is otherwise decent for a laptop. The microphones for video calls are good at isolating out background noise, but the camera is limited to 1080p so it's not quite as good as the camera Apple uses for more expensive MacBook models.

In terms of performance, the MacBook Neo has an A18 Pro chip and it's limited to 8GB RAM, but that's plenty for simple tasks like browsing the web, watching videos, editing documents, and doing homework. In a quick test opening 54 pre-installed apps on the MacBook Neo, it didn't struggle, and it was able to handle all of those apps without an issue.

We're going to do a deep dive into performance and battery life in the future once we've been able to spend more time with the MacBook Neo, so make sure to keep an eye on the site for more videos.

Article Link: Hands-On With the New MacBook Neo

My local Walmart had these on sale yesterday, and by this morning they were completely sold out they even sold the floor model. I was told more are on order, but there’s no idea when they’ll actually receive them.

The sales person said they sold so fast and they had never seen anything like it before.

 

[Mikegwald]

Another early adopter nightmare given the SoC limitations.

You’re out of your mind this thing hits every mark for the target audience. You’ve got a lot of research to do.

 

[turbineseaplane]

My local Walmart had these on sale yesterday, and by this morning they were completely sold out they even sold the floor model. I was told more are on order, but there’s no idea when they’ll actually receive them.

The sales person said they sold so fast and they had never seen anything like it before.

The Walmart Mac!

The "WalMac", we might call it.

Tapping 'dat low end like neva' before.

 

[DotCom2]

My local Walmart had these on sale yesterday, and by this morning they were completely sold out they even sold the floor model. I was told more are on order, but there’s no idea when they’ll actually receive them.

The sales person said they sold so fast and they had never seen anything like it before.

I believe this is a very very smart move by Apple. Make a low cost Apple device and get people into the Apple ecosystem. Brilliant!

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

Although I appreciate that a backlit keyboard may be important to you, I just don’t get all the fuss people are making about the Neo missing this feature.

The Magic Keyboard I use with my Mac Mini doesn’t have backlighting and I never miss it. Do I think for $200 dollars it probably should have had it included? Yeah, I mean that’s crazy that I paid that much for a keyboard in the first place, but it’s not the main reason I got it.

Maybe I just never work in low light situations so I can’t relate.

It’s a huge mistake not including it. Not even opinion it’s fact. Think abt it it’s geared for college students who are stereotypically known to be up late (burning the midnight oil I think is the phrase?). So why have em fumbling with lights/table lamps when they could just have backlit keys to see everything nice at night (when some roommates sharing a single room might want to sleep soundly etc).

I don’t know how to make it anymore obvious. I def think backlight is absolutely required for this sort of package/prospective buyer.

I think a lot of people complaining are MBP users who can't find it in themselves to use anything that isn't fully loaded, even though most don't really need it all.

Not having a lit keyboard is so niche, it shouldn't even be an issue but, we are on MR where everything and I mean everything in the known universe is a problem.

Read above your post here…

I wish all of these reviewers would stop calling it the "cheapest" laptop Apple has ever made. The connotation of "cheap" is that it is poor quality, and yet all the reviews suggest good quality. Maybe try "least expensive".

Are you from the states? Cheap can mean cheaply made sure and depending on tone yea that’s what it is, but we have zero qualms with saying we found a nice gem “for cheap”. It’s a great word and fits the neo perfect (certainly as compared to other entry level Apple priced products).

 

[bluecoast]

With cool colors (like the ones in the mock-ups) instead of this lackluster lineup they would sell 2 truckloads.

I guess they were hedging their bets - at least citrus is pretty searing.

Go citrus or go home, I say.

But agreed, going full on iPod mini, iBook or 2nd gen iMac would've been preferable.

It's time for some bold, fun colours!

 

[turbineseaplane]

I wish all of these reviewers would stop calling it the "cheapest" laptop Apple has ever made. The connotation of "cheap" is that it is poor quality, and yet all the reviews suggest good quality. Maybe try "least expensive".

It uses cheaper parts.
That's why it's cheaper to make and thus cheaper to buy.

Better?
🙂