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New MacBook Neo vs Existing Intel MacBook Pro

Scott Baret

Scott Baret

macrumors regular
Original poster
I am considering replacing my current MacBook Pro, now six years old, with a MacBook Neo. My Pro is the final Intel model and I only bought the Pro because there was nothing else in stock at the time (this was at the height of everyone buying laptops).

My rationale for replacement:
- Battery in the Pro is getting to be a problem (only 90 minutes on Teams calls)
- Touch Bar is flickering
- General age-related concerns (Intel chip)
- I want a blue laptop (so sick of basic silver)
- Only model without a notch

Yet I also have concerns...
- My Pro has 16GB RAM and the Neo wouldn't have as much
- Would I need a new version of Office? (I use Office 2019 and am fine with it; I only buy standalone Office, never subscription)
- Would I feel like I made a major downgrade?

It seems to have what I would need, including a display that supports night shift (which I leave on consistently).

My needs are simple. I use Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Teams, email, sometimes FaceTime, Safari for web browsing. I'm not making movies, rendering CAD drawings, programming, or playing games beyond solitaire. I do have Photoshop Elements (older version) but don't use it much anymore and have FileMaker Pro (also an older version, 18) that I don't use as much as I thought I would. Basically, I do on this computer what I would have done on an iBook G3 a quarter century ago, just newer hardware and an OS I don't like as much (still mourning OS 9).

One thing I know I'd have to upgrade is Parallels, as I do prefer Excel 2000 for some graphing functions. Parallels keeps nagging me about the upgrade so I guess I'll make it at some point (it's honestly why I haven't upgraded my Pro's OS).

Would a Neo be OK for my needs? I don't plan on buying one until the week that separates the school year and the summer so I could migrate if need be; if the computers are on backorder, this also gives me time to order one and wait for it to come in. I did stop in an Apple Store today to look at one today and found the build quality satisfactory and the screen adequate for my needs (as long as it has night shift, it's fine by me).

I think my biggest concern is going from 16MB RAM to a lower amount and not knowing if I will need to buy the new version of Office or if I can just migrate my Office 19 over. I have an external hard drive and will probably just just migrate everything myself if I trade the Pro in.

Having a new battery would be nice. I know I can replace the one in my Pro, but I'd have to deliberately pick a time I wouldn't need a modern computer for a few days.
 
Office 2019 should work on Tahoe, but it will stop working with MacOS 28. MacOS 27 will be the last year that Rosetta apps are supported. Given how old Office 2019 is, it will truly reach its end of life with MacOS 28. MSFT stopped providing updates for Office 2019 years ago.

Typically, I would say 8GB of RAM would be fine, but then you mentioned Parallels. I could not imagine running a VM with only 8GB. I ran a Windows 11 VM on 16GB of RAM and it was not happy. It worked, but it was not happy.

If you plan on keeping the machine for as long, if not longer, than your Intel Pro, I would likely opt in for a MacBook Air.
 
I am sick of basic silver too. 16gb of is not much either. But the new unified rams work much better. That said the intel will last one or 2 more years. So keep it. The NEO 2 will supposedly have an A19-PRO chip in it which will support 12gb of ram. That is only 4gb behind the 16gb so not bad. Should be 2027 hopefully. Or at least wait until WWDC and see if they announce it.

BTW any know when is WWDC?
 
Mike Boreham said:
No. My understanding is that OP will have to run Windows 11 ARM version, but Windows 11 ARM can run x86 Apps well. Some discussion here.
Click to expand...
@Scott Baret just to emphasise...you cannot run XP in a Silicon Mac VM. Only ARM OSes can run on Silicon and the only ARM windows OS is Windows 11. You will need to create a new VM and set it up from scratch. If Excel 2000 won't run in Windows 11 ARM using the x86 emulator you may have to find an alternative. A quick Google suggests Excel 2000 will do this but might be some installation issues.

Doesn't change the above, but FWIW I dumped Parallels for the free and lightweight UTM from the Apple store. I mostly use it for testing macOS's but I have a Windows 11 ARM VM in it. It is less polished than Parallels but may be adequate. Lots of stuff around comparing.
 
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