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Initial NEO thoughts

jz0309 said:
Maybe I overreacted, I also let another member get under my skin for their continued negativity regards almost everything Apple incl the Neo ...
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I feel your pain. Most people who come to the Apple without a bashing agenda find that guy quite annoying. Not sure what motivates him. You would think Tim Cook slept with his mate. Or maybe it's simply because he had a bad childhood. No clue. but it does put one on edge. Take heart the overwhelming respect the Neo is getting from You Tubers we can trust (as much as one can trust a you tuber lol).

Hope you enjoy your Neo. I recommend unplugging while you form your own opinions. If you aren't already spoiled by other Macs, I think you will like it.
 
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Just ran geekbench... This was my result. I'd say not too shabby compared to other numbers I've seen floating around. 3612 single, 9154 multi. https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/17026385

OpenCL: 19828 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/compute/5993561

Metal: 31401 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/compute/5993594

Also 50.6 on Speedometer 3.1, it flies!

Last note I'll add is the standing RAM usage with nothing open (other than finder and activity monitor). Plenty of headroom 😎

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Screenshot 2026-03-12 at 1.47.14 PM.png
 
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G5isAlive said:
I feel your pain. Most people who come to the Apple without a bashing agenda find that guy quite annoying. Not sure what motivates him. You would think Tim Cook slept with his mate. Or maybe it's simply because he had a bad childhood. No clue. but it does put one on edge. Take heart the overwhelming respect the Neo is getting from You Tubers we can trust (as much as one can trust a you tuber lol).

Hope you enjoy your Neo. I recommend unplugging while you form your own opinions. If you aren't already spoiled by other Macs, I think you will like it.
Click to expand...
Yea, (unfortunately) my ignore list has grown quite a bit these past few months ... just hard sometimes to just let it go...

I am quite happy with the Neo thus far, I had gotten a 13 iPad Air not quite 2 years ago to replace a M1 MBA but never really "fell in love", it does everything I need it to do just screen typing is a pita. For me it's a couch and occasional travel computer, have no te have data on it except if needed while traveling which is why I opted for the 256, and I have an AW which is far superior over the TouchID.
The way it looks right now, it's a keeper.
I have a M1Max Studio with ASD for all my heavy computing needs.
 
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Fravin said:
Could you tell us how the keyboard feels compared to MBA?
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The keyboard key travel is a little more firm with the Neo albeit not in a bad way. It is still very easy to depress a key once for accuracy. I found the keyboard keys on the M4 MBA a little mushy (for lack of a better term). If I was asked to pick one over the other, I would initially pick the Neo.
 
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Initial thoughts after having the Citrus for about 20 minutes.

Form Factor
Screen:

I like that the screen size is smaller than the M4 MBA I had. While the difference isn't huge, it is readily apparent and will make transporting and mobile use a little easier and compact.

Text is easy to read (I have left the default settings) and doesn't appear fuzzy or dull. I am not encountering any problems viewing the screen from different (read: normal) angels.

I have gotten use to using a Nano screen on my iPads and iMac. Seeing reflections in the screen is not a deal breaker mind you but, it was a momentary shock to the eyes upon turning on the screen.

Bezels:

I do like that there is no notch albeit it has never really been a problem for me. I wish the bottom bezel was much thinner compared to the top but, that really is a minor quibble. The bezel thickness at the bottom does not detract from using the Mac nor does it constantly bother me every time I look at it. It is just a matter of making the mental adjustment after using different devices throughout the day.

Build Quality:

I do like that the Neo is very sturdy and well-built. The screen hinge while tight offers easy angel adjustment with only one finger. Speaking of one finger, I like that I can open the Neo with one finger and it doesn't move around. The Neo has the standard Apple Mac look quality that we have all come to associate with upon first glance.


Color:

It looks more lime than yellow. While the color doesn't 'wow' me, I do like that it is different and stands out to the typical Mac colors we are all used to seeing.

I like that the downloads folder that is default in the dock is the same color as the Neo. I appreciate that subtle attention to detail. I find it much more pleasing to view than the standard default blue we all have been familiar with.

Sound: I was prepared to hear shallow, tinny sound from the Neo speakers. When I turned on Apple Music, that was not the case. I can easily hear the base (albeit it is subtle), mid and high ranges. It sounds much better than I expected. I do think the attempt at surround sound could be better if the right speaker was placed at the top right instead of bottom right.

Trackpad: Just as nice (although smaller) than the other current Macs. I turned on "tap to click" and that really makes it much quieter. I don't mind that the trackpad isn't haptic. It is still as precise as Apple is known for.

-----------

I haven't finished installing programs and getting the settings as I want them to be just yet. I setup as new.
 
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Silver 512 here, got as a secondary travel laptop to my 16" MBP. The size difference is hilarious.

Keyboard feels great, very old school deep travel 2000's macbook feel. Same with trackpad. Build quality overall is very dense and feels like a premium device. The backside aluminum shell does not bend in to presses the way it does on my $3k MBP.

Screen is definitely budget, running in default mode and calibrated it to be D50 (warm) to compensate for lack of True Tone. Resolution looks fine and not too blurry at regular viewing distance.

I get some jumpiness with the cursor travel, I think its a tahoe bug along with all these other glitches. Such a profoundly ******* OS. I miss 15.7.4 on my 16" so bad.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
The keyboard key travel is a little more firm with the Neo albeit not in a bad way. It is still very easy to depress a key once for accuracy. I found the keyboard keys on the M4 MBA a little mushy (for lack of a better term). If I was asked to pick one over the other, I would initially pick the Neo.
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Does it feels more responsive?
 
Rob__Mac said:
Ah, what us ol' folk used to call Drag Lock…
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Exactly. But now there’s an separate option in the control panel called Drag Lock, which I don’t quite understand. It works the way it always has with that toggle off, so I’m a little unclear on what it does.

edit: Wait, now I get it. If you pick the Drag Lock option, you can actually remove your finger from the trackpad and it stays locked on until you deliberately tap again to unlock it. I believe that was how it worked back in the day when Drag Lock was out in the main Settings panel for Trackpad (where it still belongs IMO).
 
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mammamia24 said:
My only gripe is that the usb c ports are on the left side! I’ve only ever use the right hand side usbs on all of my previous Mac’s and PC’s so this will be an adjustment.
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It’s the same on the Air, including the Magsafe port. I’m sure it’s easier to engineer internally but it can be a PITA for cable routing sometimes, and I wish they’d balance it like on the Pros. Fortunately the Apple Silicon Macs don’t need charging as often, at least.
 
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mammamia24 said:
I had an Air in 2015 I’m pretty sure it had them on both sides?
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Yeah, I think they did, although you could still only charge on the left because that was before USB-C charging.
But since I think the last Intel Air (2020) all ports except the headphone jack have been on the left on Airs. Not the end of the world, but definitely starts to feel lopsided if you plug in a few things!
 
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poematik13 said:
Silver 512 here, got as a secondary travel laptop to my 16" MBP. The size difference is hilarious.

Keyboard feels great, very old school deep travel 2000's macbook feel. Same with trackpad. Build quality overall is very dense and feels like a premium device. The backside aluminum shell does not bend in to presses the way it does on my $3k MBP.

Screen is definitely budget, running in default mode and calibrated it to be D50 (warm) to compensate for lack of True Tone. Resolution looks fine and not too blurry at regular viewing distance.

I get some jumpiness with the cursor travel, I think its a tahoe bug along with all these other glitches. Such a profoundly ******* OS. I miss 15.7.4 on my 16" so bad.
Click to expand...
I have sensitive eyes and keep night shift on all the time with all devices, does turning on night shift appear the same on neo ?
 
Just picked up my Neo (in Blush). Initial impressions:

- Color is absolutely STUNNING in person.
- It's surprisingly compact, even compared to the 13" Air.
- Speakers are INCREDIBLE for a laptop this size (and price).
- Doesn't feel laggy at all in normal operation, even compared to M4 Air.
- Screen is better than I expected. And super punchy if you set the color profile to "Generic RGB".
- Keyboard is a total joy to type on.
- Trackpad feels a bit "cheap" compared to Force Touch, but a total non-issue with "tap to click" enabled.

So far I'm enjoying this thing SIGNIFICANTLY more than I anticipated...
 
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joshwithachance said:
Just picked up my Neo (in Blush). Initial impressions:

- Color is absolutely STUNNING in person.
- It's surprisingly compact, even compared to the 13" Air.
- Speakers are INCREDIBLE for a laptop this size (and price).
- Doesn't feel laggy at all in normal operation, even compared to M4 Air.
- Screen is better than I expected. And super punchy if you set the color profile to "Generic RGB".
- Keyboard is a total joy to type on.
- Trackpad feels a bit "cheap" compared to Force Touch, but a total non-issue with "tap to click" enabled.

So far I'm enjoying this thing SIGNIFICANTLY more than I anticipated...
Click to expand...
I’m REALLY liking the frame.

Starting to wish this was the new MacBook Air and they have it backlit keyboard, MagSafe, m chip and 12gb ram.

I’m a sucker for small laptops.
 
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M4irmidnight said:
I’m REALLY liking the frame.

Starting to wish this was the new MacBook Air and they have it backlit keyboard, MagSafe, m chip and 12gb ram.

I’m a sucker for small laptops.
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Apple really did something special here... Because it's not only the price that makes the Neo so attractive, it's ALSO the form factor imo. They absolutely nailed it.👏🏼
 
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iJcaP said:
Genuine question, I picked one up yesterday and was hoping to have it as a casual machine not to work on anything serious but rather for learning new things dev-wise with Xcode and then have it for some spreadsheet work, light photo editing and web browsing. However, not sure if it was all the iCloud data coming through, but Xcode was struggling to get the SwiftUI Canvas to boot up and the iOS sim was also going through a rough time. And to clarify this was a fresh new project, not anything I previous worked on. Memory pressure was yellow and _lots_ of swap was going on. I know Xcode is demanding, but didn’t think it bring the machine to a halt. Again I think it was that I have all my data coming in from iCloud at the same time. Any ideas or context you can add to your stress-test?
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Do you have Xcode’s predictive code completion activated? This feature says it needs a minimum of 16GB RAM. Not sure if Xcode would activate it on a Neo due to <16GB RAM but it’s worth a look.

It’s in Xcode’s settings menu, under Components. You have to click the circled “I” icon to see if it’s enabled or not.
 
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