Went into my local Apple Store today to check out the Neo. They put all four colors on a single table in the center of the store. The table wasn't as busy as I expected, which allowed me to have brief hands-on time with all four. One table over, they set up a Neo next to the 13" Air. That's a good idea for anyone wanting to do a direct comparison.
I was quite surprised at the smaller footprint IRL, which mostly shows in the lesser depth and shorter screen compared to the Air. While the Neo's screen also has a decent amount of bezel surrounding it, it also has 158 fewer vertical pixels, roughly the size of a visible Dock. That doesn't matter to auto-hide users like me. It might matter more for people craving more desktop real estate. Practically the footprint is about a quarter-inch narrower than the Air. The shorter lid might be nicer on an airplane tray table, though a lot of the newer tray tables are themselves barely large enough for a drink, let alone a computer.
The comparison got me thinking of where the Neo fits into the long history of smaller Mac notebooks. The PowerBook 100 could be considered the first small or subnotebook as it was nearly 2 pounds lighter than the 140/160/180 and lacked a built-in floppy drive. The 12" MacBook was the highly compromised peak of the quest for thinness and lightness. As the buzz grew in anticipation for the Neo, many old 12" MacBook owners wanted a similar treatment for Apple Silicon. I think that's on the horizon after the Neo sells out to the expected normie buyer crowd. It's easy to forget that the 12" MacBook was one of those "executive" notebooks of 10-15 years ago, low in power but high in style. Now that the Neo's out, it shouldn't be hard to whittle it down or reutilize the unibody design to make a new version. If it happens it won't be cheap. Shorter runs of specialized components like a non-standard battery aren't prone to discounting.
I was quite surprised at the smaller footprint IRL, which mostly shows in the lesser depth and shorter screen compared to the Air. While the Neo's screen also has a decent amount of bezel surrounding it, it also has 158 fewer vertical pixels, roughly the size of a visible Dock. That doesn't matter to auto-hide users like me. It might matter more for people craving more desktop real estate. Practically the footprint is about a quarter-inch narrower than the Air. The shorter lid might be nicer on an airplane tray table, though a lot of the newer tray tables are themselves barely large enough for a drink, let alone a computer.
The comparison got me thinking of where the Neo fits into the long history of smaller Mac notebooks. The PowerBook 100 could be considered the first small or subnotebook as it was nearly 2 pounds lighter than the 140/160/180 and lacked a built-in floppy drive. The 12" MacBook was the highly compromised peak of the quest for thinness and lightness. As the buzz grew in anticipation for the Neo, many old 12" MacBook owners wanted a similar treatment for Apple Silicon. I think that's on the horizon after the Neo sells out to the expected normie buyer crowd. It's easy to forget that the 12" MacBook was one of those "executive" notebooks of 10-15 years ago, low in power but high in style. Now that the Neo's out, it shouldn't be hard to whittle it down or reutilize the unibody design to make a new version. If it happens it won't be cheap. Shorter runs of specialized components like a non-standard battery aren't prone to discounting.
