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

[pixelhaus]

A video by Max Tech youtube.com/watch?v=2yXyvQSUSYY ("MacBook Neo vs M5 Air - We were SHOCKED") shows how the Air is outperforming the Neo by 2-3 times, has a dramatically better battery life and 2-4 times faster charging speed. And the video shows how the Neo's display is much more reflective and has a much worse contrast ("The Air's display looks almost like OLED").

The MBA M5 is a much better notebook in every aspects that is totally worth the price difference, who knew?

Once the novelty wears off, you can be sure the same folks who praised it for the wrong reasons will trash-talk it instead (to the classic tune of "they should have told me to get the MBA instead").

[Bizarro_NikoB]

Who is this marketed for? kids/teens, infantilized adults, old people, schools, liberal white women, poor people looking to own an Apple laptop??

I'm being honest, because it seems like a sh*t laptop that is intentionally gimped with massive planned obsolescence baked in. The colorways look childish. The specs (ram, storage, display,ports, etc.) are abysmal for 2026 and I cannot believe Apple is marketing this as something worth buying when there are so many better options at this price point.

I mean, an apple certified-refurbished macbook air would be infinitely better and probably in the same price range!

[GeorgeS]

Who is this marketed for? kids/teens, infantilized adults, old people, schools, liberal white women, poor people looking to own an Apple laptop??

I'm being honest, because it seems like a sh*t laptop that is intentionally gimped with massive planned obsolescence baked in. The colorways look childish. The specs (ram, storage, display,ports, etc.) are abysmal for 2026 and I cannot believe Apple is marketing this as something worth buying when there are so many better options at this price point.

I mean, an apple certified-refurbished macbook air would be infinitely better and probably in the same price range!

Comical comments by rather clueless folks.

Forgetting for the moment that the Neo has more cores/threads than the MBP I'm currently using (i5(2C/4T)/8GB/256GB) the Neo costs 1/3 as much as I paid for the MBP.

Forgetting that in the West (or at least in the USA) Professional users get all their IT stuff purchased FOR THEM by the companies they work for (you folks would know this if you ever worked). Surely if a portable WORKSTATION is needed, the more powerful MBP's would be purchased.

So who is the Neo for? First off ANYONE who does NOT want WIN11 and would like a metal chassis & high resolution screen. While tablets & cell phones have mobile apps for just about everything there ARE cases where a desktop/laptop application is not only a better fit but a requirement.

The Neo is far more functional than a iPad and much better build quality than most WIN11 devices at the same price point. In non-professional environments time is NOT money. I regularly have a dozen application windows open including >100tabs in a number of Firefox windows. When the OS and applications in use are not BLOATWARE less resources are needed or required to provide a decent experience.

Of course many of you commenters would know that if you actually owned&used Mac computers.

[Mate]

@GeorgeS

I think a lot of people just hate Apple because... its Apple
8GB... what a horrible thing! It doesnt matter that for majority of users its fine as they only need to run web browser, text processor and spotify.  Sure, its not future proof, will not run local LLMs but its ok even for light gaming. And SoC is far better than numbers says. Not because 'magic' of MacOS which is complete bullshit. Because of raw single-core performance 2-3 generations ahead of x86. It will feel simply a lot snappier for longer period of time even if it will be less useful for 'heavy' workload.  It has only two real downsides:
-no backlit keyboard
-MacOS means need to learn a new how to use computer

[X]

"I think a lot of people just hate Apple because... its Apple"

Their current price structure is quite reasonable. You have cheap Neo, better Air and Pro for Pro.

All good... Excluding these tricks with screens and planned obsolescence. They could give matt screens and LCD with 10 or 12 bit (or give software option in Mac  OS for 8 bit). Such important thing and it's totally ignored. And now imagine you have amazing job and only Mac, which is not good for your eyes.

Yes, people are frustrated - from one hand W11, from the other beautiful A/M chips and screen crap.

[juri]

the big flaw is the price.
same price as a refurb m3 air.
total fail.
screen is like a mirror, half a battery, usb2!?? lol.

[Mate]

All good... Excluding these tricks with screens

If I'm not mistaken Apple is using those tricks for long time. Deal with it. Personally I'm not a fan too, but whole package is far better than x86

and planned obsolescence.

? Macs are often cheaper option in long run.

[GeorgeS]

Frankly "they" all do it to some extent...

MiniSquish first dropped 32bit support & then required TPM2 chips. While there are hacks and work arounds, it still haunts many.

Apple did it first with dropping 32bit support & then dropping x86 support. Nothing is forever it seems.

Even Linux has mostly dropped 32bit support. Finding a MODERN 32bit web browser in 2026 is getting harder and harder to find.

Funny though, "future proof" as it may or not be, this (using now) 8GB RAM Mac has served me well over the years. :)

[RobertJasiek]

"Their current price structure is quite reasonable."

"Macs are often cheaper option in long run."

Disinformation.

Examples:

+€1250 MacBookPro +64 GB RAM upgrade from 64GB to 128 GB RAM.
For comparison, even at currently inflated RAM prices, 64 GB DDR5 RAM is available for €506,30. So Apple charges €743,70 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy RAM cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

€999 Monitor stand is €990 too much.

+€2250 MacBookPro +4 TB SSD upgrade from 4TB to 8 TB. For comparison, even at currently inflated SSD prices, 4 TB M.2 SSD is available for €340. So Apple charges €1910 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy SSDs cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

[RobertJasiek]

+€1250 MacBookPro +64 GB RAM upgrade from 64GB to 128 GB RAM.
For comparison, even at currently inflated RAM prices, 64 GB DDR5 RAM is available for €506,30. So Apple charges €743,70 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy RAM cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

+€2250 MacBookPro +4 TB SSD upgrade from 4TB to 8 TB. For comparison, even at currently inflated SSD prices, 4 TB M.2 SSD is available for €340. So Apple charges €1910 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy SSDs cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

Correction. I misunderstood the storage differences of the upgrades. They are

+€1250 for +80 GB RAM from 48GB to 128GB so €1250 - €506,30 / 64 * 80 = €1250 - €633 = €617 too much.

+€2250 for +6 TB SSD from 2 TB to 8 TB so €2250 - €340 / 4 * 6 = €2250 - €510 = €1740 too much.

[Mate]

Yeah. Apple pricing is reasonable only for base models. When you try to upgrade their prices are over the roof.