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Why I Returned the MacBook Neo

mk313 said:
Weird. I was trying to think of reasons why your screen would have that issue where letters shifted when you move your eyes and mine doesn’t have it (or any issues really). Oh well, either way too bad it didn’t work out.
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Don’t rationalize it. He’s made up his mind. The viewing angle is so poor that you can only focus on the center of the screen.

Not ONE review has mentioned this. Not one. In fact, the display is quality for the price point has been a pro in reviews in flybynite places like TomsHardware and PCMag.

But he saw it in every Neo in the store. They are all bad.

My guess? If it’s not observation bias, he’s seeing an interaction with the shape and asymmetry of his eye lenses. His dominant eye his fighting his other eye and on this screen, they are having resolution problems. And if one eye sees more blue than the other (my eyes are like that) maybe it’s playing with his perception.
 
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Ghost31 said:
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.
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Yes. But put it next to a $500 chrome or wintel, not a more expensive Mac. Is it better than those?

Honest reviews compare it to competitors.

Like test drives comparing the car to other cars in the same category and price range. Comparing a Honda Civic to a BMW M3? No. Makes no sense.
 
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Pbwallstreet said:
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.
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Thank you for the assessment and update to your original post. This is exactly what I was looking for in the way of feedback before my wife and I make a decision on her next MacBook.

I can see great value in the Neo (you can almost get 2 for the price of an Air), but she's looking for a display upgrade not a sideways step. She'd also like a machine with mag-safe.

Given that she tends to keep her computers until Apple drops software support getting a more future proof machine is probably a good idea.

From my perspective it's simply a matter of "happy spouse, happy house" so if she wants an M5 Air or an M5 Pro to get an even better display then that's what she'll get.
 
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This is fair - most of us can't translate the screen technical specs perfectly into real world use. I'm sure the MacBook Neo is a great product, and it's amazing that Apple have released a MacBook at such a low price but it's still true that you get what you pay for.
 
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MatthewGTX said:
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?
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I checked it out today in the store, its screen seems pretty solid to me. It’s a touch dimmer than my M4 MBA, but it’s still an excellent display. I legitimately cant figure out what everyone here is complaining about
 
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torana355 said:
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.
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Yes, the screen is poor. You don't decide for other people whether something is good for them or not. If you like the screen and think it's good then good for you. Myself and others are not trying to take anyone else's experience away. We are simply stating that for us, it's not good. Period, end of story.
 
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ikramerica said:
Don’t rationalize it. He’s made up his mind. The viewing angle is so poor that you can only focus on the center of the screen.

Not ONE review has mentioned this. Not one. In fact, the display is quality for the price point has been a pro in reviews in flybynite places like TomsHardware and PCMag.

But he saw it in every Neo in the store. They are all bad.

My guess? If it’s not observation bias, he’s seeing an interaction with the shape and asymmetry of his eye lenses. His dominant eye his fighting his other eye and on this screen, they are having resolution problems. And if one eye sees more blue than the other (my eyes are like that) maybe it’s playing with his perception.
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I'm looking at it wrong! My eyes are the reason the screen is noticeably worse quality than the MBA and MBP!

I'm guessing you haven't read this thread. If you did, you would have seen how I discussed laminated vs delaminated screens and how there is an explanation for why the screen experience is as I have described. Because not everyone may perceive something doesn't mean it's not there. Some people have trouble discerning 60 hz vs 120 hz refresh rates. Go back in the thread and read about lamination.
 
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ikramerica said:
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.
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Oh, I agree.
Apple has cut their panel costs on all of the Macbooks and pivoted to just using scaling.

Given the premiums they charge (other than the new Neo), really we should be upset that they aren't putting higher resolution panels in the machines so the user can get perfect 2X Retina without sacrificing space in the UI.
 
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I suggest a few must have for people who buy the Neo, but don’t like stock configuration. There are a few ways to overcome it.

1) Carry and run the OS on an external drive.
2) Carry a USB-C hub
3) Carry an external monitor to go bigger than 13
4) Carry a headlamp to overcome the non lite keyboard
 
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Pbwallstreet said:
Yes, the screen is poor. You don't decide for other people whether something is good for them or not. If you like the screen and think it's good then good for you. Myself and others are not trying to take anyone else's experience away. We are simply stating that for us, it's not good. Period, end of story.
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It's objectively NOT crap. Is it suitable for Colour Grading or other professional uses, No, of course not but its a good quality LCD panel that is better then most laptops in its price range. I understand the Laptop isn't for you but calling it crap is a reach.
 
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torana355 said:
It's objectively NOT crap. Is it suitable for Colour Grading or other professional uses, No, of course not but its a good quality LCD panel that is better then most laptops in its price range. I understand the Laptop isn't for you but calling it crap is a reach.
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It is crap for whoever thinks it's crap and it's not up to you to decide the truth of someone else's experience. The experience of a screen has a level of subjectivity to it. As I already mentioned, there are people who can barely discern 60 hz vs 120 hz refresh rates. And there are some where it's a big deal to not have higher refresh rates.

Objectivity... is just about specs. And the specs of the Neo's screen aside from its PPI aren't great. It's a low grade screen with good PPI.
 
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Macalway said:
Got to love this stuff 🙂

"I think, therefor it's crap"
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  • It does not support P3, but rather, it's just a sRGB panel. That means it is unable to show a larger array of colours.
  • No white balance adjustment.
  • 60 Hz refresh rate.
  • Lower contrast.
  • Lower anti-reflectivity coating.
  • Importantly, and most significantly, the Neo screen is not laminated. That means there is an air gap between the outer glass and the underlying LCD, which is the reason I saw distortions. Delaminated screens are like taking a piece of glass and hovering it above a page of a book in a lit room: it can create distortions of the content, particularly if viewed from slight angles and the air gap traps light, slightly washing out the screen.
Overall, this adds up to why this Max Tech guy says, as he compares the Neo to a MacBook Air screen:

"It's a big difference. Honestly this [the Neo] makes the Air screen look like an OLED. We did not EXPECT this big of a difference"


I think, therefore I make sense...
 
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Pbwallstreet said:
It is crap for whoever thinks it's crap and it's not up to you to decide the truth of someone else's experience. The experience of a screen has a level of subjectivity to it. As I already mentioned, there are people who can barely discern 60 hz vs 120 hz refresh rates. And there are some where it's a big deal to not have higher refresh rates.

Objectivity... is just about specs. And the specs of the Neo's screen aside from its PPI aren't great. It's a low grade screen with good PPI.
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If the objective specs of the screen are "crap" then why did you buy it to start with.....
 
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Pbwallstreet said:
Scroll up a bit on your screen. Pay close attention to what Max Tech said in terms of what they DIDN'T EXPECT. And try and understand why they didn't expect it... and why I didn't expect it either...
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Just had a look at that video, ill give you that the blacks look very washed out on the Neo in comparison, i didnt try a dark video like that in the Apple Store.
 
torana355 said:
Just had a look at that video, ill give you that the blacks look very washed out on the Neo in comparison, i didnt try a dark video like that in the Apple Store.
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I knew the screen specs. I was willing to accept lower refresh rates and even a reduced colour spectrum. But, Apple doesn't list every detail of their specs. For instance, they didn't state whether the screen was delaminated or not. And in this case, the combination of the reduced colour spectrum, the delaminated screen, and the reduced anti-reflective screen coating creates more screen washout. To me it was very pronounced. It killed the product for me. Otherwise, I liked everything else about the Neo. I wanted to keep it.
 
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For those, who dont believe that MacBook Neo has really bad viewing angles — just look at this.

Its really bad, almost like TN, not IPS. Even for 600$, and especially for Apple device in 2026.
macbook_neo_blickwinkel-q82-w2560-h.webp


And now look at the same viewing angles, but on MacBook Air from 2018(!):
csm_blickwinkel_f19166efe5.jpg
 
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WalsallSaddler said:
For those, who dont believe that MacBook Neo has really bad viewing angles — just look at this.

Its really bad, almost like TN, not IPS.
View attachment 2613647
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I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic? I never look at a laptop screen at such extreme angles as the top row, and such results would not bother me. If you are not being sarcastic I would be interested in seeing what a screen with good viewing angles looks like, not that it would not influence buying decision for me.
EDIT Thanks for editing your post to add the MBA for comparison.
 
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