MacBook Neo in the test: Apple laptop at a competitive price

The competition reacted with shock. SY Hsu, co-CEO of Asus, one of the world’s largest notebook manufacturers, identified the fact that Apple is now fishing for customers outside the premium segment as a “Shock for the entire industry“. But is the MacBook Neo really “shockingly good?”

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If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t initially think that the Neo is a budget model. The workmanship is typical Apple and therefore first class. The Aluminum housing feels no different than the more expensive MacBooks.

With his 13 inch display it is on the compact side. The keyboard offers great typing comfort. Blindly, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish the typing experience from that of a more expensive MacBook. The touchpad reacts cleanly, quickly and precisely.

Hardware

The Neo comes with a “Liquid Retina Display” that comes with 2.408 x 1.506 Pixel resolution – hardly any difference to the more expensive MacBooks. The maximum brightness is 500 nits. This combined with the high pixel density makes the display look extremely strong and sharp for a notebook in this price range.

However, outdoors or in rooms flooded with daylight, you notice that the Neo’s display is relatively reflective, even more so than that of a MacBook Air. Inside the Neo there is a chip that is actually familiar from the iPhone, namely a “A18 Pro“. In practice, the Neo feels faster than the price suggests. Programs open immediately, websites load lightning fast.

If you do extensive multitasking with several browser windows, dozens of open tabs and photo editing, the Neo reaches its limits, probably because of this eight GB of RAM manageable RAM. The SSD storage is in the basic version 256 GB large.

There are two USB-C ports, but only one of them “USB 3”-Standard complies and supports external screens. The second is just “USB 2”, a bit of a downer.

When it comes to the battery, Apple speaks of “All Day”. Specifically, 16 hours is the maximum Duration. That’s a little less than the small MacBook Air. This is also noticeable in practice. The Neo’s battery life is good, but not great compared to other Apple notebooks. In any case, you can get by with it for a day.

Conclusion

For 699 euros you get an excellently built notebook with the Neo. The device does it Everyday tasks more than relaxed. There is also an extraordinarily beautiful display, a solid battery life and an optimal keyboard. E

in Performance monster But you can’t get it with the cheapest MacBook in Apple’s portfolio. In practice, you notice this especially when you connect the Neo to an external monitor and have many programs open at the same time. For power users, the Neo is not the one computer for everything.

If compact device However, it is perfect for writing texts, browsing or sending emails that you have with you in the café or when traveling. At least if you can cope with the rather small display. If you want larger text for better readability, that can be tight on the Neo.

The bottom line is that the Neo is a strong one Declaration of war on the competition. For a price of 700 euros, you won’t currently find a Windows notebook that can hold a candle to the Neo.