The Wired review of Apple’s all-new MacBook Neo, titled “Apple MacBook Neo Review: Delicious, Low-Hanging Fruit,” opens with a brief summary that perfectly captures the excitement around Apple’s bold entry into the budget laptop space: “An unprecedented price for Apple. Fun, playful colors that still look professional. Really sharp, bright display for this price.”
As you expect in an Apple product, there’s no compromises with build quality. It’s a full-aluminum device that feels every bit as premium and sturdy as a MacBook Air…
The MacBook Neo is not only sharper than the competition, it’s also brighter. Using a colorimeter, I tested it at 509 nits, which is twice as bright as many of the cheap laptops in this price range that top out at 250 or 300 nits…
It also uses a mechanical trackpad rather than one with haptic feedback. Fortunately, I’m happy to report that the MacBook Neo’s multitouch trackpad is still solid. The click is a bit loud, which is annoying, and the surface doesn’t feel quite as smooth as on the MacBook Air. But it’s good enough. The keyboard here is excellent, as I expected it to be…
But buying the Neo does mean you’ll get frustrated at some point. Maybe it’s when you’re trying to transfer a large file from an external SSD, or when you’re trying to use it at night and can’t see the keyboard, or when you tire of typing your password in repeatedly, or when you push the system and hit some stutters from the lack of memory. It’ll be something different for everyone, but it’s bound to happen at some point. But at that exact moment, you’ll also remember the $500 you saved by not buying a MacBook Air and conclude it was probably worth it. That’s high praise for a budget-level product. Ultimately, it’s what makes the MacBook Neo one of the best budget laptops you can buy right now — despite its flaws.
MacDailyNews Take: The perfect road Mac (for those on a budget, otherwise, the perfect road Mac is the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air packed with 32GB of unified memory).
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ONE of the best? How’s that?
Gotta make sure not to piss off the advertisers, eh, I mean Apple’s competitors…
Why is it so hard for some people to understand that this product is meant for students, people with a low budget, or simply consumers with a healthy sense of common sense?
The four gripes mentioned… Unless timing it for a review, will typical users notice that file transfers to/from extra drive take longer compared to other Macs? Depending on external drive limitations, it may not even take longer, unless they mistakenly use Neo’s slow port. Some customers may not know there’s a difference in the two USB-C ports, and THAT may become the actual issue. Maybe a message pops up telling user to please use other port, if a drive plugged into the slow port. For the non-lit keyboard, the bright display will help see it in a darkened room. For the lack of Touch ID, if user wears an Apple Watch, enable the feature to unlock Mac using Apple Watch. For the 8GB RAM limit, Apple now has incentive to keep MacOS well-optimized for ALL Apple Silicon Macs, new and existing, with that low-end 8GB config. The 16GB min sys req for MacOS is now MANY years away.
Wired the fools of all time.
Wired = Pray
Remember these utter idiots.
Wired may be whacked and the machine isn’t premium b/c its aim isn’t, but one has to admit, the reviews for the Neo are highly favorable.
With the mini’s tight supply (AI Agent use) and the iPh e receiving favor and decent updates across much of the line, my usual criticism is appeased a bit.