Last week, Apple unveiled the new MacBook Neo, powered by the A18 Pro chip with a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU with 8GB of unified memory, which is non-upgradable and fixed, along with 256GB of Storage on the base variant. The notebook comes in four vibrant colors: silver, blush, indigo, and citrus at a starting price of $599 or $499 for students/educators with 256GB of storage and 8GB of unified memory. A $100 upgrade at $699 or $599 for education will get you a 512GB variant along with Touch ID, which seems like a worthy upgrade.
With the low price tag of $599, there are inevitably a few caveats to consider. Even though the initial testing conducted by several reviewers provides a positive outlook towards the MacBook Neo, one of its biggest limitations is the SSD read and write Speeds as revealed in testing by The Verge and Dave2D.
According to testing conducted by The Verge, the read speed on the MacBook Neo with 256GB of storage was 1735.91 MB/s, and the write speed was 1684.05 MB/s. Comparing it to the M5 MacBook Air with 1TB of Storage, which has a read speed of 7049.45 MB/s and a write speed of 7480.55 MB/s, the MacBook Neo is approximately 4x slower in terms of SSD Speeds.
In Dave2D’s testing, the read speed of the 512GB Touch ID variant was 1591.2 MB/s, while the write speed was 1591.2 MB/s with Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test software.
The MacBook Air (M1) from 2020 with 512GB of Storage sits right in the middle of the MacBook Neo and the new MacBook Air (M5), with a read speed of 3422.1 MB/s and a write speed of 3274.88 MB/s.
Comparing the least expensive MacBook to the more expensive MacBook Pro reveals that the Neo comes with 8x and 10x slower SSD Speeds in terms of read and write, respectively. The Verge tested a 16-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Max) with 4TB of storage, delivering a read speed of 13.6GB/s and a staggering write speed of 17.8 GB/s.
These speeds are similar to those of the M2 MacBook Air with 256GB of storage, which were not unusable, but they weren’t too fast either, comparatively.
Interestingly, the SSD Speeds on the 512GB variant of the MacBook Neo remain similar, unlike the M2 MacBook Air, where there was a huge difference in the 512GB model simply because it had more SSD chips installed. This confirms that both the 256GB and the 512GB variants of the MacBook Neo have the same number of storage chips, which is most likely just one. Upcoming Teardowns from channels like iFixit and Max Tech will confirm the number.
Since the device comes with only 8GB of RAM with no option to upgrade, it will use Swap from the SSD Storage to account for the RAM demand by the system and other apps. Since the SSD speeds are slow, other tasks running on the computer will also slow down if it starts using the SSD for more RAM. These speeds mainly impact large projects on software like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and more, but while this MacBook absolutely supports such high-end software tools, it is not aimed towards users who are into any professional heavy editing work.
Who is the MacBook Neo for?
The MacBook Neo is mainly aimed at delivering value to students and very light users. Imagine this: you are regularly assigned to make a project presentation at school or write essays on topics. The only “Apple” option for you up until now was to buy a MacBook Air with either the latest M-series chip or an older, discounted M-series chip alongside other options like Chromebooks and Windows laptops. However, for light tasks like these, having an M4 or M5 chip is not necessary at all, since it is much more powerful than necessary for light tasks. With the MacBook Neo, light users can finally buy a Mac with a very capable chipset without paying a higher premium for the performance that they were never going to use anyway. It is also an iPad replacement for those who were planning to get the base iPad with the Magic Keyboard Folio. The MacBook Neo is great for typing, making presentations, browsing the web, watching shows, and, believe it or not, even some light Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Unless you are a professional photo/video editor or in a similar demanding field of work, you will probably be fine with the MacBook Neo.
The Neo will be available starting tomorrow, March 11th. Before ordering yours, make sure to read our article on the several tidbits that you may have missed on the MacBook Neo here, along with a comparison with the M5 MacBook Air here.
Would you choose the M5 MacBook Air over the Neo for the SSD Speeds? Let us know down in the comments or write to us on @appleosophy! Be sure to download the Appleosophy App from the App Store or visit our website to stay updated with the latest Apple news!
