How good can Apple make a laptop priced at just $899? That was the simple intent I had when setting out on this Apple MacBook Neo Review. Where does it struggle? What can’t it do?
To my surprise, frankly, it’s ready for whatever you throw at it – assuming you know what you’re getting into.
The A18 Pro processor powering this device is from the iPhone 16 Pro – what? An iPhone powering a Mac?
Well, it all works. And I didn’t find any software compatibility issues either; the full Adobe Creative Suite went in and was able to load.
More than that, the very thing I assumed it could not do, it did well. Video editing. If you’re pumping out short social videos, the Neo can handle it just fine.
For longer-form content, it’s going to be noticeably slower than other devices – and when I say others I mean the latest Apple has to offer. My Mac Studio exported a seven-minute video with motion graphics in just two minutes. The MacBook Neo took 11. Is that a drama? Not at all. If I was doing that a lot, of course I’d prefer a MacBook Pro!
Turning to Geekbench to try and understand what I was seeing, I got some decent CPU rankings, basically putting it on just behind an M1-powered MacBook Pro; for single-core use, it’s a far better result, putting it closer to an M3 Pro-powered MacBook Pro.
On the GPU side, a 19,639 score puts it in the territory of the 2020 MacBook Air with M1. So yeah, lots of better options out there in the Mac landscape, and the PC world, but are they priced at $899?
I thought that was the US pricing at first. I mean, come on, this is crazy, right?
It looks the part: Citrus (yellow/green), Blush (pink), Indigo (a dark blue in my eyes), and Silver. The Unibody design is a sexy MacBook Air.
Sound is down a peg with just two speakers, and memory is limited to 8GB.
Did any of that matter in my use when emailing, browsing, doing spreadsheets, or writing this review? Not at all.
Here’s a fun one. The wallpaper matches your colour choice – but so do all the Finder folders. Cute 🙂
This device turns the laptop market on its head. So many kids want a MacBook for school. So many parents are not willing to front up for the more than $1,500 MacBook Air because why would you when perfectly good PC laptops exist well under $1,000?
Now Apple is in that space. Plenty will still choose Windows-based devices, but plenty won’t. That’s got to be the market and industry fear.
My photos don’t do it justice; you need to see the colours for yourself to get it, but for me, Citrus is the winner.
Too often people buy the best one of something thinking they’ll use all it can do, but you won’t.
I do a lot of SD card data transfer, so that MacBook Pro appeals a lot for that reason. But I could easily carry an SD reader 🙂
Touch ID isn’t standard; it requires you to pay $200 more for that, plus it includes double the storage (increased to 512GB) – not bad value there, I reckon.
This product has surprised me more than the Vision Pro did from Apple. The MacBook Neo represents an understanding that Apple misses a core part of the market – first laptop owners, and if they are Windows from the start, perhaps they stay that way? So why not welcome them to the family earlier?
With Screen Time controls built in, the Apple device ecosystem is a winner for families, and the MacBook Neo becomes a critical link in that chain.
Impressive is an understatement.
Available today.
Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.
He produces and hosts several popular podcasts, EFTM, Two Blokes Talking Tech, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars, The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and the Private Feed. He is the resident tech expert for Triple M on radio across Australia, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show and appears regularly on 9 News, A Current Affair and Sky News Early Edition.
Father of three, he is often found in his Man Cave.
