The 13-inch colourful Neo, Apple’s latest MacBook, uses an iPhone chip and comes at a surprisingly low price compared to its higher-specced cousins. It looks like an enticing option if you are in the market for a new laptop, but I would think twice as a photographer before buying it.
MacBook Neo features:
- Price: $£599/256GB, $£699/512GB
- 13-inch screen Liquid Retina display with 2408×1506 resolution, 500nits brightness
- 8GB memory
- 36.5‑watt‑hour lithium‑ion battery, (up to 16hrs)
- 2 USB-C ports
- Colours: Silver, Blush, Citrus, Indigo
The latest iPhone 17 Pro is a beast of a phone, there’s no denying that, and its chipset can handle quite demanding tasks, but relying on it continuously for photo and video editing might be unwise. The A18 chip with 8GB memory is powerful, but for multitasking and fast rendering of adjustments in the best photo editing apps, you will need more power under the hood.
Most photographers today tend to overshoot (myself included), quickly filling up SD cards and storage. Apple devices come with your choice of storage, but can’t be upgraded later, so in the case of the Neo, you will be stuck with 256/512GB storage. This might be enough for everyday use, but for photography, it will fill up in no time.
Yes, you should ideally have an external storage, but it is convenient to store images on your device and use a portable SSD as a second copy for backup. Especially, as the Neo has only two USB-C ports. If one of them is used for charging and the other is hooked up to a storage device, which usually comes with the chunkier Type A connectors that require a converter, you’ll have no ports left.
By adding new colourful finishes, Apple seems to be nodding back to the iconic iBooks from the early 2000s. Apart from the usual Silver grey, now there’s a Blush pink, Citrus yellow/green and Indigo blue version available. The youthful colours set it apart from its pricier MacBooks in terms of design, and will surely resonate with those looking for something less boring than the usual grey.
If you barely ever edit your photos, apart from a quick crop and basic adjustments, you may get away with the Neo, but if you use the latest editing software and do heavy retouching, use multiple layers, then the MacBook Pro or Air will be the way to go.
The latest version of MacBook Pro boasts the M5 chip with Pro and Pro Max options and features a built-in SD card reader, HDMI connection and 3 USB-C ports. Storage is very generous too, starting from 1TB up to a whopping 8TB. The 14-inch base version with 1TB storage starts from £1,699. I know it seems like a lot, but don’t forget you invest in a device that will handle your editing needs, no questions asked.
Given that’s quite a leap in price between the Neo and Pro versions, and most budgets don’t stretch quite that far, the MacBook Air sitting in the middle of the line-up offers the best of both. It uses the M5 base chip seen on the Pro version, but the starting price is £1,099, with 512GB to 4TB storage options, though the number of ports is the same.
In the end, it all comes down to the type of photography and editing you are doing, and whether you work with large files and do heavy editing with a plethora of layers. If this sounds like you than the Neo, however tempting, won’t be a satisfying choice on the long run.
The new MacBook Neo, Air and Pro are available to pre-order on Apple’s website.
Related reading:
- iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 17: is the telephoto camera worth the extra money?
- Apple iPhone 17e arrives with the same cameras but A19 processing
