We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.
Need-to-knows
- MacBook Air is $500 more expensive
- Neo is easily powerful enough to complete everyday tasks and even more strenuous ones, like light video editing
- MacBook Air is significantly more powerful, so choose it if you know you need the extra juice
- Display and design are largely the same on both
Apple’s laptop lineup has become increasingly straightforward over the last few years. If you wanted the most powerful laptop they had to offer, then you went for a MacBook Pro. If you didn’t need that extra power and wanted to save money, you went for the slimmer MacBook Air.
Enter the MacBook Neo, a genuinely ‘budget’ laptop that sits below the MacBook Air in terms of price and specs.
This new laptop makes buying a MacBook slightly more complicated because it raises the question ‘Is the MacBook Neo enough?’ Can its inferior chip handle the workload that an average user will demand of it? Is the $599 price tag too good to be true and isn’t it just safer to go for the Air?
We’ll answer all of these questions below and, in the end, it all adds up to a thankfully simple conclusion. Here are the main things you need to know before choosing between the MacBook Neo and the M5 MacBook Air.
Shop the MacBook Neo and M5 MacBook Air below!
MacBook Neo
MacBook Air
At a glance
| Feature | MacBook Neo | M5 MacBook Air |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $599/£599 | $1099/£1099 |
| Chip | A18 Pro | M5 |
| CPU | 6-core (2 performance / 4 efficiency) | 10-core (4 performance / 6 efficiency) |
| GPU | 5-core | 8-core or 10-core |
| Memory | 8GB | 16GB (up to 32GB) |
| Storage | 256GB or 512GB | 512GB to 4TB |
| Display | 13-inch Liquid Retina | 13.6-inch Liquid Retina |
| Brightness | 500 nits | 500 nits |
| Battery life | Up to 16h video | Up to 18h video |
| Ports | 2× USB-C, headphone jack | MagSafe, 2× Thunderbolt 4, headphone jack |
| External displays | 1 display (4K) | Up to 2 displays |
| Camera | 1080p FaceTime HD | 12MP Center Stage |
| Speakers | Dual speakers | Four speakers |
| Weight | 1.23 kg | 1.23 kg |
The chip is the biggest difference
The most important distinction between these two laptops lies inside them.
The MacBook Neo uses Apple’s A18 Pro chip, which is essentially an iPhone-class processor adapted for laptop use, which was originally used to power the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It features a 6-core CPU with two performance cores and four efficiency cores, alongside a 5-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine.
The MacBook Air, meanwhile, runs Apple’s M5 chip. That’s a fully fledged M-series processor designed specifically for Macs, with a 10-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and significantly higher memory bandwidth.
On paper, the M5 is in another league. More CPU cores mean computing tasks like opening lots of tabs at once are handled more easily, and more GPU cores improve performance when editing video and images.
The M5 MacBook Air has far more processing muscle, far greater graphics capability, and considerably more memory bandwidth (153GB/s versus 60GB/s). If you’re doing heavier work like video editing, large photo libraries, software development, or anything that pushes a laptop hard, the MacBook Air is unquestionably the better tool for the job.
But that doesn’t automatically mean the Neo is slow. In fact, far from it. In single-core performance scores, when a chip is performing less complex tasks like web browsing, the A18 Pro outperforms Intel’s i9 chip, which is made for full-on PCs.
Related: M5 MacBook Air vs M4 MacBook Air
The A18 Pro is still a very capable chip for everyday tasks. Web browsing, writing, video streaming, messaging, and light graphics work are exactly the kind of things it excels at. If your life mostly revolves around those activities, you will likely never notice a need for more power.
This really is the central decision point for this entire topic. If most of your usage consists of writing, streaming, video calling, spreadsheets and light video editing/music production, then MacBook Neo will definitely cover your needs.
And if you know you need the extra power of the M5 chip, for example, if you’re a very heavy multitasker with high-intensity tasks like video editing and watching movies at the same time, then the MacBook Air is the obvious choice. Figure this out, and you have your answer to the Neo vs Air question.
Does the difference in memory matter?
Another area where the MacBook Air stretches its legs is memory, and it is basically has the same conclusion as above.
The Neo ships with 8GB of unified memory, and that’s your lot. There are no upgrades beyond that base configuration. The MacBook Air, on the other hand, starts at 16GB and can be configured all the way up to 32GB.
The amount of memory determines how comfortable a machine feels when juggling multiple demanding apps at once. With enough browser tabs open, a few creative apps running, and maybe some background tasks ticking along, the MacBook Neo might start to struggle, whereas the MacBook Air will appear snappier.
Again, this isn’t an absolute and is all largely theoretical. On paper, that’s what the difference in memory will lead to. But you will have to be really pushing your laptop to its limits to notice this performance gap. If you don’t regularly do that, the MacBook Neo will be fine.
More help: M4 iPad Air vs M3 iPad Air
Storage follows a similar story. The Neo tops out at 512GB, while the Air can stretch all the way to 4TB if you’re willing to pay for it.
For many people, however, the Neo’s base options will be enough. If your files live mostly in the cloud and your workload is fairly light, you may never bump into those limitations. If you work a lot with large video files, then you may need extra storage, but in that case you’ll likely want a more powerful machine like the Air or Pro anyway.
The MacBook Air has more external connectivity options
Port selection is another major differentiator.
The Neo offers two USB-C ports, but they’re not created equal. One supports USB 3 speeds, while the other is limited to USB 2. Neither offers Apple’s fastest data transfer speeds found in the Thunderbolt ports. You also get a headphone jack.
The MacBook Air gives you two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which support significantly faster data transfer speeds, more flexible connectivity, and the ability to connect to higher-resolution external displays.
Speaking of displays, the Air can drive up to two external monitors at 6K or one at 8K, while the Neo is limited to a single 4K display.
Check out my full MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro guide!
If your laptop spends most of its time connected to a desk setup with multiple monitors and peripherals, the Air has much more flexibility. But if you mainly use your laptop as a laptop, and occasionally hook it up to a larger display, then the Neo has you covered.
A marginal difference in battery life
Battery life is a smaller gap but worth noting nonetheless.
The MacBook Neo promises up to 16 hours of video streaming or 11 hours of web browsing, thanks to its 36.5Wh battery.
The MacBook Air stretches that to around 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of web browsing, thanks in part to a larger 53.8Wh battery.
In real-world use, both machines will comfortably get through a full working day for most people. Whilst nice to have, those extra few hours shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Both are slim, light and have great displays
Once you move past the internal hardware, these two laptops are very similar.
Both use Apple’s familiar Liquid Retina display technology with 500 nits of brightness and support for one billion colours. The base-model Air’s screen is slightly larger at 13.6 inches compared to the Neo’s 13.0-inch panel, and it also supports the wider P3 colour gamut and True Tone.
In practice, however, the overall experience is very similar. Both displays are sharp, bright, and far exceed any offering from Windows.
The physical dimensions are close, too. Both machines weigh the same 1.23kg, whilst the Neo is a mere 1.4mm thicker. In other words, both will disappear nicely into a backpack.
A real competitor? Samsung Book6 Pro review
They’re both made of an Aluminium shell, so there’s no difference in build quality, and the Neo has some more jazzy colour options too.
Audio, camera quality and keyboards
There are a couple of other small differences worth mentioning.
The MacBook Air features a four-speaker sound system and a three-mic array, which results in fuller-sounding audio and slightly better voice pickup during calls. The Neo uses a simpler dual-speaker setup and a two-microphone array, which sounds a bit less punchy and full, but still very good. Both support Spatial Audio.
Camera hardware is another minor upgrade on the Air. It includes a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View support, while the Neo sticks with a more traditional 1080p FaceTime HD camera.
Finally, the keyboard and trackpad. It’s a slightly different design on the Neo from the MacBook Air. The former feels a bit more spongy on the fingers, but still nice to type on, and it isn’t backlit, whereas the Air’s is.
Full MacBook Neo review
The Air’s trackpad uses Apple’s ‘Force Touch’ tech, meaning there are no mechanical parts involved, and you get an extremely responsive haptic feedback. The Neo uses a standard mechanical keyboard, which is less satisfying to use but still perfectly serviceable.
The price gap is enormous
All of these differences lead to the biggest one of all: price.
The MacBook Neo starts at $599/£599, which is astonishingly low for a MacBook.
The M5 MacBook Air begins at $1099/£1099 and climbs quickly if you add more storage or memory.
Pricing gets even more incredible if you’re a student, as the Neo drops down to $499/£499! Apple has clearly designed it to attract people who want a MacBook, but don’t necessarily need the performance of the Air. But how many people actually sit in that group? Well…
Which one should you buy?
In all honesty, most people who use a MacBook Pro or Air probably don’t need all of the power that lies beneath their fingertips. The M4 and M5 are incredibly powerful chips that don’t break a sweat when you’re browsing the web, watching movies, writing or editing videos.
If you know that you need that extra power, then choosing the MacBook Air makes sense. It’s significantly more capable than the Neo, offers more memory headroom and more flexibility with external displays.
But if your laptop use is relatively simple, or even of medium complexity, the MacBook Neo is definitely the better option. The A18 Pro chip is still plenty fast for everyday tasks, the design feels every bit like a modern MacBook, and the price difference is frankly ridiculous.
The MacBook Air is the more powerful and flexible laptop, but a lot of users just don’t need that all of that. and now there’s an option if you fall into that category, and it saves you a load of cash.
