MacBook Neo Review: 6 Things I Like & 4 Things I Wish Apple Had Done Better

Apple has never cared about the budget laptop market, dominated by Chromebooks and Windows laptops. For years, the cheapest MacBook people bought set them back by around ₹80,000 to ₹90,000, depending on the prevalent pricing and offers, unless you decided to get a four or five-year-old machine at ridiculously discounted prices. 

Then one day, Apple decided to fill that gap with a brand new MacBook that undercuts its own MacBook Air, called the MacBook Neo. The company priced it at ₹69,900, which gave the entire laptop industry a panic attack, and having used the Neo for a couple of days, I can see why. While the Neo does compromise on some aspects, whether they matter to you and for your daily use case is what matters, and I have some thoughts about that.

6 Things I Like About The MacBook Neo

1. The Build Quality Is Straight From The More Expensive MacBooks

The first time I held the MacBook Neo, it didn’t feel like the regular polycarbonate laptops available at the price. Apple has retained the classic, premium MacBook feel, and that’s an immediate differentiator for the product.

The aluminum chassis feels solid, the hinge opens with a single finger and stays exactly where you leave it, and the color-matched keyboard was enough to impress me and remind me of the more expensive MacBook variants. I’ve used the MacBook Neo in two different cafes, and both times, I got compliments about its color (Blush).

The Neo weighs 1.23 kgs, similar to the MacBook Air, though it’s slightly thicker and has a noticeably smaller footprint. In other words, the Neo might slip into bags that the Air sometimes didn’t. More importantly, there are no awkward bends or creaks that I could notice, despite applying some pressure at the palm rest area around the trackpad, and neither did I notice any flex in the keyboard.

I do have some thoughts about the keyboard and the trackpad, but we’ll discuss them later.

2. Undeniable Performance For Its Price With Some Caveats

I’ll be honest: I was a bit skeptical going in. At any given point in the day, I juggle between a couple of dozen Chrome tabs, and the idea of doing that on an iPhone-grade chip didn’t immediately inspire confidence. While I’d say that the A18 Pro chip on the Neo does quite well, there are a few things that you should know.

For those catching up, the A18 Pro is a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU chip with a 16-core Neural Engine, the same processor inside the iPhone 16 Pro, with one fewer GPU core. What’s worth noting is that the chip defeats Apple’s M3 MacBook Air in Geekbench’s single-core CPU tests. The test usually governs how fast apps launch, how quickly and responsively the UI feels, and how your browser handles individual tasks.

Multi-core performance, however, is a different story, since the chip doesn’t have as many cores as a regular M series (even the M1 chip, for that matter). This governs intensive tasks, such as video editing and exports, parallel processing, and gaming. So, the performance you get on the device actually depends on what you’re doing with it.

For my typical workload, which includes two dozen Chrome tabs, a few documents open in the background, emails, and occasional YouTube or Apple Music, the Neo kept up really well. Now, I did notice Chrome being more responsive without the Apple Music or Calendar app open in the background, but that isn’t a dealbreaker.

It’s worth noting that when the Neo runs out of available RAM (the physical one), it swaps the data onto the free space on the SSD. Like the MacBook Air, the Neo runs silently under all conditions (as there’s no cooling fan).

I’d say that the MacBook Neo could be an ideal machine for students, entry-level professionals, Chrome-based workloads, and other on-the-go tasks that people usually get entry-level Windows laptops for.

3. Neo’s Screen Is Almost As Good As The MacBook Air

For a laptop that costs ₹69,900, the MacBook Neo has one of the better screens than most of its competition. It features a 13-inch Liquid Retina panel with 2408 × 1506 pixels (218 ppi) and a peak brightness of 500 nits (where rivals often have around 250 to 400 nits of brightness).

Text is sharp, bezels are uniform, and the notchless screen gives the MacBook a clean and modern look. For everyday use, including reading, writing, streaming, and other casual work that doesn’t include professional-grade video editing or graphic design, the screen holds up quite well.

Like me, if you’re wondering how the Neo’s display compares to that of the latest M5 MacBook Air, you’re not in for a major disappointment. On brightness, both machines are identical. On the resolution front, the MacBook Air takes the lead with six pixels per inch more than the Neo. Where the gap broadens, however, is color space.

The M5 MacBook Air covers the DCI-P3 wide color space and also comes with True Tone technology. The Neo, however, only covers the sRGB space. In the real world, the Air renders a broader range of colors, which makes it more suited for professional use cases where color accuracy matters the most.

4. The Battery Life Is Genuinely Impressive

While Apple claims up to 16 hours of video streaming and 11 hours of wireless web browsing on the Neo (which features a 36.5Wh battery), the actual battery life that you’ll get depends on your usage.

In my usage, with the brightness set between 20 to 30% indoors, I easily got around nine hours of screen-on time from the Neo, mostly enough for a typical workday, unless you’re working more than 10 to 12 hours a day. Taking the MacBook outdoors and increasing the brightness surely takes a toll on the battery life, but you can also plug it into the same power bank as your iPhone for a top-up.

Of the six Windows users I know personally, none of their laptops lasts as long, though some of them do possess some serious graphical processing or gaming power. 

5. macOS Has A Clean Slate With No Baggage

The MacBook Neo, like the rest of the MacBook lineup, runs on macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence features built in from the start (including text summarization and rewriting, notification summaries, Image Playground, and a ChatGPT integration in Siri). This is what makes the Neo a no-brainer for iPhone users.

All the continuity features Apple’s ecosystem is known for are available here, including iPhone Mirroring (interact with your iPhone’s screen on the Mac), Universal Clipboard (copy something on the iPhone and paste on the MacBook), Handoff (picks up tasks mid-flow between devices), and AirDrop (you already know what that means).

This makes the MacBook Neo an easy recommendation for anyone upgrading from a six or seven-year-old Intel-powered MacBook, as it offers all the software whims and fancies Apple offers on its more expensive laptops.

6. The Neo Offers An Excellent Value Proposition

At ₹69,900, or ₹59,900 if you qualify for student pricing, the Neo costs less than most mid-range Windows laptops from popular OEMs. To give you another perspective, the Neo even costs less than most modern-day flagship smartphones, including the iPhone 17, the Galaxy S26, and the Pixel 10.

At the same price, the laptop segment offers plastic bodies, dimmer displays, smaller trackpads, and software loaded with trials and subscriptions. The market responded accordingly. Tim Cook confirmed the Neo’s launch week was the best Mac had ever seen for first-time customers — people buying a Mac for the very first time, rather than upgrading from one.

The four color options: Citrus, Blush, Indigo, and Silver, are a signal about who this machine is intended for.

4 MacBook Neo Compromises Worth Knowing Before You Buy

Keyboard & Trackpad

Unlike all the other MacBook Air variants, the Neo doesn’t come with a backlit keyboard, which bothers more users than Apple probably expected. Yes, the keys are white, which helps in low-light conditions, but it doesn’t match the utility or the aesthetic appeal of working on a backlit keyboard in a dark room.

If you’re a touch-typist, though, and you don’t have to look at the keys to type, it shouldn’t bother you. But even so, when you’re looking for a function key in the dark, or trying to adjust the brightness or the volume, you’d have to hit a few buttons unless you’re absolutely familiar with the keyboard. The travel of the keyboard, I’d say, is quite good. Furthermore, the keyboard is more repairable on the Neo than the Air, which is a plus point.

The baseline Neo’s keyboard also ships without Touch ID, a unique MacBook proposition that has appealed to buyers over the years. If you want the biometric unlock option, you’d have to spend ₹10,000 for the 512GB variant.

The Neo features a mechanical trackpad, not the haptic one that we’ve seen on MacBooks over the years. Instead of Force Touch motors, it uses a diving board mechanism hinged at the top. If you’re used to a haptic trackpad, this one requires a bit more pressure to click near the top edge. I noticed the difference immediately, as I am used to a haptic trackpad, and it takes a few days of getting used to.

I wish the MacBook Neo’s purported successor came with a backlit keyboard and a haptic trackpad.

Slow Charging & Lack Of MagSafe

The MacBook Neo tops out at 20W wired charging. It ships with a charger in the box, which is a good thing, but the omission of fast charging and MagSafe is a bit concerning in my opinion, especially if you need to top it up and head out quickly. The port situation isn’t quite as good either.

The Neo comes with two USB-C ports, only one of which supports USB 3 speeds, while the other is limited to USB 2.0. You might not notice the difference on a daily basis, but you’d definitely notice it while transferring large files. You still get a 3.5mm headphone jack, though.

8GB Of RAM Has A Practical Ceiling

For everyday users, 8GB of RAM paired with 8GB of swap-in memory is sufficient. However, for workload-heavy users, anyone running Xcode, working with AI models, or handling large datasets, 8GB of RAM is simply not enough. It’s even more important to highlight that you can’t simply upgrade the Neo’s memory after purchase. If your workload is likely to grow over the next three to four years, you’re better off with a MacBook Air that offers 16GB of RAM or above.

Only One External Display & HD FaceTime Camera

This is more of a know-before-purchasing than a con, but the Neo can only output to one external monitor at up to 4K 60Hz. So, if you’re looking for a machine that outputs to multiple monitors on your desk, consider the MacBook Air.

The 1080p FaceTime HD camera is more than sufficient for everyday video calls, but it feels like a significant step down from the 12MP Centre Stage camera on the recent MacBooks, which can track faces, adjust framing, and produce higher-resolution output.

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