Apple Macbook Neo Review: A Solid Laptop To Start With
We put it through its paces to tell you what works and what Apple could have done better in its most interesting Mac in years
Buying a budget laptop is easy, but you know what’s hard? Buying a decent budget laptop. That’s precisely the segment Apple has historically ignored, avoiding the inevitable compromises – on performance, on build quality and to some extent, on pride of ownership - preferring instead to play at the higher end, where margins are healthier and compromises fewer. Which is what makes the MacBook Neo so unexpected, arriving at ₹69900 (₹59900 for students) to gate crash a party it never RSVP’d to, stepping into a budget conversation on its own terms.
Apple Macbook Neo - What We Liked
Neo or nay? We put it through its paces to tell you what works and what Apple could have done better in its most interesting Mac in years.
Macbook Neo Design
Instead of being born as a budget MacBook Air, with cutbacks that reflect the fifty-thousand-rupee price difference, the Neo arrives with a personality that’s entirely its own. With funkier colour choices – a bold Citrus, a subtle pink Blush and a tasteful Indigo – each Neo has a colour-matched keyboard, rubber feet, wallpapers and menu accents. It’s slightly chunkier than the Air, but weighs the same 1.23kg, only in a smaller footprint. It’s super portable to carry around, sling under one’s arm or thrown into a backpack. Crucially, it feels as well considered as Apple’s pricier hardware – right from the sturdy aluminium chassis with the balanced single-finger-friendly lid to the keyboard that, while slightly spongier, is still so satisfying to use. Even the mechanical trackpad (as opposed to the haptic version on the pricier MacBooks) is head and shoulders above far pricier Windows laptops.
Macbook Neo Performance
“Surely, there are compromises running on an A18 Pro chip with only 8GB of memory?” was a common refrain I’ve heard from spec nerds since it was announced. Fair question, but is Neo fast enough for daily tasks? Absolutely – it is built for everyday work, assuming your everyday is emails, dozens of tabs for web browsing, Microsoft Office spreadsheets or documents, some amount of 1080p video calling and even the occasional video edits in iMovie or Final Cut Pro. I didn’t expect to say this about how good Neo is for streaming content, but its 2408x1506-pixel, 500 nits brightness LCD screen and side firing speakers are impressive, although colours look a tad stronger on the Air with its P3 colour profile support. Even its gaming chops are surprisingly capable – I could run the Resident Evil 2 remake from the Mac App Store, but I wouldn’t count on this to run AAA games on Steam for instance. Not once in my daily use did I see Neo slow down, but if you push it with editing multiple 4K files or the like, of course, you’ll run up against the performance ceiling (and out of memory) faster than you would on an Air or a Pro.
All said, it’s a solid laptop to start with, and if your daily workload or creative needs justify the pricier Macs, you probably already know it.
MacOS
Even as it runs on a mobile chip, Neo runs the same full-fat MacOS 26 as on the rest of the Mac range, which means you get all the ecosystem benefits – mirroring your iPhone display on Neo to avoid picking up your phone, unlocking Neo with an Apple Watch, sharing files via AirDrop, setting notification profiles across your devices, and more – with none of the compatibility issues or limitations we’ve seen earlier on Windows laptops running ARM chips.
What Could be Improved in Apple Macbook Neo
Keyboard and Ports in Macbook Neo
The omission of backlighting on the keyboard could bother you if you work in dimly lit environments and often look at the keyboard to type. Touch ID-based fingerprint authentication for logging in and securing purchases is only to be found on the pricier 512GB storage model (you get 256GB on the base model). Also, bear in mind that its two USB-C ports differ quite a bit – one is USB 2-based while the other is USB 3 – so you’ll need to prioritize the faster port for anything that involves data – an external monitor or a USB-C hub/drive.
Macbook Neo Battery and Charging
While Neo lasts anywhere between seven to eight hours of my typical workload (the Air managed 11 to 12), I was more concerned about the glacial charging speeds with the included 20W USB-C charger and cord, which took over an hour to go from fully empty to 50 percent. No snap-on-snap-off magnetic charging either, only over regular USB-C.
Apple Macbook Neo Price
As it stands, the Neo (₹69900; ₹59900 for students) is the new default MacBook for anyone who would have previously bought the Air, and the significant price difference between the latest Air and the Neo should have many consider the Neo for its everyday laptop workload…and as with every Apple product, if you want to push it a little bit further, you’ll be surprised by what it can do. It’s not for everyone – STEM students looking to play around with AI models and heavy development projects should note – which is where the Air and the Pro come in. There’s certainly more choice now, and if you open yourself up to the second-hand/refurbished markets, that choice expands significantly.