MacBook Neo review: niceness on a budget

Apple’s long-awaited laptop is even cheaper than the pundits expected, and still feels like a Mac.

For over 40 years, “Mac vs. PC” has been technology’s most iconic rivalry. Yet in many ways, it’s been an indirect one. Apple, being Apple, has mostly stuck to computers with four-digit price tags—a rarefied territory where it can make the products it wants to make, not just the ones a given price point allows. Meanwhile, one of the best things about Windows PCs is that there’s something for everyone, including folks who don’t have a ton of money to spend.

Every once in a while, though, Apple does ship something whose identity is defined by its attractive cost. I can’t think of any example more potentially impactful than its latest laptop, the MacBook Neo. It goes on sale tomorrow, in two versions whose prices—$599 and $699—are both unprecedented for a new Apple portable. I’ve been spending a few days with a review unit supplied by the company.

Though the cheapest Windows laptops are still far cheaper, the Neo makes the Mac vs. PC debate relevant to a much wider swath of computer shoppers than before. According to third-party research, the Mac presently accounts for a little under 9% of computer shipments, a share that has grown but not exploded over the past decade. By putting a Mac within reach of more people, the arrival of the MacBook Neo could goose that figure in a way that few other developments could.

Already, the Neo answers a question that people have been wondering about for eons: If Apple were to build a MacBook on a tighter budget, how would it turn out? It’s no shocker that it’s less lavishly equipped than its pricier stablemates, sometimes in totally obvious ways. On the Neo, MacBook features we thought were standard—like MagSafe and a backlit keyboard—aren’t available at all.

But even if the MacBook Neo is a tad basic by Apple standards, it retains the overarching virtue that makes a MacBook a MacBook: niceness. In no way does it look or feel like a cheap laptop. The attributes that shape the experience most—screen quality, keyboard and trackpad comfort, audio fidelity—retain a premium feel. MacOS has sufficient processing power from the A18 Pro CPU (formerly an iPhone Pro chip) and 8 GB of RAM to perform everyday tasks well.

There are certainly competent Windows laptops in the same price range as the MacBook Neo, many of which have more storage, larger screens, or features wholly unavailable on a Mac, such as touchscreens. Niceness, however, is harder to come by in Windowsland—especially since plastic, rather than the Neo’s aluminum, is the case material of choice. The Neo’s closest counterpart might be Microsoft’s 13″ Surface Laptop, but it’s a $900 computer, not a $600 or $700 one.

Different yet familiar

When Apple offers multiple variants of a product at different price points, the dividing lines can get murky. For example, the iPad Air—which I think of as the iPad Almost Pro—starts at $400 less than the iPad Pro. But it tops out at $1,099, which is $100 more than the base Pro.

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