Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I decided week to get a MacBook Neo.  I already have an M4 MacBook Pro (and a couple of Windows-based computers), so why also get a Neo? It all comes down to one of my favorite topics:  Use Case.

For me, the use case is having a portable device that cost a lot less than the MacBook Pro, that I don’t have to worry as much about when I travel or go on vacation.  The fact that it’s a little smaller and lighter just adds to the idea that it might make a really good travel companion.

That having been said, I bought one.  I bought the “bigger” model, the 512GB version with TouchID in indigo (no I didn’t want to go for the soon-to-be-iconic “citrus” color), and, for the moment, I’ve been using it as my primary computer to see just what it can and can’t do.  So, let’s talk about the computer, then my specific experiences with it over the past few weeks using it as a “work” computer.  We’ll follow that up by talking about some other opinions of the computer I’ve seen in the press and from Vloggers, followed by a wrap-up.

THE COMPUTER

My Initial Reactions and Impressions

First of all, I want to point out that Apple has made big improvements in their product packaging over the past few years, making it more and more eco-friendly.  I really like that the MacBook Neo is no exception, and I liked opening a box that has no plastic wrap around it!  When I opened it I was greeted by the inner packaging sleeve which has a friendly “hello” on the pull tab!  Once you remove that sleeve, then you finally see the beautiful indigo blue MacBook Neo computer.  I found that my first impression of it gave me the same initial look and feel of a MacBook Pro.  It’s really startling how beautiful and solid this thing appears to be as you remove it from the packaging!

 

Physically, it feels very solid, like it should cost a lot more than it does.  This is both good and bad, especially for a “budget” device intended for portability and travel.  It’s great that it’s got a premium and solid feeling, but that also makes it a little bit heavier (it’s the same weight as the slightly bigger 13″ MacBook Air).  I would have been very happy if it had been a little slimmer and lighter, and more like the 2015-2017 MacBook.  I still miss the form factor of that device, but I have to say, this is a very, very, nice “premium” device, and you’ll have that exact sense the minute you pull it out of the box and unwrap it for the first time.

 

The Power Block and Battery

The MacBook Neo comes with a 20W charger, and it charges just fine on it, but it does take a little longer than it would with a larger charger.  But honestly, that isn’t necessary and any “bigger” chargers you have will work to charge the battery just fine.  I believe the Neo has a maximum charging rate of 30W or so.  The device charges in a reasonable, albeit not amazing amount of time.

And speaking of battery life, Apple claims 16 hours, which should be plenty for most people.  Keep in mind, this device isn’t really designed for sustained crazy heavy workloads (like massive video edits/exports), but other than that, it really should be plenty of battery for most use cases.

 

The Screen

The 13-inch, 2408-by-1506 LED (backlit) screen isn’t quite as nice as the screen on the MacBook Pro, but it is still a great display – especially considering the price point it is at – and it does have 500 nit brightness which, while not quite as bright as some current higher-end laptops, it’s above most of its competition at this price point (which average around 300 nits), and it is in line with what was available on higher-end Macs just a couple of years ago and it looks very, very good.

The Keyboard

The keyboard is primarily white-ish, but with a tint toward whatever color your MacBook Neo is. So, mine has a blue-ish tint.  Be warned, though – it’s not backlit – that’s one area where Apple saved a little money, but I’m ok without it.  If you like working in dark places, this might be a problem for you.  I got used to not having it on my iPad Pro magic keyboard.  For me it wasn’t a showstopper.  I suspect that eliminating it likely helps with the cost (a small amount) but, more importantly, it may help with battery life and heat in the device, which, by the way, is fanless.

The Trackpad

The trackpad on the MacBook Neo is a little different than the trackpads on other MacBooks.  This trackpad is NOT haptic – it’s mechanical.  That means the button presses require you to actually physically press down to activate button clicks.  That, in turn, makes it a tiny bit slower than the haptic devices in more expensive MacBooks, like the MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.

Is that bad?   If you are coming from a higher spec model MacBook then you might notice the difference and you may not like it or you may decide that it isn’t all that different.  If, however, you are coming from most Windows-based laptops or Chromebooks, you will generally see (in my opinion) this trackpad as a step up.  Additionally, unlike the diving board trackpads you find in those kinds of computers, which only respond near the top or bottom of the pad, this one responds at all 4 corners and really feels more like the haptic trackpads in the other MacBook models.  It’s really nice, especially for a mechanical trackpad.

But, again, if you are coming from another model MacBook, or are used to using the separate Magic trackpad, you may notice the slight difference in feel.  I have the MacBook Pro and I noticed the difference, but it’s not really a negative thing for me.  It has just a slightly different feel, but, of course, these things can be very personal, and your mileage may vary.

 

Ports

The MacBook Neo has 2 USB-C ports, but it’s important to note that they are not equal.  The port that’s farthest away from you is the faster port, a USB 3 port with speeds up to 10Gb/s).  This port also supports DisplayPort standard for attaching an external monitor.

The port closer to you is a USB 2 port with a speed of up to 480Mb/s).  This port doesn’t support connecting a monitor; and if you do, the Mac will let you know that you should be using the other port.  I would recommend that you attach your power to this USB 2 port, leaving the other port open for connecting your external display, or an external storage drive, or a USB hub to extend your options even further.

 

RAM

So, this is the item that has a lot of people up in arms.  This computer only has 8GB of RAM.  There are a couple of things to keep in mind here:  1) I believe this may be due to RAM support limitations in the A18 Pro processor and 2) Apple devices actually run very well on smaller amounts of RAM – much better than their Windows counterparts.  Apple uses a very efficient unified memory scheme.

This means that an 8GB RAM MacBook is going to generally run much smoother and faster than an 8GB Windows computer.  Remember that until just last year, Apple only had a base memory of 8GB in MacBooks.  It was changed to 16GB base memory only a year ago.  Unless you are trying to edit huge video files, or something else that requires massive amounts of RAM, you are probably not going to hit the ceiling here.  Could you?  Yes, absolutely, but is it likely when performing a normal, personal or work task? – no, not really.

I’ll talk about my week of using it for work shortly, but I have not yet run into any RAM issues while using this computer.

Disk

The SSD / storage used in this computer is another point of compromise.  Apple used a slower SSD than some of its competitors.  Does this matter?  Maybe.  Storage is used when computers run out of available RAM.  When they do this, it’s called “swap” memory.  It kind of uses storage to “fake” RAM.  It’s definitely not as fast as RAM, but, in this case where you already have a limited amount of RAM, it means that when it needs to use “swap” memory it will slow down the performance of the computer.  And as I said before, this experience is not limited to the Neo.  Windows PCs do this as well.  Tasks like large photo/video edits or workloads like large batch photo processing are a good example of where you might see some slowdowns because there isn’t enough RAM and the SSD drive being used for the “swap” is kind of slow.  This hasn’t bothered me in my use, but it’s something to be aware of as you think about your own use cases and tasks lists.

 

USING IT FOR WORK

So, let’s talk about using this device for work.  To start with, most of the reviews you will see or hear about this computer will talk about it from the perspective of a tech journalist or a YouTube content creator.  They mostly talk about using it for video editing, or photo editing and how far they can push the computer before it barks at them.

My primary job is in I.T.  I’m an I.T. Engineer.   I manage a variety of systems, mostly remotely, from a home office with an oversized 49″ curved screen that I often split, digitally, into 2 smaller screens.  In this case, however, I let the computer treat it as a single, large, 4K external screen, so effectively I have 2 screens – the 49″ screen, and the laptop screen.  And I’m here to tell you it works well for me.

As a reminder, to use the external screen with the Neo, you need to connect it to the faster, USB 3 port that also supports the DisplayPort standard.

NOTE:  This is NOT a Thunderbolt port and may not support all TB hubs/accessories.

In my case, the monitor also provides power to the computer and keeps it charged, so I don’t need another port for power.  That means I can use the other port for my external SSD drive, giving me storage beyond the 512K built into the laptop itself.  Although the USB 2 isn’t as fast, it’s 480MB/s as opposed to the primary port being a 10GB/s port, but it’s serviceable enough for me.  Be warned, however, and understand the specs/requirements of your external USB drives (and other equipment).  Some of them REQUIRE that you have a USB 3 port and don’t work well (or at all) on a USB 2 port.  This is one of the “challenges” with the USB standards which, in reality, aren’t really a single standard at all and often trips people up who don’t review all the specifications and requirements.  For me, my devices all work, albeit a bit slower on the USB 2 port.

Comparison: MacBook Neo on top of MacBook Pro M4

 

Overall, the computer has performed very well for all the work I’ve been throwing at it – many Safari Windows open at the same time, Messages open, email open, an AI chatbot open, MS Word open, MS Excel open, and so on.   The 8GB RAM that people are so concerned about hasn’t been a problem at all for me.   Yes, sometimes a program takes a second or two longer to launch (more a function of the slower internal SSD than anything to do with RAM), but it’s never gotten in the way of work.   The keyboard and trackpad are excellent – better than my HP Windows-based, work computer.  The displays are clear and bright, and it’s really been a great experience so far.

On a side note, after an extended gaming session (running the latest version of World of Warcraft – Midnight) I did manage to make the computer generate some heat.  It didn’t seem to affect the game performance (which was set in the middle range for graphics level), but it’s something to be aware of.

So, What Could be Better?

This is a great device.  I keep saying that, but that’s because, for this price, it’s performance is so unexpected.  That said, yes, there are things that I would love to see as improvements.

I’ve already mentioned that I would have loved to see a smaller chassis – more akin to the 2015-2017 MacBook.  I don’t expect to see this, but I’d love it if they did that.

Comparison (top to bottom): 2017 MacBook, MacBook Neo, MacBook Air M1, MacBook Pro M4

RAM – although 8GB RAM has been totally workable for me, there have been complaints from people have who have tried to work with huge video files or with massive batch photo transformations that would almost totally dry up and disappear if this figure could jump to 12GB RAM or 16GB RAM.  I’ll talk about some of the other concerns raised by others in a moment.

Keyboard – Although I love the look and feel of the keyboard, I would add that, if it wouldn’t negatively impact the battery life or generate heat, I would love to see a backlight added to the keyboard.

 

And What other People are Saying?

Many of the reviews out on the internet in writing and on YouTube are overwhelmingly positive when they discuss this device.  But to be fair, there are some negative reviews out there as well, and some people do raise valid points.  Let’s take a look at the types of concerns they raise:

Performance and RAM Issues

A few of the reviews I’ve seen are critical of the performance of this device, most notably due to the limitation of only 8GB of RAM on board and the slow SSD.  Although I would have preferred a 16GB RAM minimum, like other MacBooks, and a faster SSD, I have found that 8GB is suitable for most things and the SSD speed has been more than sufficient for me.  But, if you are doing heavy video editing, or large batch photo processing, or maybe something like 3D CAD rendering involving big files, then it is true that you absolutely could run into performance challenges sometimes.  If you are a student, you would probably do great with this computer – in most cases.  But maybe if you are an engineering student who does a lot of 3D rendering, you might need a little more computing power.  These kinds of exceptions will come up and you need to be aware of all the uses you want your computer to be capable of.

In addition, Apple’s own apps seem to be better optimized than some 3^rd party solutions.  To be fair, some 3^rd party solutions might not perform as well on the Neo because they really were ports that weren’t necessarily well optimized for Apple ARM chips.  I’ve seen reviews that show that Adobe Premiere, for example, does not perform as efficiently or as well as Apple’s Final Cut Pro.   Google Chrome does not perform as well as Safari, with worse speed and memory usage, and I’m sure there are other examples out there. These things are true on ALL MacBooks, of course, and not just on the MacBook Neo, but it’s definitely more noticeable on the Neo due to the hardware limitations of the device.

For me, however, these are non-events.  I use a lot of Apple apps, along with MS Office, Webex, Zoom, and a few other things.  I haven’t run into any performance problems, but maybe you use an app that is a little more demanding.  If that’s true then these things may be an issue for you.  Always, however, you need to keep in mind, this is an entry level device, not a high-end MacBook Pro with a ton of RAM and the best of everything.  This is an entry level device where some compromises were made to bring the price down.  There are always going to be some limitations, but in my experience, if you have normal workloads (Office apps, browsing, email, video chat apps, watching movies, etc.), then you are not likely to have many issues if you choose this device.

Heat Issues

Some reviewers have mentioned that this device can get hot and may overheat occasionally.  But I’ve seen other reviewers say it doesn’t get hot at all.  I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  My own experience, including some high-resolution gaming, has not led me to any overheating or even a really hot computer.  Not at all.  That doesn’t mean you couldn’t drive it there!

There are people out there already offering inexpensive solutions if you do run into overhearing or even a hot chassis.  A quick YouTube search will bring up people talking specifically about this.  Even though this is a fanless device, it is my opinion that you’d have to be driving it pretty hard for a period of time before it would get very hot, but the fact that some testers reported it, means it can happen.  Again, I’ve only had a bit of heat when gaming, but it wasn’t the type of heat that would scorch my lap; and it was less heat than I get from my M4 MacBook Pro sometimes.  But we mention it here in the interest of presenting a wider scope of experiences.

Market Issues

This one is not a specific issue with the computer, but rather about its impact on the market.  Although many pundits believe it will force Windows/Chromebook manufacturers to up their game, there has been a broader concern raised that this device might hurt the market in two ways:  1) It will dilute the Mac market with lower-end devices, reducing the overall value of the brand, and 2) It will take sales away from MacBook Air’s or even some MacBook Pro’s, which will ultimately hurt Apple (and possibly other manufacturers).

I suspect some of these are possible, but are likely overstated.  If this sells well enough, it likely will counter-balance that.  I think Apple has been participating in a wide market spread with their phones and iPads for a while now, and this is just the MacBook market doing the same.  People have always enjoyed a “doom and gloom” attitude toward Apple’s survival for some reason, and it’s still around.  So, we will see what the market eventually brings, but the Neo is selling well and appears to be a hit!

Wrapping It All Up

So those are my initial thoughts after a week or so with the MacBook Neo, including the things I’d like to see improved in future models, but again, I really like this computer, even as it is right now!

The MacBook Neo offers an attractive, fun, computer with reasonable specs and reasonable compromises.  It delivers a lot more speed than expected at this price point and it’s a lot more polished an experience than I expected.  Short form – when you use it your first thought is “oh, it’s a MacBook”, not “oh, it’s a pretty good MacBook for the price.”   And that subtle distinction makes all the difference!