Macs were and continue to be the object of desire of many technology fans. From the glorious and colorful iMac to today’s super-powerful MacBook Pros, having the little apple on the screen is, for some people, a symbol of design and avant-garde. The debate about which is better, Windows or macOS, will continue for many years, but the clear thing is that each has its advantages and cons.
But one thing Macs had was that they weren’t cheap. Until now: in a decision that surprised many in the laptop world, Apple presented the Macbook Neo two weeks agoa new laptop focused on design and aimed at the average user.
We were testing it for a week and we tell you what we think, what it is for and what the limitations are, although we can already tell you that it is a pleasant surprise, especially for its price.
Although the cheapest one available in the United States for $600 plus taxes is the version with 256 GB of storage, in our case we tested the $700 version, which comes with 512 GB and Touch ID (worth those extra $100). In both cases the RAM is 8 GB, the only option for the Neo family.
It is a computer that enters your eyes. It comes in pink, silver, dark blue and a new, eye-catching yellow color. His body is light, 1.14kg aluminum; and like the Air and Pro, it opens with a single finger, and has a highly premium feel to the touch, which is very difficult to find in PCs in this same price range.
The keyboard is comfortable; It feels the same as the Pro, but does not have backlighta point against. Although on the positive side, it has a color tone that matches the exterior design you chose.
He trackpad, in this case it is not “touch” but physical; It sinks and clicks when pressed, and although it has a slightly smaller surface area than the Air, it feels comfortable and responsive.
This is the key point in comparing the Neo to the Air and Pro (and other notebooks). The MacBook Neo has the powerful (in its world) A18 Pro processor, the same chip used by the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max (which is why it only supports 8GB of RAM).
To see if this computer was up to our tasks, we tested it with Safari and several tabs open and we do not suffer from performance. We then moved on to using Canva, which he had no problems with, and we also tried the CapCut video editing program.
Here we migrated the projects that we had on the cell phone, we edited them slightly and exported them and, except for the first load of the program, which took a while to react, then it worked wonders.
But be careful, this does not mean that everything will go smoothly. If you try to use Premiere, for example, you will be able to do it… Yes, but sacrificing export time and some freezing moments. The same thing happens with games. You will be able to run some old or undemanding ones, but Don’t expect to play Resident Evil Requiem at 60 FPS.
This is obvious compared to the MacBook Air M4, for example, but if the We compare with the 2020 MacBook M1 (which is the closest in performance)the tests give superior performance to the Neo despite not being able to opt for a version with more RAM. This parameter can also be taken to compare it with Windows PC in this price range.
Another point where perhaps its price is felt is in the screen with slightly wider bezels. But this doesn’t mean it’s bad. The screen is 13 inches compared to the 13.6 of the Air M4, it has a slightly lower resolution, so 2408×1506 pixels and 219ppi (against 1560×1664 224 ppi) and has sRGB instead of P3 in the color gamut. This is not really felt, with its 500 nits, but what you can perhaps feel if you come from a more powerful Mac is that It does not have True Tone, that is, it does not adapt colors to ambient light.
As for its ports, it comes with only three. One for analog headphonesnow located near your left hand (more comfortable), and two USB-C, no Thunderbolt. This is perhaps the worst, because It doesn’t have MagSafeand use one of the two ports for charging. And the free port is a USB 2.0 which is slow for this time.
in the box Comes with a cable and 20 watt trickle chargerbut if you have a faster one it can charge a little faster (we were able to go up to 24watts).
Its battery, which is 36.5 Wh, was never a problem. Because We didn’t need to charge it, arriving at 10 hours without problems. The brand claims that it has 16 hours of video playback and 11 hours of wireless web browsing.
The Neo is practically for everyone who doesn’t need to edit professional videos or run heavy programs or don’t want to play triple-A video games on their laptop. Is efficient, lightweight, it handles 90% of the tasks that a home office or a student requires and also allows you to expand a little more with a truly premium look and finish. There is still no official arrival date in Argentina, but it is expected to do so with a price not far from one million pesos.
