There are many different opinions on Apple’s new MacBook Neo – personally I’m surprised by how most of them are quite negative – and yes, it would have barely cost Apple 5 cents to add an SD card slot, something that, in my opinion, should be on every single laptop ever made.
But if we look at what’s on offer, I can’t be anything but seriously impressed. First if we look at the specifications:
- A18 Pro processor provides a Geekbench score of 8668*
- 13inch 2048×1506 screen, IPS, 500 nits
- 16hour battery life
- 8GB RAM, 256/512GB SSD
- $599/$699 depending on storage
I don’t know what kind of computer you are used to using, but in the Mac world, a MacBook Air is around $1000-1100. The Neo is $400-500 less. Yet offers better CPU power than the original MacBook Air M1 – and in case you’re not familiar, the M1 chips in Macs already changed the game back in 2020 – impressive performance, with incredibly low power consumption, and this matters in laptops (and phones) as it allows for extended battery life, without the constant whine you get from some laptops.
In the “PC” / Windows laptop world, there are hundreds of “budget” laptops that are so woefully powered that people have been put off budget laptops for LIFE, driving sales to Macs (and Chromebooks).
People complain that the MacBook Neo has “only” 8GB of RAM… and yes, more RAM will help with demanding programs (like video editing, and photo editing, etc), but this should be plenty for the majority of people. In fact there are still new Windows laptops being sold with just 4GB of RAM, and even Intel’s famous “Celeron” processor that has only one-tenth of the power of the Neo.
Even Intel’s semi-modern budget processor (the quad-core N150) offers less than half the performance of the MacBook Neo – I’m not sure how Intel is supposed to answer the performance of Apple’s new laptop, as Intel’s fundamental chip design is based on legacy CPU design, whereas Apple’s CPU design is straight out of a mobile phone. (N4020, N150, A18, source: CPUBenchmark / Passmark). Again, I don’t know what computer you’re currently using but chances are the GeekBench score could be lower than the “budget” MacBook Neo.
Back to the MacBook Neo
There’s a 13inch screen with a resolution that is better than almost every single Windows laptop available, at 2408×1506, with 500 nits of brightness. On budget Windows laptops you’re often left with a resolution that should have been left in 2015, at 1366×768 – not even Full HD, and a brightness that’s roughly half the Neo.
In other areas, the MacBook Neo goes beyond the bare minimum, with a FullHD webcam. Many cheap laptops simply put any old 720p webcam in, and the quality is practically non-existent. A typical Windows laptop will offer “up to 8 hours” battery life, the Neo, 16hours.
Put it another way, imagine being someone (me included) who wants to buy a MacBook, and being disappointed that you can’t afford the previous entry-level model, at roughly $1000. Now Apple has effectively released a new MacBook Neo, that’s almost half the price.
This is phenomenal, and will be the first choice for everyone who “just wants a laptop” but doesn’t want the confusion of 100s of laptop choices that Microsoft Windows offer, with increasing adverts and AI-slop (which now has its own term: Microslop), or the Chromebook options, which still feel like a limited option.
I’m seriously considering buying one, and I’ve been a Windows user for the last 30 years. That’s how much Apple has changed the game.
Related reading
- The new MacBook Neo may look good but here’s what I’d buy instead as a photographer
- Have we already reached ‘peak camera’ technology?
- Is this the end of the Action Camera as we know it?
The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Amateur Photographer magazine or Kelsey Media Limited. If you have an opinion you’d like to share on this topic, or any other photography related subject, email: ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk
