For those in the future (hello!), the MacBook Neo is Apple’s lower cost laptop. It comes in at $600 (no, I am not going to credit Apple the $1). In Canada, it’s $800, which is still pretty cheap for a new Mac.
It just got released this month (it’s March 16 as I type this) and the tech YouTube world has gone bananas over it, with some declaring the Windows laptop market dead. Or something.
People who have no need or use for the Neo are sharing their desperate urge to buy one. The best I can figure is these people have disposable income most of us don’t, so the cost/need is irrelevant, and it comes in “fun” colours. It’s certainly not that it does anything special or unique. And that’s why I’m already tired of it.
Apple has made “cheap” Macs before–that was the whole point of the original Mac mini, to serve as a low-cost entry point to lure PC users away from Windows. And the original M1 MacBook Air, still extremely capable five years later, has been selling for the same $600 at Walmart, so even a cheap laptop is not a new thing.
The Neo makes compromises to reach its lower price and as others have said, Apple seems to have cut down on things that won’t have a major impact on the overall quality or usability of the device:
- The keyboard is not backlit1
- It uses a (cut down) A18 Pro processor–the same used in the iPhone 16 Pro, a step down from the M series they usually use for Macs
- 8GB ram
- The screen is not as bright and doesn’t have the same colour reproduction as the Air
- Chunkier bezels and a worse webcam
- One of its two USB-C ports only supports USB 2.0 speeds (lol)
- The trackpad is mechanical, rather than haptic
You get the idea. It’s the Air, but a little worse in most ways, but not in any way that would significantly harm the user experience. Apple was smart in its design. They even used screws instead of gluing everything in place, making it one of the most repairable Macs out there.
But it is not the ne plus ultra of laptops.
Not everyone wants to run macOS. Not everyone wants to be in Apple’s ecosystem. There are other laptops that are as affordable and they’re fine. Apple is not turning the world upside down. It’s just a cheaper MacBook, made possible through some sensible compromises.
And Apple is likely doing something different here–not banking on fat margins off sales of the Neo, but counting on those Neo buyers also going all-in on Apple’s many services. $600 upfront is nice, but a full (“Premier”) Apple One subscription is $38 a month or $456 per year. That’s like buying a Neo every 16 months, forever.
- Matt Birchler had a bizarre take on the lack of a backlight that I have never seen before: “The keyboard is not backlit, which I guess is a bummer, but honestly, I don’t think I ever use my keyboard’s backlight. Honestly, I’m not totally sure why other people use it either. Does your screen not light up the keys already?” ↩︎