Apple MacBook Neo Review - Surprisingly good and capable laptop for $599 with one big flaw

[butt]

A Windows based Neo alternative supposedly may also be: notebookcheck.net/This-OLED-Lenovo-laptop-beats-MacBook-Neo-with-16-GB-RAM-and-better-display-for-less-than-699.1249901.0.html
Keep in mind that MacOS requires a few GB less RAM. The Neo's 8 GB unified memory are enough for office tasks, etc., even some video editing.

X, with OLED screen coming, these temporal dithering issues should be resolved. Hopefully no PWM on OLED either.

Also, does Macbook Air M5 have temporal dithering or not?

Good question.

[X]

"X, with OLED screen coming, these temporal dithering issues should be resolved. Hopefully no PWM on OLED either."

It looks, that Apple doesn't care about people with eyes problems (that's why they don't have for example nano glass everywhere)+the only one company with OLED without PWM seems to be currently Chinese Honor (don't expect too much from Apple - see how does look their PWM "switch" in iPhone 17 series).

Note: OLED will be sold probably with touch only and it will be extremely expensive (it makes no sense in buying it)

Temporal dithering seems to be implemented forever - it allows for selling cheaper screens for more.

[solution?]

github.com/aiaf/Stillcolor

Temporal dithering allows for selling cheaper screens

Also helps to conserve power.

[solution?]

github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

[solution?]

I wonder if reducing a panel bit colour depth like from the display settings would end up removing the temporal dithering / FRC also.

Because it seems to be just that according to Google Gemini:

"Temporal dithering, or Frame Rate Control (FRC), is a display technique that enables 6-bit or 8-bit panels to simulate higher color depths (e.g., 8-bit or 10-bit/HDR) by rapidly alternating between color shades within successive frames. It simulates intermediate colors that the panel cannot natively display, creating smoother gradients at the cost of potential 30 Hz-60 Hz flicker"

[ex-chromeOS user]

-Linux

How's the performance tho? Last time I used it, was the chroot container method days via crouton. It felt almost native and extremely fast.

From what I understand now, this has now been deprecated and the more modern version of this is using crostini by Google, which sets up an entire VM(?) That might have a bit more overhead compared to old method.

Also, I worry with Google locking down android and rumours of merging chromeOS into android, that the good days might soon be coming to an end. This may soon no longer be an option.

[X]

"I wonder if reducing a panel bit colour depth like from the display settings would end up removing the temporal dithering / FRC also."

Yes, it would, but Apple probably want to more advertise more colors than think about people seeing this problem.

[Citizen_not_Consumer]

Reviewer:  "...surprisingly good laptop"

...For what??

-workstation? No
-gaming laptop? No
-ultraportable/road warrior? No (4.5 hour battery in bright environments)
-home content consumption? No Tablets are better (OLED) and cheaper
-Office laptop? No plenty of laptops with better keyboards/ergonomics

-eJUNK? Definitely yes!

[capnkimo]

my dream laptop! love the different colors, cannot wait to buy.

[Monterey Mactech]

Some things to correct from this article.

The A18 Pro chip has a 5 core GPU and not a 6 core like iPhone 16 Pro.

And need to mention the Neo includes the 16-core Neural Engine for AI on device tasks.
For the PC side: To qualify as a Copilot+ PC, a device must have a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) capable of at least 40 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second.i doubt any of these PCs have that.


Also for comparing the battery life with full brightness the MacBook Neo's brightness is 500 nits compared to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13 at max 400 nits and the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 14 at 300 nits. And that is why it will use more power if set at max.

Keep in mind some PCs like the Surface are almost twice the price at the MacBook Air price territory.

Decent article otherwise.

[GeorgeS]

Ok major disclaimer here as I type/use a 2013 era i5(2C/4T)8GB/256GB 13" Macbook-Pro EVERY DAY!

While MacOS has a larger footprint than OSX before it, MANY folks use Mac's with 8GB of RAM without ANY ISSUES. (I currently have multiple windows of Firefox open (~100 tabs), Brave (~10 tabs), OpenOffice (multiple Writer windows) complimented with a hand full of other utility apps open. ZERO ISSUES.

Please keep in mind that not EVERYONE is doing PRODUCTION or PROFESSIONAL work with THEIR personal computers so have ZERO NEEDS for "portable workstations".

I DO have OEM (Canon) and Adobe software for processing images taken with my DSLR. Drivers for my 3 different Photo printers and 3 different Lazer printers are installed.

I MAY use a SINGLE USB port to move files when no LAN exists. The Neo having only TWO USB ports is NOT a deal breaker and actually none of the other listed items are ether.

The "deal breaker" is that I ALREADY OWN TWO MacBooks so have ZERO NEED/REQUIREMENT for purchasing another one.

The Neo proves that a quality Metal Chassis build & High resolution screen can be had at the ~$600 price point. A cell phone APU with a mere 8GB of RAM can offer a decent laptop experience if coupled with a unbloated OS+Apps.