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The MacBook Neo is here, with the laptop having just been revealed at Apple’s big March event. Yes, the budget laptop exists, and just as rumored, the Neo is built around an iPhone chip (the A18 Pro).
The Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, along with some smartly striking color schemes. It also comes with a surprisingly low price tag that, on first glance, offers incredible value. But what doesn’t the MacBook Neo have?
1. Display downers
You get a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with the MacBook Neo (packing a resolution of 2,408 x 1,506), plus an anti-reflective coating.
What you don’t get, though, is the Display P3 color gamut found on other contemporary MacBook screens, which provides more vibrant colors (reds and greens). Similarly, the Neo doesn’t have a True Tone display, a feature that allows the laptop to adjust the screen intelligently based on ambient lighting levels.
It’s not really surprising to see that some corners have been cut with the screen, though, given that $599 / £599 / AU$899 entry-level price.
2. No notch
There’s another change for the screen in terms of Apple not cutting out a small notch in the top of the display to house the camera. Instead, the 1080p FaceTime webcam is embedded in the top bezel – but that means the MacBook Neo has thicker bezels as a result.
And okay, that does give the Neo a slightly dated look – but this isn’t supposed to be a device with a premium appearance, it’s a budget laptop. I think it’s a fair enough compromise, and indeed some people are even glad to see that there’s no notch with the MacBook Neo.
3. No backlit keyboard
Apple has provided a Magic Keyboard with the MacBook Neo, but a less magical touch is that the keyboard deck isn’t backlit.
With the primary target audience being students wanting an affordable notebook for school or college – who are likely to be using the laptop in the evenings, or at night – lacking a backlight for key visibility could be an irritating drawback.
That said, this won’t bother everyone by any means, and it’s obviously a situational disadvantage.
4. No Apple N1 chip
Apple’s N1 chip arrived late last year with the iPhone, and it was revealed as part of the new MacBook Air M5 yesterday. Sadly, the wireless chip – which provides Wi-Fi 7 – isn’t an ingredient in the recipe of components for this new affordable laptop, and you’ll be left with Wi-Fi 6E if you buy a MacBook Neo. Still, that isn’t the end of the world, especially not with an affordable device, and the Neo does have Bluetooth 6.
5. The camera isn’t Center Stage
While you get a 1080p FaceTime camera with the MacBook Neo, it doesn’t benefit from Apple’s Center Stage feature.
This is functionality that uses AI to keep you in the shot, panning or zooming to match your movement (if you move about, of course). It’s a neat touch and one present on many modern Apple devices (iPads included). But again, losing this is all part of the cost-cutting measures for Neo in terms of a cheaper camera solution.
6. No MagSafe — and no charger in the UK or EU
You don’t get MagSafe charging with the MacBook Neo – it’s USB charging only (there are two USB-C ports, and a headphone jack, and that’s it for connectors).
If you’re in the European Union or the UK, unfortunately there’s another missing piece of the puzzle with the MacBook Neo: you won’t get a charger included. This is a situation that’ll probably be familiar to you by now if you live in Europe, brought about by regulations in the EU to cut down on e-waste. (Note that the EU isn’t directly preventing the inclusion of chargers – it’s a more complex matter than that).
With no charger supplied in the box with a new MacBook Neo, you’ll either have to buy a charger unit separately, or use an existing solution. The good news is that it should work fine with a standard (fast) phone charger – as the laptop is built around that iPhone chip – so you should simply be able to use the same one that charges your smartphone. Phew.
To be clear, in the US (or elsewhere outside of Europe), you get a 20W USB-C Power Adapter with the Neo (plus a USB-C cable – and you do get the cable in Europe).
7. USB-C caveats
If you thought the MacBook Neo had a pair of USB 3 ports, sadly it doesn’t – one of them is USB 3, but the other is USB 2 and therefore missing out on some key functionality.
This secondary USB port is a lot more sluggish, with around 20x slower data transfers, in fact, and it also can’t be used to pipe out a (DisplayPort) monitor signal. In other words, you must use the USB 3 port to hook up an external display – and it doesn’t seem like the ports are labelled, either.
This is a somewhat awkward nuance for the MacBook’s wired connectivity, then, as if you have a monitor attached to the Neo, and you want to use a USB thumb drive, you’ll be forced into having the latter in the slowcoach port.
While I’ve mentioned that some of the above corners which have been cut by Apple are understandable in a budget-oriented laptop like the Neo, this particular decision around ports is a bit of a mystifying one.
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