Apple's budget machine is technically only 'budget' if you're familiar with Apple's usual pricing. But, somehow, combining an iPhone processor with a 13in display, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage results in a laptop that performs only marginally worse than the company's M1 MacBook Air. TouchID might be lost, sure, but you can have it back (and double the storage) for an extra R2,000. Consider very hard whether your next laptop should run Windows.
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Would you look at that? It’s an all-new product category from Apple. We haven’t seen that in a while. The Apple MacBook Neo is a more affordable version of the company’s customarily high-quality hardware, with Stuff‘s review unit being the base-model Indigo Neo. There are a few other shades — Silver, Citrus, and Blush — to choose from.
At R12,000, the Neo is the machine that’ll put Apple in front of eyes that might otherwise look elsewhere. A few weeks ago, you might have snagged an M1 MacBook Air for not much more money, but they seem to have mysteriously disappeared. Right now, we’ve got your budget Apple notebook right here, pal.
Affordable work weapon
At the R10k to R12k price point, you’ll find a range of builds from Windows machines. All plastic, plastic that looks like metal, and the occasional metal build occur here. Apple’s MacBook Neo has the company name to keep up, so everything looks and feels premium. The biggest indicator that the Neo is a ‘budget’ machine is the blockier, thicker (for Apple) shape with its rounded corners. There’s something smartphone-like about its design language when closed.
That disappears when the Neo is opened up. Then it’s MacBook all the way. In typical Apple style, the MacBook Neo is light on ports — there’s just a pair of USB-C inputs and a headphone jack on the left side — but the trackpad and keyboard all conform to the company’s tastes for its pricier machines. The bezels around the 13in display hark back to earlier times for the company (thicker bezels), but it’s still an eminently usable laptop.
The trackpad is a little smaller than those found on the Air range, and the keyboard is ever-so-slightly less good, but otherwise, the Neo is unmistakably a MacBook.
Part iPhone
Internally is where the Neo’s the largest differences lie. Instead of an M-class processor, the Neo is powered by one of Apple’s mobile chipsets. The A18 Pro processor, found in the iPhone 16 Pro, runs all of your major operations. The base model Neo, like ours, also only has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That spec would be crushed by Windows 11. With Apple’s operating system, it’s actually more than tolerable.
It is, however, still technically a budget laptop. It’ll do every casual task you ask of it well enough. It’ll even function as a work machine in most cases. But if you attempt to push the Neo into more intensive tasks, it’ll complain. Quietly, because it doesn’t have any fans. But it’ll complain, just a little quicker than the M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM that we currently use for day-to-day tasks.
Banish thoughts of buying a super-cheap video edition Apple machine, is what this boils down to. It’s a work or study computer, as long as neither of those demands vast quantities of RAM.
Neo, all day
If you’re using the MacBook Neo this way, you’ll spend at least a full workday away from anything that looks like a charging cable. It’ll be hovering below the bottom third of the battery by the time you’re done, but it’ll make the trip. The catch? You have to supply your own charging block. A smartphone version will do, so you can just repurpose whatever you’re using to charge your handset. Apple does include a cable, in case you’re lacking one of those.
The other catch? The Neo doesn’t feature TouchID, so there’s no biometric login. If you’re not an Apple user, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you are… well, you’ll have to buy the 512GB model (R14,000) to get a fingerprint reader.
Apple’s native software all runs as it should, and veteran users will hardly notice a difference in everyday usage. It’s only once you start trying to be clever — and you’ll have to push your luck quite a bit — that anything like slowdown will crop up. Newcomers, again, aren’t likely to notice anything amiss unless they’ve got big ambitions.
Apple MacBook Neo verdict
Apple’s MacBook Neo punches well above its price range, though it’s possible to get more punch (via more RAM) from a Windows laptop at this price point. But it won’t be the Neo, and it won’t feature the same build and attention to detail across the whole package. That’s… sort of the point.
Few laptops can match Apple’s design in the R12,000 price bracket. Even fewer will run an operating system with a mobile chipset and 8GB of RAM quite as well as the Neo does. In terms of performance, it’s very close to Apple’s MacBook Air (M1), with some slight concessions to come in lower than that departed notebook’s final price point. It’s a MacBook for regular folks, really. Even if the Fruit Company’s idea of ‘budget’ is still somewhat higher than a regular person’s budget.
