Happy MacBook Neo launch day! Apple's $599 notebook is finally here, and we picked one up to take a look at the new machine and share some first impressions.
Watch on YouTubeThe MacBook Neo looks like a MacBook Air, but a little bit smaller. It comes in fun colors, including Citrus, Blush, and Indigo, plus a plain Silver shade. It's lightweight, has rounded corners, and it's an all-around nice machine, especially compared to bulkier Windows PCs. The display is as bright as the MacBook Air display at 500 nits, and it has nice vivid colors.
The base model comes with a 256GB SSD and no Touch ID button for the color-matched keyboard, but the higher-tier 512GB model priced at $699 does have Touch ID.
Since this is a $599 MacBook, there are some compromises. You only get two USB-C ports and no Thunderbolt, plus no MagSafe or fast charging option. Only one of the USB-C ports is USB3, so you'll need to use that one if you want to connect an external display. It supports a 4K 60Hz display.
The trackpad isn't the same Force Touch trackpad you'll find on the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but it's just as usable with the exception of the pressure-based options. There is a physical click rather than the Haptic Force Touch click, but the entire button can click so you can press anywhere. The keyboard is identical to the keyboard of the MacBook Air in terms of feel.
Apple designed new speakers for the MacBook Neo, and they're side-firing for the first time. Maximum sound is a little limited, but sound quality is otherwise decent for a laptop. The microphones for video calls are good at isolating out background noise, but the camera is limited to 1080p so it's not quite as good as the camera Apple uses for more expensive MacBook models.
In terms of performance, the MacBook Neo has an A18 Pro chip and it's limited to 8GB RAM, but that's plenty for simple tasks like browsing the web, watching videos, editing documents, and doing homework. In a quick test opening 54 pre-installed apps on the MacBook Neo, it didn't struggle, and it was able to handle all of those apps without an issue.
We're going to do a deep dive into performance and battery life in the future once we've been able to spend more time with the MacBook Neo, so make sure to keep an eye on the site for more videos.
