For $599, you get the A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. For $699, you get the exact same computer, except the storage jumps up to 512GB and you get Touch ID. The only other choice you have to make is color.
For individuals, I think spending the extra $100 is money well spent. The extra storage is great for photos, music, and documents, while Touch ID is so much faster than typing in a password.
But if you're a school buying these in bulk for classrooms and have students store assignments in cloud services, you don't need Touch ID. Considering you can save $100 with an educational discount, the $499 for schools or students looks pretty good.
The MacBook Neo comes with a 1-year warranty. For those who want to go the AppleCare+ route for extended protection, it's $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year (or you can add it to an Apple Care One plan for $19.99 per month for three devices).
Yes, the MacBook Neo is $599. But it rarely feels like it. Apple invested in a premium aluminium chassis, a bright, good-quality screen, and a decent keyboard and mouse. Putting performance aside, those are the parts of a computer that most people care the most about. Add in about 13 hours of battery life, and you get a machine for most people doing the most common tasks, but in a package that feels like it's something special.
The colors, while nice, could be more vivid. My real issue with the laptop is that the ports aren't labeled, and that the hardware relies on macOS as a crutch to correct users. While I'm sure the lack of keyboard backlighting helped bring the cost down, it's the number one usability feature I would bring back to make the laptop more accessible in more situations.
For most people doing most things — web browsing, sending emails, writing papers, shopping, even light photo editing — the MacBook Neo will do just fine. I'm an enthusiast; I'd love to see more RAM. But plenty of people's simple needs will be met by the A18 Pro and its strong single-core performance.
And for those people, the Neo will look very attractive next to the many plastic machines with poor screens you get when you walk into a big-box store. Every other PC company making notebooks under $700 is officially on notice.
Update: March 10, 5:10. p.m. ET: We updated this review with an additional chart detailing display measurements on the MacBook Neo and its competitors.
Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net . You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-18/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Andrew E. Freedman Social Links Navigation Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net . You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01
salgado18 I really respect your experience, Andrew. But both Mac "reviews" sounded too biased for my taste. There are too many excuses: "people don't know what RAM is, and don't need more" oh, they do. They just feel the system is slow without knowing why, but 8GB is still 8GB. Apple may do some "magic" with the SSD, but RAM is RAM no matter who is using it. "It has fewer graphics cores than the iPhone that originally housed this chip. At this price, that's fine." unless you compare it to low-energy Ryzens and Cores, which also have pretty good iGPUs. "But if you need a repair, chances are you'll be heading to the local Apple Store." which does not aleviate the fact that you can't upgrade anything. "I'm an enthusiast; I'd love to see more RAM. But plenty of people's simple needs will be met by the A18 Pro and its strong single-core performance." so you agree that there is not enough RAM, but other people may not need it? I mean, it may sound nitpicking, but when I open a US shop, a quick search gives me a lot of Ryzen 7 7730U, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD systems, all of them light, upgradeable, lots of ports and with good battery, for $499. 8GB is nothing these days, 2P+4E cores (almost an old 4-core cpu) is entry level, swapping SSD is a given. Apple is selling the premium experience, you got that right. But for that, it took away all the performance it could, turning it into an oversized iPhone. It's not that "most people" will like it, it's that light users looking for a premium-looking ultrabook will like it. My wife is a light user most of the time, but Photoshop is there for when she needs it, and there was a time she would open over 50 tabs in Chrome for research. You may not need top hardware all the time, but if you do, it needs to be there right away. TL;DR: these reviews felt too much like an enthusiast of Apple products and too little like an unbiased review. We need critical eyes, comparison with competitors by price, thorough bechmarks, and then find an audience for it, not the other way around. That's what I expect of Tom's Hardware reviews. (sorry for the rant) Reply
abufrejoval Yeah, that's another thing the Fruity Cult keeps missing: the dollor has fallen! $599 should be €514, they sell at €699 instead, but leave out the charger… Even with VAT it should be at most €616, with the charger included. Reply
abufrejoval There is certainly nothing wrong with using a phone chip to run an entry level laptop: in fact, I've been wanting to use my phones as entry level desktops for ages. Cases in point, my current OnePlus 15 using 8 v2 Oryon cores in a very simlar 2+6 setup scores 3563/10350 in Geekbench v6, while my OnePlus Pad 3 using last year's v1 Oryons, also 2+6 CPU cores, scores 3024/9406: they are plenty fast for most desktop work, very reasonable performance even on a 4k screen. And battery life is way better than this hardware in a Windows laptop, where 34 Watts of peak TDP offer quickly diminishing returns. But both also come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD, touch and in the case of the tablet you can get a keyboard cover, the active pen, a normal cover, and even a suprisingly good OnePlus 2R watch thrown in for €599. And that includes taxes, but also no charger. (The naked tablet can be bought cheaper, but if you want the keyboard cover, the bundle gets you watch, pen and normal cover for free.) The OnePlus 15 phone is €830, but the slightly lesser 15R variant with 12GB but still 512GB of SSD, still same v2 CPU/GPU power sells that same €599, with taxes, charger exclusion seems pretty universal in the EU. All sorts of cameras seem to make those phones a little more expensive to make than the 13.2" tablet. The tab 3 screen is very near OLED to my eyes, incredible contrasts, rich color, and backlight bleeding is only detectable at daylight brightnesses, in the dark black is black. It's vastly better than most notebooks panels I've seen and quite a surprise at that price. Chassis is glass and metal, very thin and great quality, no build quality compromise anywhere. The keyboard cover and its touchpad are quite good for a touch typist who religously guards his last millenium original IBM PS/2 keyboard with his hife, doesn't even pale next to my X13G4 ThinkPad. And while it's very slim on the tablet for transport, IMHO it's too flimsy for teens or to last years of professional abuse: still missing a good convertible clamshell there! In this race for the better student laptop, that's where it can't keep up… unless that happens to be an arts major (or a "touchy" person), then pen support and experience on the OnePad is quite incredible and adds zero extra cost! It's MacOS vs Android, to many that means the world! (BTW I'm also running Linux desktops on the OnePlus Pad with Termux adding a mouse to the keycover, which works really well and has this "tablet" seem one of the best ARM workstations yet. It runs 4k display via the USB-C connector, direct or using my TB4 dock, also runs Ethernet with the 1, 2.5 and 5Gbit RealTek USB NICs I have, the newest NICs include a PD input, which is a great thing to have and much smaller than a dock. 10Gbit fails, because I only have an Aquantia Thunderbolt variant for that. I haven't tried Linux desktop on the external monitor yet, Android desktop mode still isn't your proper desktop, after more than a decade in the making, it keeps being a "next year" thing… KVM support or even Proxmox probably entails rooting, which tends to be relatively easy on a OnePlus, but that's where even 16GB may be a bit tight… but that's somewhat off topic) The Pad is more a Surface like tablet vs. the Neo clamshell notebook: the main reason I compare them is because they are so very close in terms of hardware specs and the cost to produce them. Their use cases partially overlap to the point where they could be alternatives, for others they are vastly apart. To me it highlights the Fruity Cult tax, M$ and others are trying to duplicate not eliminate. The Neo looks good and usable enough to serve a large audience, but while it may finally be economical enough for them, it's not a bargain: others deliver quite a lot better hardware value for this or even a lesser price. Let's just hope they've not messed up the Neo hardware design and these things don't come apart or fail en masse. Apple isn't known for an FDIV bug like replacement strategy, nor is Intel these days. Reply
RicardoDawkins salgado18 said: I really respect your experience, Andrew. But both Mac "reviews" sounded too biased for my taste. There are too many excuses: (snip) This exactly. Review(s) are biased, incomplete and full of excuses. YES, plural review(s)!! because every site is doing the same. Reply
VizzieTheViz abufrejoval said: Yeah, that's another thing the Fruity Cult keeps missing: the dollor has fallen! $599 should be €514, they sell at €699 instead, but leave out the charger… Even with VAT it should be at most €616, with the charger included. Yeah at $599 it’s a pretty decent proposition but at €699 I’ll definitely pass (or get my brother in the us to bring me one for €514 if he comes over). Reply
Notton once again missing display performance. How is the ghosting/image retention on it? Reply
DS426 I concur with most of what has been said so far. Additionally, why the puke color? I agree that iMac-like colorfulness probably resonates with many buyers in this pricing range, but bile is hardly a joy to look at. Reply
g-unit1111 I was legit shocked to see Apple make an affordable Macbook and I actually might pick one up for travel at some point so I don't have to lug my main laptop everywhere I go. The only thing I'd complain about is the lack of storage options (though I'm sure they would add more to the cost) and the color. I'd get black or silver. I am not the biggest fan of Mac OS, but for that price, I'd definitely give it a whirl. Very well done, Apple. Reply
abufrejoval VizzieTheViz said: Yeah at $599 it’s a pretty decent proposition but at €699 I’ll definitely pass (or get my brother in the us to bring me one for €514 if he comes over). Psst! He'll still have to pay taxes at the airport, but that only puts it €599, accounting for the charger. Reply
CelicaGT I think a lot of people forget that this is not competing with entry level PC's. Most people do not cross shop the two that often. This machine is aimed squarely at folks who already want a Mac, but for whom the former price of entry was too high. Also the education market, to recruit more fruit cultists (/s). It's a cheaper entry point into the Mac ecosystem and by all accounts it's a hit. Personally I have no desire to buy one as my M3 Air exists and is much better specced at 16GB and 512GB respectively. That Yellow looks pretty sweet though. The 8GB RAM situation is a bummer, might be enough for now but it will not age well (It is a limit of the A18 Pros on package memory unfortunately, as is the odd port configuration). Ars Technica has a much more in depth review and in many heavier tasks memory pressure is high and there's some swapping. Browsing and media consumption should be fine though the reviewer did put the machine through some more arduous production tasks and while technically capable it was sluggish. It should also be noted that the A18 Pro still behaves as if it's in a phone type thermal environment, throttling of P-cores takes mere seconds even though there's headroom for more. I expect this is more about product segmentation more than anything. Overall performance around M1 levels, as expected. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/macbooks/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/macbooks/apple-macbook-neo-a18-pro-review#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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