iPad Pro M5 vs MacBook Neo: A Case For Both?

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Need-to-knows

• The MacBook Neo from £599/$599, the iPad Pro M5 from £999/$999
• The Neo runs macOS and works like a full laptop out of the box, the iPad Pro runs iPadOS which is a different experience
• iPad Pro has a significantly better display, slightly more portable form factor and Apple Pencil support
• MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a proper keyboard and trackpad included in the price

This is one of those comparisons that sounds odd on paper. A ‘low-end’ (by Apple’s standards) laptop versus a top-of-the-range tablet? But Apple’s lineup has shifted enough in recent years that a lot of people are genuinely stuck between these two, and it’s not hard to see why.

The MacBook Neo landed in March 2026 as the most affordable Mac Apple has ever sold, and it’s been flying off shelves ever since. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro M5 sits at the top of the tablet pile with a Tandem OLED display, the most powerful chip Apple has to offer, and a form factor that keeps getting closer to laptop territory. With the right accessories, the gap between the two does start to blur.

Still, they’re built for different people. The question is which one you are.

At a glance

Price

Let’s get this out of the way first. The MacBook Neo starts at £599/$599. That includes the laptop, keyboard, trackpad, and charger. Everything you need is in the box.

The iPad Pro M5 starts at £999/$999 for the 11-inch Wi-Fi model. That doesn’t include the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, which adds another £299/$299. By the time you’re set up with a proper typing experience on the iPad Pro, you’re looking at around £1,300/$1,300. The 13-inch version costs even more.

The most affordable Mac ever: MacBook Neo review

There’s also a big price jump if you want more than 8GB of RAM on the iPad Pro. The 256GB base model comes with 8GB; you need to step up to 512GB storage to get 16GB of unified memory. On the MacBook Neo, 8GB is the only option regardless.

If cost is a concern, there’s no getting past the MacBook Neo.

Display

This is where the iPad Pro absolutely runs away with it. The Tandem OLED display on the M5 model is probably the best screen you’ll find on any portable device. It peaks at 1,000 nits of brightness with HDR, supports a 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, and the contrast you get from OLED makes everything look fantastic (from video to photos to even just reading a document).

The MacBook Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina IPS display. It’s a decent screen, sharp at 219 pixels per inch, and 500 nits of brightness is fine for most environments. But the colour gamut is sRGB only (no wide P3 colour), there’s no ProMotion, and it won’t have anything like the deep blacks or pop of an OLED panel.

MacBook Neo vs M4 iPad Air

If you consume edit photos/video a lot, draw or design things, then this matters a lot. If you don’t, then it’s not even worth considering.

Performance

On paper, the M5 in the iPad Pro is a vastly more powerful chip than the A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo. The M5’s GPU is faster, it supports up to 16GB of unified memory and it is built for computing whereas the A18 Pro was made for the iPhone. In real-world use, both chips handle everyday tasks without any trouble: browsing, email, video calls, document editing, all effortless on either device.

Where the gap starts to show is in demanding work. Video editing in Final Cut Pro, 3D rendering, working with very large files; the M5 iPad Pro has significantly more headroom. For most users, though, neither chip is ever going to be the bottleneck. Both are fast enough that you’d be waiting on Wi-Fi or a slow app long before you’d ever be waiting on the processor.

Wondering whether to stretch to the MacBook Air? Read my MacBook Neo vs MacBook Air breakdown

If you need further reassurance, then I, a humble tech reviewer, am writing this article with a MacBook Neo and I use it every day!

Portability and form factor

The iPad Pro M5 is 5.3mm thin and weighs around 444g (Wi-Fi, 11-inch) and it is a remarkable piece of hardware to hold. Even with the Magic Keyboard attached it stays lighter and more compact than most laptops. You can pull the iPad off the keyboard in seconds and use it as a tablet, sketch on it with an Apple Pencil or prop it up in portrait mode to read.

The MacBook Neo weighs 1.23kg and is 1.27cm thick. For context, that’s lighter than the previous generation M4 MacBook Air, which is quite the achievement. It’s still a laptop, though. You open it, use it, close it. The form factor is fixed.

Whether you’d ever make use of the iPad’s dynamic modes is obviously your call. Do you need a device that you can orientate in portrait? Do you need to draw? Or are you generally just using your device to type on?

Both are eminently portable devices, so there’s no worries there.

Software and workflow

This is the real crux of the decision, and it’s where I have to be honest with you.

macOS Tahoe is a full desktop operating system. You get a proper file system, a proper web browser with extension support, the ability to run complex applications side by side, external display support from a single cable, and an App Store with decades of professional software behind it.

iPadOS has come a long way with iPad OS 26. Stage Manager is genuinely useful for multitasking, and iPadOS 26 has brought real improvements to the way the iPad handles multiple windows. But it’s still not macOS. There are apps that don’t exist on iPad, workflows that require workarounds, and moments where the OS reminds you that this is fundamentally a mobile platform stretched towards laptop-like behaviour.

For creative work (illustration, music production with specific iPad apps, video annotation, or anything involving the Apple Pencil) iPadOS is actually better suited. For traditional work, macOS has a clear edge.

Again, deciding here is down to you’re needs. But the MacBook Neo is the most familiar way of working and that is ideal for 90% of people

Battery life

Apple claims up to 16 hours of video streaming on the MacBook Neo and up to 11 hours of wireless web browsing. Those numbers are generous test conditions, but in real use, it is a true all-day laptop. You can leave the charger at home for most working days without any anxiety.

Here’s how I’d set up the iPad Pro for a full working day: best iPad accessories

The iPad Pro M5 is rated for up to 10 hours. Add the Magic Keyboard and the iPad’s battery gets a bit more of a downgrade. But it’s still more than enough battery capacity for most people.

Connectivity

The MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports (one USB 3, one USB 2) plus a 3.5mm headphone jack. For a MacBook, that is pretty restricted, and it’s worth noting that external display support only works from the USB 3 port. For most people, two ports plus a headphone jack is enough though, but it’s not exactly generous.

The iPad Pro M5 has a single Thunderbolt / USB 4 port, which is actually faster than either of the Neo’s ports despite being just one of them. You can run an external display, connect high-speed storage, and charge all from the same port. The iPad also supports Wi-Fi 7 and 5G cellular (on cellular models), whereas the Neo tops out at Wi-Fi 6E.

Which one should you buy?

Here’s where I land. If you’re deciding between these two purely as work machines and you need a laptop, buy the MacBook Neo. It’s a proper computer, it costs significantly less, and the all-in price includes everything you need to get going. The display is its only real weak point, and for most people doing everyday work, it’s perfectly fine.

But the iPad Pro M5 isn’t trying to be a MacBook. It’s for people who want the best possible portable screen, who use the Apple Pencil, who work in ways that suit a touch-first device, or who already have a desktop Mac and want something to complement it. As a secondary device alongside a Mac mini or iMac, it’s brilliant.

Wondering whether to stretch further? Here’s my take on the M5 MacBook Air review, the step up from the Neo

The biggest trap is thinking the iPad Pro replaces a laptop. For some people it genuinely can. For most people, it doesn’t quite get there, and £700 or so more (once you add a keyboard) is a lot to spend on a device that might frustrate you every time you need to do something that’s just easier on a Mac.

Buy the MacBook Neo if you want an affordable, capable, proper laptop with great battery life and zero compromise on macOS.

Buy the iPad Pro M5 if you want the best portable display Apple makes, need Apple Pencil, or are adding to an existing Mac setup.