Why I Returned the MacBook Neo

[DeepSix]

So DeepSix, are you going to put your money where your mouth is and trade in your iPP M5 for the Neo then? Your iPP is literally the thinnest apple device ever made.

I just bought my iPad Pro M5 last week, so no need to trade it in. The Neos form factor isn't as good and I don't need a keyboard for it.

 

[DeepSix]

This is absolutely not true. Maybe you are referring to Intel Airs. The cool running of Silicon Macs is perhaps their most well known characteristic.
I see you don't actually have an Air but maybe you have in the past. I have owned M1, M2 and currently M3 Air and they do not “get really hot”… even used at 100% CPU for extended time chess analysis.
Have a look at the Ars Technica review for a thorough analysis of what is happening in the Air and Neo.

The M3 air that I had last year for about 4 months ran really hot. At least 60c at idle. My MacBook Pro that I have now never gets hot even if I really push it rendering out video. If I have it on for like a day it will get lukewarm at most.

 

[Howard2k]

We’re seeing more reviews coming in where they talk about the hit in picture quality even compared to the MacBook Air. Something we didn’t hear about at first

At about 3 minutes in

And just anecdotally, my wife and i were at the mall yesterday and stopped in for a second to take a quick look before heading to the food court. Yeah. The display was immediately noticeable as lower in quality. I’m used to pro devices but my wife has a MacBook Air and she was the first to remark on the “screen looking different”. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it and just said it “looked different”. I asked jokingly if she wanted to trade her air in for it and she said “absolutely not”. But then again…it’s just one little thing.

Personally, i think for the market they’re aiming for, the screen quality isnt a big deal. It hit a pretty magical price point and it’s going to get ALOT of newcomers from windows over to the Mac side so I’m very for that. If you’re comparing it to an air or a pro, you’re not the market for it anyway. I’ve seen people with m2 or m3 MacBook airs actually saying they wish they waited for the Neo and thinking about trading theirs in for it. To them i say…maybe dont? Lol backlit keyboard, better screen, faster processor, more ram. The air is better in a lot of ways. If i had an air, I wouldnt trade for a Neo obviously. That’s just trading down. I think people get caught up in the excitement of new products.

That is an insane difference, wow. I wasn't expecting it to be close, but I wasn't expecting that much difference either. thanks for sharing.

 

[Howard2k]

Shocked to see both computers have equal performance. Much better thermals on the Neo wowl

You didn't even watch the video!

The Neo trounces the M5 in all day to day tasks.

The only instance where the M5 shows any benefit at all is when they did the drop test and it hit the ground faster due to the better aerodynamics.

 

[philosopherdog]

I guess the better question is why are you even posting about this. The specs of the neo are very clear.

 

[Mike Boreham]

The M3 air that I had last year for about 4 months ran really hot. At least 60c at idle. My MacBook Pro that I have now never gets hot even if I really push it rendering out video. If I have it on for like a day it will get lukewarm at most.

Modern chips are designed to run much hotter than that. But anyway I suspect there must have been something wrong with your Air. Here is my M3 MBA just now at idle:

 

[Happy_John]

I guess the better question is why are you even posting about this stupidity. The specs of the neo are very clear.

It’s wierd, it’s almost as if spending twice the money on a MacBook gets you a better MacBook. That’s can’t be right, can it?

And there’d never be a situation where the right decision would be to not spend twice the money on a MacBook, because you don’t have that amount of money to spend or there are other parts of your life on which you could better spend that money, would there?

Telling people “The laptop that suits your price range is inferior, you loser” isn’t really the way this should be going.

People can buy what they want. It’s their choice. But it would be nice if we could drop the subtext of “sneering at the plebs, bread for them but cake for us” and it would be great to not put further pressure on people to spend more than they can afford or are comfortable with spending. Life’s hard enough.

This seems to be a very good Mac for the price.Apple have never offered a MacBook at such a price. That’s a good thing for the consumer.

If they want better and they can afford to, let them. If they can’t, or don’t want to, that’s fine.

 

[boswald]

This is the actual story here.

Both the Neo and the MBA have mediocre screens.

The MBA, in particular, should have a far better screen in 2026.

Maybe I'm spoiled but I actually like it. It's a little dim for my taste indoors, but other than that the colors are great and YT videos are nice and sharp.

 

[sir_timbit]

Maybe I'm spoiled but I actually like it. It's a little dim for my taste indoors, but other than that the colors are great and YT videos are nice and sharp.

It’s wierd, it’s almost as if spending twice the money on a MacBook gets you a better MacBook. That’s can’t be right, can it?

And there’d never be a situation where the right decision would be to not spend twice the money on a MacBook, because you don’t have that amount of money to spend or there are other parts of your life on which you could better spend that money, would there?

Telling people “The laptop that suits your price range is inferior, you loser” isn’t really the way this should be going.

People can buy what they want. It’s their choice. But it would be nice if we could drop the subtext of “sneering at the plebs, bread for them but cake for us” and it would be great to not put further pressure on people to spend more than they can afford or are comfortable with spending. Life’s hard enough.

This seems to be a very good Mac for the price.Apple have never offered a MacBook at such a price. That’s a good thing for the consumer.

If they want better and they can afford to, let them. If they can’t, or don’t want to, that’s fine.

Give it another 2-3 years for everything to trickle down… The MacBook Pro will finally get OLED, the Air will get the Pro’s current display, and the Neo will get the Air’s current display.

 

[coachgq]

Outside of work I have a MBA 15” M3. It is too big and I want a 13” Macbook. My partner is going to get the 15” MBA for doing video and photo editing and I will replace it with a 13” Macbook. I wanted to first try the Neo, and that has now ended in a return. Likely I will get a MBA 13” M5 or 14” MBP M5.

So you’re going to replace a $600 device with an $1100 device or a $1600 device?

 

[coachgq]

If you're on a forum and are comparing it to any Pro device, then this device is not for you. It's like this; as a driver I would never consider a Toyota Yaris. The Yaris is a great car, reliable, safe, does exactly what's it's made for, good design, basically it's peak small car tech. This is the Neo.

You didn’t want to drive a Yaris and then decide you probably would be better off with a Lexus LS?

 

[jakey rolling]

However, the company can see clearly (from the sales/return data) when they have someone likely to be abusing the privilege and make exceptions for that customer.

Yeah, but in most cases these would be people repeatedly buying and returning products repeatedly because they clearly had no intention at all of buying and keeping anything at all. This isn't the case in OPs story (and you didn't imply that it is), and I think people need to understand that there is a pretty big difference between taking advantage of a privilege in a way that the privilege was intended and abusing that privilege.

I think the majority of consumers do their research, are mostly satisfied, and don't feel the need to return many electronics.

And here is where you and I vehemently disagree. Most consumers don't do really any significant amount of research when buying electronics. The vast majority of "research" most consumers do is asking friends or acquaintances who they think are knowledgeable about whatever they're buying (in many, many, MANY cases, those friends and acquaintances really aren't), or by relying on general reputation of the various manufacturers of whatever they're buying. That is the breadth of knowledge that I would estimate >90% of consumers today have in their possession before they walk into a store and face a salesman or log onto an online store. At that stage of their purchase decision, they are already in "ready to buy" mode.

I think more sales are made if people don't feel like they will be stuck with their purchase, I'd defer to business & psychology science for that answer.

I think that's pretty much the line of thinking for companies like Apple, Costco, and Amazon who have very generous return policies. In Apple's case, it also helps that Apple has very high margins and an aftermarket store that helps keep the "cost" of offering such a liberal return policy relatively low. And in Amazon and Costco's case, they have negotiating power with their vendors that ensures that they can send back product that customers return at little cost.

 

[MatthewGTX]

As someone who grew up using a 768p TN laptop, all MacBook screens are amazing and have been for like 10+ years 🙂.
I haven't seen the Neo in person but how does it compare to the old 1600p Retina displays like on the MacBook Air M1?

 

[Howard2k]

As someone who grew up using a 768p TN laptop, all MacBook screens are amazing and have been for like 10+ years 🙂.
I haven't seen the Neo in person but how does it compare to the old 1600p Retina displays like on the MacBook Air M1?

I remember as a kid playing games on CGA.

Kids today “I can’t use a MacBook it makes my eyes hurt” 😂

 

[Digitalguy]

I have had a 16” MacBook M series Pro chip with lots of RAM as my work computer for 3 years. It’s great, thanks.

As has been discussed in this thread multiple times, I want a more portable laptop for travel and evening stuff. Tried the Neo, you know how that ended. And likely headed for a 14” MacBook Pro M5.

If you can wait the M6 will have oled screen and will be lighter

 

[Pbwallstreet]

If you can wait the M6 will have oled screen and will be lighter

Ya that is probably what I am going to do.

 

[maerz001]

I have just re-read it and 15” is not mentioned anywhere. 🤷🏻‍♂️ The OP said:

Why I Returned the MacBook Neo

Outside of work I have a MBA 15” M3. It is too big and I want a 13” Macbook. My partner is going to get the 15” MBA for doing video and photo editing and I will replace it with a 13” Macbook. I wanted to first try the Neo, and that has now ended in a return. Likely I will get a MBA 13” M5 or 14”...

forums.macrumors.com

this and he even updated his 1st post about that 🙄

 

[one more]

Why I Returned the MacBook Neo

Outside of work I have a MBA 15” M3. It is too big and I want a 13” Macbook. My partner is going to get the 15” MBA for doing video and photo editing and I will replace it with a 13” Macbook. I wanted to first try the Neo, and that has now ended in a return. Likely I will get a MBA 13” M5 or 14”...

forums.macrumors.com

this and he even updated his 1st post about that 🙄

Well, I was commenting on his initial post before his updates.

 

[vmac556]

Tried out the neo in store. screen is crap. Screen is most important thing I need in a laptop. And neo screen is atrocious Everything else is solid

 

[torana355]

Tried out the neo in store. screen is crap. Screen is most important thing I need in a laptop. And neo screen is atrocious Everything else is solid

No it's not. Im no Apple shill I own devices using Windows, Android and OSX but you can't say the Neos display is crap. A Slight downgrade, yes but not Crap. I used the Neo in Store on launch day and it looked very comparable to the Air.

 

[Cyberguycpt]

Tried out the neo in store. screen is crap. Screen is most important thing I need in a laptop. And neo screen is atrocious Everything else is solid

I guess Ill keep watching my content on my 4k OLED tv.

 

[XboxEvolved]

Got my Neo today. Put it through some paces, and just got back from the Apple Store to return it.

Why I returned it:

• The screen size is just a little bit too small for my liking. The 13.6” MBA size is a better size for me. I could sort of live with this, if it wasn’t for:
• The screen quality is just not good enough for me. Two main issues with it: the viewing angles are noticeably worse than a MBA and MBP screen and the clarity and crispness of the text and graphics is noticeably not as good as a MBA or MBP. Everything looks slightly blurred on screen in comparison to Apple’s Pro devices and even compared to the MBA.

The Neo’s screen made me feel like I was stepping back in time. I can’t go to a screen like that when I use devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the iPad Pro M5, the MacBook Pro M series, and a M3 MacBook Air.

I did side by side comparisons with the same content as well just to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.

Overall really nice device though. Great build quality, nice keyboard and trackpad, decent sounding audio, ran apps well, etc.

UPDATE: I BOUGHT THE NEO BECAUSE I AM LOOKING TO REPLACE MY 15” M3 MBA WITH A SMALLER DEVICE AS THE MBA IS MY NON-WORK PERSONAL LAPTOP. I BOUGHT THE NEO TO PUT IT THROUGH ITS PACES AT HOME OVER A SEVERAL DAY PERIOD, NOT A FLEETING HANDFUL OF MINUTES IN A RETAIL STORE. I INTENDED TO KEEP IT AND DON’T REGULARLY RETURN PRODUCTS TO APPLE. THE SPECS OF A SCREEN ARE NOT ENOUGH TO KNOW AHEAD OF TIME WITHOUT USING THE DEVICE WHETHER IT’S ACCEPTABLE OR NOT.

Hey next time you should go buy an iPhone 17e so you can complain about it and return it. All your post proves is that Apple can make products for a variety of customers that suits their needs and it didn’t suit your needs.

I think the thing is neat, I’m going to check them out when I get my Studio Display Monday, and am getting one for my daughter who will be upgrading from my old 2017 MBP. For someone like me, or you, it doesn’t make sense to downgrade, or “side grade” to another product.

 

[ikramerica]

I was the one who posted that, and this was my immediate thought.

If I had a neo, I would run it perfect 2X retina scale

The problem is that at Retina it’s equivalent to really sharp 720p which isn’t a lot of real estate. It’s probably scaled to 1080p for that reason.
I don’t run my displays at 2x retina because I need real estate. I deal with the perception of fuzzies just fine as I grew up with multisync CRTs.

 

[Cyberguycpt]

As someone that also bought the Neo I I’ll say I’m pretty pleased so far. I previously owned a MB Pro a few years ago but couldn’t justify the price tag vs how much I use it. I own a AppleTv, IPhone, and IPad Pro and will probably use the Neo 25% of the time and can more easily justify the purchase for me. I love my IPad but it’s about 5 years old and the battery drains pretty quick but still has great performance albeit I keep it plugged in most of the time. So my decision was to keep my IPad for bed surfing and have the NEO for the task that requires more of a desktop setting.

 

[ikramerica]

OP these Neos are going to sell out very fast and I can see stock being very low this year. Are you sure you allowed enough time to make your decision to return it?

The pink and limon are basically sold out most places. Target and BestBuy just say “sold out” on some and 4 weeks on others. Apple gives 4 weeks on pink and limon.

Silver and Blue are more readily available.