MacBook Neo VS M5 MacBook Air - Don't Be Fooled!

Apple just announced the MacBook Neo,

their lowest cost MacBook ever, which

retails for only $600. Yes, a $600

MacBook that is $500 cheaper than the

previous lowest cost MacBook, the

MacBook Air. And if you are wondering

what's the catch, I don't blame you

because I had the same question. And

chances are you are probably trying to

decide right now between if you should

buy the MacBook Neo or step up to the

MacBook Air because the MacBook Neo kind

of looks like it's too good to be true.

So, full disclosure, Apple just

announced the MacBook Neo. I do not have

this product yet. And quite frankly, I

cannot answer every single question you

have about this product. But I can make

some fair assumptions based on what we

know about the tech specs because parts

of the MacBook Neo are already being

used in uh previous Apple products and

some of the tech specs are very similar

to other existing Apple products.

Basically, I'm going to do the best I

can with the information I have

available to me right now because yes,

you can pre-order the MacBook Air or the

new MacBook Neo right now. And I want

you all to be as informed as possible

before you click the buy button. And

let's start with the different designs

because the MacBook Neo actually has a

brand new design that has never been

used on a Mac laptop before. And this is

not the traditional way that Apple

usually does a budget product. The

iPhone 17e, the Apple Watch SE, the

standard iPad are all basically older

designs that have gotten cheaper over

time. But the MacBook Neo isn't. First

of all, compared to the Air, the Neo has

a slightly thicker body, but less width

and depth overall, meaning that the

physical footprint is actually smaller

than the Air. And because it weighs the

same 2.7 lb as the Air, it actually is

kind of the more portable option. The

Neo also has exposed speaker grills on

each side. And to my knowledge, this is

the first time a MacBook has had

sidefiring speakers, which I'll talk

about the differences between that and

the MacBook Air speakers a little bit

later. And of course, there's the color

options. On the Neo, you have blush,

citrus, indigo, while on the Air, you

have midnight, starlight, and sky blue.

Both the MacBook Air and the Neo have a

silver colored option, but the keys on

the Neo are actually color matched. So,

let's say you get the citrus one, well,

the keys will look yellow. And if you

get the silver option, the keys will be

white on the Neo, whereas they are black

keys on the MacBook Air. Now, color

options are going to be personal

preference, but I have to say I do

prefer how the MacBook Neo colors look,

at least on Apple's website. They're a

little bit more saturated than what is

offered on the Airs, but I guess I'll

have to see them in person to make a

final determination. Another design

difference with the Neo is that it has a

13-in display with thicker bezels and no

notch, which I know some of you watching

are a fan of that decision. Overall, the

Neo does look like a MacBook Air, but it

has its own unique design quirks that I

think give it a personality of its own,

its own identity, and I much prefer that

route rather than uh just kind of

reusing an older design. Now, even

though it looks similar, there are a

ton, and I mean a ton of differences

between the Air and the Neo. Let's start

with the display differences. Now, like

I said before, the Neo has a smaller

13-in display. That is compared to the

Air's 13.6 in display. Now, both

displays have the same pixel density,

the same 500 nits of brightness, but the

Neo does lose out on the wider P3 color

spectrum, which shows a wider and richer

range of colors that ultimately are more

accurate and more real to life. This may

be beneficial to users that need higher

color accuracy. someone like a photo or

video editor might want to go with the

Air. And the Neo's display also lacks

the True Tone sensor that can change the

color temperature of your display

depending on your ambient lighting. Now,

while the Neo's display lacks the notch,

it also lacks a better webcam. It

doesn't have the same 12 megapixel

center stage webcam that can auto

refframe like the one on the Air does.

Instead, it just has a 1080p webcam. And

strangely, the Neo does not have the

green webcam light that lets you know

that your camera is on. and instead uses

a green dot in the menu bar on the

display to uh let you know it's on. The

Neo also has those new sidefiring

speakers I talked about earlier. Now, I

got to be honest, I don't know how these

sound. I can only tell you that the

MacBook Air has a four speakeraker

system that I've listened to a lot. Um

it's not like the best speaker system in

the world, but it it's passable, right?

Um, a two- speakeraker system on the Neo

will probably be worse. But the one

thing is, uh, the speakers for the

MacBook Air, they fire up like through

the keyboard, whereas on the Neo,

they're firing from the side. So, I

don't know if that will mean like

because the speakers are kind of like

exposed. If the Neos might get like a

little louder than the MacBook Airs or I

don't know, maybe have like more clarity

even though it's a not like a bigger

speaker system. I just don't know. But

uh that's one of the areas where I'll

definitely be testing it, but I'm just

going to assume it's probably worse than

the MacBook Airs. But keep seated

because uh that's not where the changes

end. The Neo, like the Air does have two

USBC ports, but the ones on the Air,

they are super fast. Thunderbolt 4 ports

that can transfer data at 40 Gbits per

second. The Neo has a much slower USB

3.0 port rated at 5 Gbits per second on

just the top USBC port. And the one on

the bottom is only a 2.0 port at 40

megabits per second. So yes, it's good

that they actually included two USBC

ports. I was actually worried that

because it's using an A18 Pro that they

would only include one. But basically,

the top one is the only one that you

should use for data and for connecting

to displays. The Neo, by the way, only

supports one display at 4K 60 Hz, while

the Air can support two 6K displays with

its Thunderbolt ports. Oh, and also the

Neo is is incompatible with the Studio

Display because it doesn't support

Thunderbolt. And basically, the bottom

port for the Neo is basically where

you'll most likely want to charge the

Neo because the Neo also lacks uh the

MagSafe magnetic charging port. I mean,

you can charge on either USBC port. I'm

just saying like reserve the top one for

transferring data or connecting to a

display because it is faster. Now,

you'll probably be happy to know that

yes, the Neo does have a headphone jack,

but it is not a high impedance headphone

jack like the one on the MacBook Airs.

Not really sure how much uh that makes a

difference. I know I certainly can't

tell the difference when I connect

headphones to the MacBook Air, but it is

a difference. Now, one area where you

will see a difference clearly is with

the keyboard because uh you might not be

able to see it at night at all because

the Neo does not have a backlit

keyboard. while of course the one on the

MacBook Air does. And the trackpads are

actually different on both as well

because the Neo has a mechanical

trackpad that does not have the force

touch sensors like they are on the

MacBook Air, which is completely haptic

and pressure sensitive. Also, another

quirk with the keyboard is that the $599

version of the Neo does not have Apple's

Touch ID sensor embedded in the

keyboard. And this is unique to that

lowerc cost model. If you spend $100

more to upgrade the Neo, you'll get 512

GB of storage and you'll also get that

same Touch ID sensor built right into

the keyboard just like it is on the

MacBook Air. Also, despite the slightly

thicker design on the Neo spec page,

you'll notice that it has a smaller

battery and it actually has a lower 16

hour battery life compared to the Air's

18 hours. This actually surprised me

because I figured because it was using

an iPhone chip, it would have better

battery life considering it's like a

much lower powered chip. But yeah, they

really reduced the battery capacity to

actually make the battery life worse

than the MacBook Airs. But again, 16

hours versus 18 hours, not too big of a

difference. It should still have some

pretty good battery life. Now, this

isn't confirmed, but it's very likely

that the SSD storage in the MacBook Neo

is also going to be slower than the

MacBook Airs. The MacBook Air is also

going to come with better Wi-Fi. It has

the latest Apple N1 chip, which comes

with Wi-Fi 7. Now, the big story here is

that the Neo has an A18 Pro chip, which

is the chip they used in the iPhone 16

Pro. This is the first Mac ever to be

sold with an iPhone chip. So, many of

you are wondering, is an iPhone chip

powerful enough to power a Mac? And

while I stress that I have not

personally tested this yet, you can take

whatever I say with a grain of salt. If

we look at cross-platform benchmarks

comparing the existing A18 Pro and the

iPhone 16 Pro, you can see that the

performance of that chip in single core

performance is in between the scores of

an M3 and an M4 chip, which is actually

pretty impressive. For multi-core CPU

performance, it's about the same as an

M1 chip. And for GPU performance, we

don't have the whole story because this

version of the A18 Pro chip uses a 5

core GPU. But uh the one that came with

the 16 Pro had a six core GPU. But if we

look at the A18 chip, which does have a

5 core GPU, we can probably expect the

performance to be similar. So that would

mean it's higher than the M1 chip but

below the M2 chip. That is to say that

overall the MacBook Neo is around the

performance of an M2 chip, which is

perfectly fine for most users. In fact,

it it's more than good enough. However,

if you're comparing it against the M5

MacBook Air, you're going to see what

that extra $500 gets you because the M5

performs at a much higher level than the

A18 Pro. The M5 chip is an absolute

beast. On top of that, the M5 Air also

has 16 GB of memory by default, and you

can upgrade the Air all the way to 32

GB. It also starts with 512 GB of

storage, which can be upgraded all the

way up to 4 tab. On the Neo, you just

have two options, the 256 GB base option

or the 512 GB option. And those both

come with just 8 GB of memory. So,

forget CPU speeds, GPU speeds, and all

that other stuff. I think the memory is

probably the real bottleneck here for

the more demanding users, but that also

doesn't mean it's not going to perform

well for the audience that this Mac is

intended for. Don't forget MacBook Airs

all the way up to the M3 generation like

this one started at just 8 GB of memory

and it ran Mac OS just fine. The problem

is if you are a user that needs more

performance and again this is going to

be very subjective to everyone's

workflows. But I would say if you are a

user that is planning to use their Mac

for higherend tasks, let's say long form

4K video editing with projects that are

above 10 minutes in length, editing

large batches of photos, doing 3D

development, I don't know, playing a few

games on your Mac or something like

that. You know, there's a lot of

different things you could do on a Mac

that are more demanding. If that sounds

like something you're into, you'll

probably want to opt for the MacBook

Air. But if you're someone using your

Mac for web browsing, video calls,

office apps, email, even lighter forms

of video and photo editing, then expect

the MacBook Neo to handle all of those

needs. I really think the performance is

going to surprise people. I really think

you're going to be able to push this

machine a lot farther than you think for

$600. So, Neo or Air, which one should

you pick? Well, let's not over

complicate things. I think the Neo is

where you should start out. Then start

looking at your budget and start looking

at the compromises I listed to see if

there are any deal breakers. If you have

the budget for a MacBook Air and you

need something like the ability to

connect two external displays or a

faster Thunderbolt port or backlit keys

or you need more than 512 GB of storage

and more than 8 GB of memory, well, the

Neo, even though it's a great deal, it

just isn't for you. You shouldn't buy it

and you should buy the MacBook Air. But

the same rules also apply if you don't

need those features and you're someone

that's only going to use their laptop as

a laptop. You never plan on connecting

it to external displays. You don't need

a lot of storage. You're just using it

to maybe edit family photos or shorter

videos for YouTube or Tik Tok. and

you're just someone that's on a budget

that can't afford the MacBook Air

anyway, but you have an older laptop

that sucks, whether that's a Windows

laptop or an old Intel MacBook, then

yes, the MacBook Neo is the one you

should buy and it's especially a good

choice for students with the special

$500 education pricing and it is the

lowest cost MacBook that we have ever

seen. It is a machine that's not made

for the highest performance. It is not

for that. But if you need higher

performance, that is why the MacBook Air

and the MacBook Pro still exists. If

you're trying to decide between the $600

version of the Neo with 256 GB and the

$700 version, I think I would try and

get the $700 version if you can afford

it. I think Touch ID is a big feature to

have. And just having 512 GB of storage,

again, it's going to give you a lot more

breathing room. Now, I get it. If you're

someone that wanted to make the Neo work

for them, but it doesn't, and the M5

MacBook Air is still too expensive, but

you still want a Mac, I do have some

other buying advice for you. I think

what you should do is try and check out

third party sites like Amazon, where you

can still find M4 MacBook Airs for about

$900 right now. Or check Apple's

refurbished site. There's Macs on there

that come in really good condition. I

think they look like brand new when you

get them. and you can get like an M4 for

$759. They come with a lot of the

capabilities I listed comparing it to

the M5 model. So, if you need some of

those features, uh I would definitely

check that out. Now, obviously, like I

said before, there are some things I

just could not test in this video. You

can't review a product just by reading a

spec page, but I wanted to get this

video out, give you as much information

as possible. Knowledge is power, right?

Like when you're pre-ordering this Mac,

it's good to have all this information.

But I think the smart thing to do is to

also wait. Let me and other reviewers

get these new products in, let us test

them further, and then I can give you a

more definitive answer on how well the

Neo stacks up against the Air. But right

now, on paper, it does look like a good

budget machine, and I am glad it exists.

All right, hopefully you found this

video helpful. If you did, please give

me a like. If you want to see a full

review on the Neo, make sure you're

subscribed. And as always, thanks for

watching and I will see you all in the

next video.