The Mac Book Neo just keeps winning — repair costs beat Air, teardown looks simple, and now I want it even more | Tech Radar

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The Mac Book Neo just keeps winning — repair costs beat Air, teardown looks simple, and now I want it even more

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Mac Book Neo is turning the budget computing world on its head, terrifying rival PC manufacturers, entrancing reviewers, and simplifying the build so much that it's even lowering the cost of Mac Book repairs.

I'm not surprised. The Mac Book Neo is everything that virtually every budget/affordable Windows or Chrome laptop is not. It's stylish, well-built with high-quality materials, and doesn't skimp on key features like performance and battery life.

"While its price is at the higher end of what I’d consider 'budget', the design, build quality and performance are all leagues ahead of its Windows and Chromebook competitors," wrote our own Matt Hanson in his extensive review.

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His thoughts echo those I've read and seen across the web. There's virtually nothing but love for what is now Apple's cheapest computer at

It's no shock that companies known for selling low-end laptops to education are worried. Apple is not supposed to step into their budget pool. But the reality of the situation is inescapable. The Mac Book Neo is here, and now they have to adjust, though I doubt they can do it in time for the critical back-to-school buying season.

Someone at Tech Radar described the Mac Book Neo, which runs on the i Phone 16 Pro's old A18 Pro chip, as basically a smartphone "minus the keyboard and modem." That's sort of true, and the point is driven home when you look at the included 20W charging brick (in the US), which is essentially an i Phone charger.

So, yeah, it's maybe a bit like a phone with a giant screen and full-sized keyboard, but it's also running a full-blown desktop OS. And when I look at the benchmarks from, say, the first Mac Book Air M1, which I reviewed in 2020, and compare it to this Mac Book, the numbers do look better on the Neo. Granted, not wildly so; after all, this system has just 8GB of RAM (same as the base M1 Mac Book Air), and its performance trails well behind the Mac Book Air M5, which has 16GB of RAM and costs over $1,000.

Even if the Neo does not win on performance or battery life against its pricier cousins, it bests our leading budget laptop, the $299 Acer Aspire Go 15, with comparable battery life, much brighter and sharper screen, and significantly better performance. It's also a pound and a half lighter, something that really matters for on-the-go students and workers.

We also got confirmation this week, via a video review that included a brief teardown, that the Mac Book Neo is simply built, with quality components that might be easier to fix. In fact, Apple sort of confirms this by making repair costs half of what you'd pay to repair a Mac Book Air.

That must be music to the ears of parents who are now considering a Mac Book Neo for their grade-school or college-age kid, wondering if the laptop will hold up and, if it doesn't, what it'll cost to bring it back to life.

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Repair costs aside, I think they needn't worry. The Mac Book Neo is light (2.7lbs) but solidly built. It feels good to hold, and displays all the engineering expertise and tolerances you expect from a Mac Book.

This is the genius of this new product. I know there are things missing, like a backlit keyboard and Touch ID (you can get the latter and another 256GB of storage for $699), but Apple did not skimp anywhere that matters. That's why people are so excited about this multi-color lineup; it's not a cheap knockoff with poor performance and sketchy battery life.

Instead of building this 'Frankenstein-style' out of pieces discarded from previous Mac Books, Apple, as they told me last week, really designed the Mac Book Neo from the ground up. It's built around some aging mobile silicon, but even that is fresh enough to offer most people all the power they need for a standard work or school day.

It's no wonder my interest ticks up by the day, and I dream of owning one or buying one for my hard-working partner who toils on an aging Windows laptop.

There has been, it seems, almost nothing but good news about the Mac Book Neo — and I'm betting the only bad news will be when Apple runs out of them.

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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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Key Takeaways

• The Mac Book Neo just keeps winning — repair costs beat Air, teardown looks simple, and now I want it even more

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

• Mac Book Neo is turning the budget computing world on its head, terrifying rival PC manufacturers, entrancing reviewers, and simplifying the build so much that it's even lowering the cost of Mac Book repairs

• "While its price is at the higher end of what I’d consider 'budget', the design, build quality and performance are all leagues ahead of its Windows and Chromebook competitors," wrote our own Matt Hanson in his extensive review