Mac Book Neo vs Mac Book Air M5 — how do they compare and which should you buy? | Tech Radar

Overview

Mac Book Neo vs Mac Book Air M5 — how do they compare and which should you buy?

'New and affordable' versus 'new but merely refreshed yet still relatively affordable for a Mac Book'

Details

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Apple announced a clutch of new laptops last week, and two models in particular will catch the eye of the typical consumer: the Mac Book Air M5 and Mac Book Neo.

The former is the latest instalment in what was Apple's most affordable Mac Book line-up, while the latter now takes the crown of the most wallet-friendly laptop in Apple's roster.

In fact, the baseline Mac Book Neo is almost half the price of the new 13-inch Mac Book Air M5; there's also a 15-inch take on the Air, but here, we're thinking more about the 13-inch model due to the closer pricing and direct size comparison.

Mac Book Neo vs i Pad 11: which affordable Apple setup should you buy?

Apple's big March event live — the all new Mac Book Neo has just been introduced, and we're there

Here's how Apple's affordable Mac Book Neo compares to the new Pro and Air models

Clearly, though, Apple has made compromises in the spec of the Neo, which starts at

If you want to know the main differences between these two Apple laptops, that's exactly what we're going to cover in this concise roundup of comparative specs.

First, we'll outline the key specs in a head-to-head table, before moving on to discuss these points in more depth. We'll weigh up the relative merits of both these new Mac Books, so you can see which might be better suited to your needs overall.

A18 Pro (6‑core CPU, 5‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)

A18 Pro (6‑core CPU, 5‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)

M5 (10‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)

M5 (10‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)

Apple's Mac Book Air M5 retains the same design as its predecessor with the M4 chip. That's not a negative point, though, as we love that design — frankly, this notebook is a work of art in this regard, so not changing this is arguably even a good thing.

The Mac Book Neo fares well in terms of its design for the price level, too. There were some fears a cheaper Mac Book might not use an aluminum chassis, for example, but Apple has done so, and produced a smart-looking notebook which feels sturdy and is nicely lightweight, coming in a range of eye-catching colors.

Of course, the Mac Book Neo doesn't look nearly as premium as the Mac Book Air, but then it isn't supposed to be. Apple's done a good enough job with the Neo, with perhaps the only complaint being that the screen bezel thickness does give the laptop an element of a dated appearance (your tolerance may vary on that, mind).

The Mac Book Air M5 has a 13.6-inch (or alternatively a 15.3-inch) Liquid Retina display offering 500 nits of brightness, which again stays the same as with the previous M4 model. It's a gorgeous screen, frankly, and pin-sharp with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,664 for the 13-inch model.

7 features the Mac Book Neo is missing — including one mystifying omission

These are 5 reasons why I'm opting for Apple's $599 Mac Book instead of an i Pad

Why the new Mac Book Neo is already the most important product of 2026

Compare that to the 13-inch screen (which is exactly 13-inches) on the Mac Book Neo and you'll find it's also a Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 2,408 x 1,506, giving it slightly less pixel density (but not meaningfully so). It's also rated at 500 nits of brightness.

There are some more telling differences, though. The Mac Book Neo's screen doesn't sport the Display P3 color gamut seen on the Mac Book Air (for more vibrant colors), and neither does it have True Tone (which allows the Air to adjust the screen appropriately for the ambient light in the surrounding environment).

There's no notch with the Mac Book Neo, either, but that does beef up the size of the bezel (as mentioned) because it has to incorporate the webcam.

The newest Mac Book Air is powered by Apple's M5 silicon, a desktop chip which offers a seriously performant computing experience. That said, it's not a huge step on from the M4, but it's still a peppy enough upgrade.

It will, of course, run circles around the Mac Book Neo's CPU, because Apple has done something very different with its new budget laptop, namely drafting in an i Phone chip. The A18 Pro which the Neo is built around keeps down the cost of this Mac Book considerably.

Furthermore, the Neo runs with 8GB of RAM at the entry-level, versus 16GB for the Mac Book Air. That could be a serious weak point in terms of future-proofing.

That said, the Neo should still be fine for all your everyday computing tasks — Apple wouldn't have used the CPU if it wasn't, obviously — but you should manage your expectations around multi-core and multitasking plus AI performance.

The Neo's CPU is speedy enough for a laudable level of single-thread performance, it seems, and Apple is positioning the budget laptop as good for "everyday productivity". That means emails, video chats, web browsing, photo sharing and the like; nothing too taxing, in other words. Casual gaming is touched on, too, in Apple's website marketing blurb.

We'll only know how fast the Mac Book Neo performs in terms of loading and running everyday apps when we get to test the laptop, of course — but it won't be a patch on the Mac Book Air M5, clearly.

Apple has told us the Mac Book Air M5 will offer the same battery life as the M4 model before it, which is up to 18 hours. In our testing (with web browsing usage), it hit 15 hours (almost), but clearly that's still all-day battery longevity.

We haven't tested the Mac Book Neo yet, but Apple claims the laptop will be good for up to 16 hours of video streaming usage, and up to 11 hours of web surfing (on Wi-Fi). The upshot will likely be that the Mac Book Neo shouldn't be too far off the considerable battery stamina we've witnessed with the Mac Book Air, so there's no big compromise in that respect.

Note that the Mac Book Neo doesn't have Mag Safe charging, though — it's charged via one of its two USB-C ports. In the EU and UK, you don't get a charger supplied in the box, either — but you can use any 20W smartphone charger.

Clearly the biggest advantages of the Mac Book Air M5 are its faster performance, with the powerful M5 chip under the hood — versus a mobile So C in the Neo — and its more premium design and trimmings.

But what you get for your money with the Mac Book Neo seems surprisingly compelling, particularly in terms of the design and construction, the screen, and battery life, where the corners Apple has cut don't have much of a concerning impact. (Not at first glance, anyway; as noted, we've yet to test the Neo).

The Mac Book Neo is obviously the right pick if your computing needs are relatively modest, and you just want a decent laptop for everyday use (especially if you're a student, as you get a Mac Book Neo education discount on top of the already affordable price, bringing it down to

For those who need a laptop with some real power under the hood, the Mac Book Air M5 is a great choice, even though the price has been bumped up slightly from its predecessor, because that simply reflects the base storage allocation being doubled to 512GB.

It's worth noting that some folks are considering buying a refurbished Mac Book Air M1 in preference to a Mac Book Neo.

Assuming you can find a tempting deal on the Air M1, I get where that idea is coming from, but I'm not sure I'm at all convinced here. Mainly because the performance you're going to get on this much older Air laptop won't match up to the Neo (especially not for single-core, or the likes of casual gaming).

Granted, the Mac Book Air M1 is more premium in its build — it boasts a backlit keyboard, for example, and a screen with that wide color gamut for more vivid greens and reds — but I think the Neo represents better value overall.

That's particularly true when you consider support going forward, with the Air M1 coming towards the end of Apple's support window for mac OS updates, whereas the Neo is only just at the start of its life in this regard. Not forgetting that a refurb isn't quite the same as a new piece of hardware, either.

➡️ Read our full guide to the best laptops

1. Best overall: Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch M4
2. Best budget: Asus Chromebook CM14
3. Best Windows 11 laptop Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch
4. Best gaming: Razer Blade 16
5. Best for pros Mac Book Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow Tech Radar on You Tube and Tik Tok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on Whats App too.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1 Here are 11 TV deals for watching March Madness that I recommend — $1,300 off 4K, QLED, and OLED TVs

2 My 8-year-old daughter was struggling with math until we discovered this app

3'Nothing has actually changed': Valve recommits to a 2026 launch for the Steam Machine amid rumors of a further delay

4 Starlink says V2 satellites will provide ‘5G speeds from space with 100x the data density’ - so get ready for a mobile speed overhaul

5I spent a month with the Razer Enki Pro gaming chair, and my butt will eternally thank me

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• Mac Book Neo vs Mac Book Air M5 — how do they compare and which should you buy

• 'New and affordable' versus 'new but merely refreshed yet still relatively affordable for a Mac Book'

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Apple announced a clutch of new laptops last week, and two models in particular will catch the eye of the typical consumer: the Mac Book Air M5 and Mac Book Neo

• The former is the latest instalment in what was Apple's most affordable Mac Book line-up, while the latter now takes the crown of the most wallet-friendly laptop in Apple's roster