My wife is running a fairly old [2017 I think] MBP.
We stopped in the Apple Store this week & she liked the smaller Air, but also found the Neo today.

What are the major differences between the Neo & Air, assuming same form factor & storage capacity, that drop the price about $300?

A quick search shows the biggest difference is the processor & maybe that the RAM on the Neo is non-upgradable.

The neo uses an iPhone processor, while the Air uses a full-fat M5. For me, the Air would always be worth the extra, but for $599, the Neo might make a great "consumption" device (browsing, video watching, document editing, etc...)

I'd also add that the Neo reaches its price point by using a less tactile keyboard and an older technology screen (the RAM on all Macs is non upgradeable, since they are bonded to the CPUs). That being said - if those make no difference, then the Neo will be the better buy.

The Neo is from all reports awesome, and if she's a Safari user it's basically perfect.

Air - back-lit keyboard, better screen, thunderbolt 4, magsafe charging, more RAM, more storage, better CPU and GPU


Neo - no thunderbolt, just one USB-C 3 and one UCB-C 2 port.

For Apple quality and a stable operating system and as long one only needs light computer needs, it is really a good choice.

There are several good comparison videos out there. I look at the Neo with lust in my heart. As I sit here in the quiet downstairs with a 16 inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro...way overkill for what I'm doing. But, the iPad next to me is horrible to use for any keyboarding. So, I bring the MBP down here.

It is clear to me that the Neo is a Chromebook form Apple product, literally a 25 years after the first Chromebook was released. Special processor. Limited choices on size, processor, memory. Did Chromebooks get it right? I think they did, and I enjoyed having one for a while.

You say "just put a keyboard case on the iPad." I did that. Logitech and Apple variants. The iPad became a horribly heavy laptop. The iPad with the Apple keyboard case is about as heavy as a real laptop. Not a good solution. My wife suffers with it. Adding an Apple keyboard case makes the iPad cost about as much as a laptop too.

Will I buy a Neo? Probably. But only the one with the biometric print sensor. Can't live without that feature.

It is interesting that I can buy a Neo for $700 and over-the-ear headphones cost $549. The headphones are just too expensive, relatively speaking. Or, for you Jim Carrey fans, figuratively speaking.

I went from 2017 MBP to an Air a couple years ago and have been very happy. It's for work mainly, but I plan to live in the iOSphere after retirement in a couple years and ditch the desktop.

Not a power user, mainly spreadhseets, documents, mail, browsing. Planned on a 2027/8 Air for that.

The Neo is very interesting. I don't need more computing horsepower, but I do like a larger screen and once using this for only device other than cloud for all documents, pics, etc. 500G won't cut it.

I wouldn't be sururpised to see at leas a 14" screen by then, if not 15". However it may be less interesting to Apple to add more storage capacity in direct competition with Air and MBP.

As a user hopefully I'm wrong, as a shareholder I hope whatever they do makes APPL a fortune!

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
It is clear to me that the Neo is a Chromebook form Apple product

This is the conclusion I came up with as well from a few comparisons I'd read.

I admittedly don’t know much about the new Neo. If you’re using full-blown programs like Microsoft Office suite, I would make sure that that is compatible with the neo. I had trouble with a Chromebook, trying to use those applications and finally gave up and went back to a full-blown laptop. My latest is a 2025 MacBook 15 inch and I’m very happy with it. If you’re using programs that need to be on the hard drive I don’t know if Neo would be the best choice, but the MacBook Air would be a great middle option.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
… I look at the Neo with lust in my heart. As I sit here in the quiet downstairs with a 16 inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro...way overkill for what I'm doing.

… It is clear to me that the Neo is a Chromebook form Apple product…


… You say "just put a keyboard case on the iPad”… The iPad with the Apple keyboard case is about as heavy as a real laptop. Not a good solution…

I recently sold my 14” MacBook Pro with M3 Max in favor of a M4 Max Studio desktop. Almost never took the MBP out of the house and used it on a hub to twin monitors. Decided it was too heavy to take out and about and to great of a concern for theft/loss/damage given the price (originally ~$3K)

As noted above, iPad is not a real laptop replacement, even though it is great for Surfing, email, videos, etc. that don’t require a lot of keyboarding.

While the Neo is intriguing, it just isn’t enough for me. I am sure it will be a hit at the target audience at that price though. I need more power for photo editing and more storage. The biggest difference between the Neo and an iPad with a keyboard is that you are running MacOS instead of iOS.

In my opinion, that opens up a lot more options in terms of software and usability.


I ended up getting a new M5 MacBook Air 13.6” with 24gb memory (up from base 16gb), 1TB SSD (up from base 512gb) for $1349 after my Veteran discount. It ended up only being $126 more than the previous M4 MBA with same specs. I think the faster memory and the M5 vs M4 is worth the bump, not to mention the added resale value when the next upgrade time rolls around in a few years.

Sounds like Apple may have a real hit on their hands here with this Neo. Also seeing talk that it's Apple's "Chromebook Killer".

I'll have to find the specs on her current MBP & see how they compare to the new Neo & MBAir

What does your wife use her MackBook Pro for?

Is she User 1? Does she only use it for browsing the web with a couple tabs open, random Zoom meetings, and occasionally typing a document in MS Word? Is all the software she uses web-based? (Chromebook type work...which is what my wife and most people do)

Is she User 2? Does she do photography work or video compression or need to browse with fourteen tabs open and and do heavy video conferencing all day? Is most of her software on her computer relying on her processor? (MacBook Pro type work)

The vast majority of people in 2026 are really Chromebook users. My wife has been using only a Chromebook (different Lenovos in her case) since 2011 since she primarily relies on Google Workspace. It has worked out really well for her. Lenovo Yoga Chromebooks are cheap and she just swaps it out for a new one for few hundred bucks every five years.

Apple historically dealt with this with its iPads (usually with an external keyboard attached) but recently decided to jump on the Chromebook bandwagon since there is a huge market and most people don't want to drop $2k (or even $1k) on a laptop these days.

If she is User 1, like my wife and most people, the Neo will do just fine.

She's a relatively light user, web stuff and she's a writer, so a lot of document editing.
No photo/video/audio editing, but she's maxed out her storage on 2 MBs before with photo backups [need to get a good external storage solution for that].

I think the Neo will be a good fit, but need to do a specs comparison to what she has currently.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
It is clear to me that the Neo is a Chromebook form Apple product, literally a 25 years after the first Chromebook was released. Special processor. Limited choices on size, processor, memory. Did Chromebooks get it right? I think they did, and I enjoyed having one for a while.

You say "just put a keyboard case on the iPad." I did that. Logitech and Apple variants. The iPad became a horribly heavy laptop. The iPad with the Apple keyboard case is about as heavy as a real laptop. Not a good solution. My wife suffers with it. Adding an Apple keyboard case makes the iPad cost about as much as a laptop too.

That’s the way it seems to me too.

What I see in middle school classrooms is students don’t have physical books anymore. Instead, they have a hodgepodge of laptops and chrome books they use to access their books online. Their homework is turned in using Google Docs or various other online services.

Despite decades of Apple touting itself as the computers of education, most parents aren’t buying $1,000 laptops for their middle school or high school kids. This is the Neo’s niche and Apple will sell hundreds of thousands of them to these parents for this purpose. Great if it happens to meet anyone else’s needs.

At laptop distances, a 13” screen is too small for my eyes which makes deciding between the 15” MacBook Air and 14” MacBook Pro the choice for me.

I agree that slapping a keyboard on an iPad isn’t a great solution.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
She's a relatively light user, web stuff and she's a writer, so a lot of document editing.
No photo/video/audio editing, but she's maxed out her storage on 2 MBs before with photo backups [need to get a good external storage solution for that].

I think the Neo will be a good fit, but need to do a specs comparison to what she has currently.

If her current MBP is intel-based, then the Neo will be infinitely better - spec comparisons don't really tell the story if we're talking pre-2020 to post 2020 Macs.

If Apple made an 11" Neo, I'd buy it to replace my iPad pro.

quote:

Originally posted by teombe:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
She's a relatively light user, web stuff and she's a writer, so a lot of document editing.
No photo/video/audio editing, but she's maxed out her storage on 2 MBs before with photo backups [need to get a good external storage solution for that].

I think the Neo will be a good fit, but need to do a specs comparison to what she has currently.

If her current MBP is intel-based, then the Neo will be infinitely better - spec comparisons don't really tell the story if we're talking pre-2020 to post 2020 Macs.

If Apple made an 11" Neo, I'd buy it to replace my iPad pro.

Pretty sure it's an Intel MBP.
2017-spec, IIRC.
I'm a Dell user, so it's all a bit alien to me. How does one access the system specs on a MBP?

quote:

How does one access the system specs on a MBP?

Click the apple at top left, then About This Mac. Then More Info if you want to see storage use and size, etc.

Current MBP Specs:
macOS Monterey
Early 2015 build
2.9ghz Intel i5
8gb DDR3
Intel 6100 graphics

Apple doesn't list the A18 specs directly, but a quick search says 2 cores at 4ghz performance, 4 cores at 2.4ghz efficiency

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Current MBP Specs:
macOS Monterey
Early 2015 build
2.9ghz Intel i5
8gb DDR3
Intel 6100 graphics

Apple doesn't list the A18 specs directly, but a quick search says 2 cores at 4ghz performance, 4 cores at 2.4ghz efficiency

The Neo will absolutely blow that out of the water.